Shazad embraced me last. ‘Bring each other home safe,’ she said finally, before letting me go and looking at Sam.
His mouth pulled up at the side, and I recognised the prelude to a joke – some gallows humour before we all headed off to try our hardest to stay alive to see another dawn like the one rising behind us now. But before he could say anything, Shazad grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked him towards her abruptly, kissing him squarely on the mouth.
And suddenly everyone else was looking at their feet. Or at the sky. Or just about anything that wasn’t Sam and Shazad.
That was one way to shut him up.
Finally the two of them broke apart. ‘Well,’ Sam said, looking flushed and unbearably pleased with himself as he riffled his hands through his hair. ‘That’s one hell of a motivation to come back alive.’
We climbed on Izz’s back, and in a few quick movements, we were catapulted above the approaching army, towards the city. Izz flew over the dome of fire, spreading huge blue wings wide as he soared over the rooftops, leaving the battle behind.
We landed a little way from Oman’s Gate, the easternmost entrance to the city. When we’d left through the tunnels, there had been a Gallan army in our way. Now there was nothing but blackened sand.
I stood in front of the gates, a little way back, careful not to touch the fire. Did I have anything left in me? If I didn’t, we’d have to dig our way in. I drew my power to me, pulling it together between my hands as I pressed them in front of me before splitting them open in one violent gesture that sent me to my knees in agony. The sand parted, scattering away from the gate. And sure enough, there, underneath, was one of the bricked-up tunnels.
Sam stepped on to it, and sand cascaded down as I released my power, breathing hard. Cautiously he pushed his foot through the hard stone before pulling it back. Like dipping a toe in the water to test it. He turned towards where I was standing, still on steady desert ground, extending one hand to me. ‘Shall we?’ he asked, like we were headed into a party and not a death trap. I took his hand, stepping on to the top of the tunnel with him.
He pulled me to him, like we were going to dance. Suddenly the solid stone below our feet started to give. I felt the soles of our boots slip through, slowly at first. Then we started to drop. Fast. I just had time to hold my breath and shut my eyes before we plunged through the roof of the tunnel, like a pair of stones sinking through the water.
We hit the ground hard, in a heap. Sam grunted loudly below me as my elbow caught him in the stomach. I untangled myself, rolling away from him. It was dark and cool down here. The only light was above us, a long narrow metal wire that was incandescent with Djinni fire, feeding the wall from the palace. But it wasn’t much to see by.
I didn’t know how long we walked for. We moved as quickly as we could through the tunnel, aware that every moment we wasted here was another moment our people were on the defensive on the battlefield.
Sam was faster than I was. He was running ahead, his blond hair glowing dimly in the light, when suddenly he stumbled, sprawling into the dark. I caught up with him in a few short steps as he picked himself back up. ‘Are you all right?’
‘I tripped,’ Sam said. He groped around for a moment in the dark before his hand closed on something, and he held it up to the light. It was a gleaming bronze face. I drew back without meaning to. An Abdal. Or part of one. The eyes were blank and sightless. It was just a piece of a machine, I reminded myself. It was nothing without the spark of fire lighting it, without a word in the first language marked across it, giving it life.
‘We’re under the palace,’ I said out loud. ‘We’re close.’ I stretched my hand out backwards, searching for the stone wall. It met hard metal instead.
‘The walls are lined with iron.’ When I said it out loud, my voice echoed against the metal unsettlingly. ‘Seems like the Sultan’s been hard at work since we were last here.’
In the faint light of the wire, I saw Sam reach up and lay a hand flat against the stone ceiling. He could reach it, but just. ‘So we’re trapped,’ Sam said, too cheerily. ‘Excellent.’
‘Not trapped,’ I said. I nodded at the path marked out by the wire. ‘Just one way to go.’
We moved more carefully after that, picking our way forwards in the dim light. The further we went, the more discarded pieces of Abdals there were. Bronze and clay hands and torsos. Early tests. Experiments that hadn’t quite worked before Leyla got it right. There was an articulated leg that reminded me of the one she had made for Tamid. And then there were those that looked almost whole, metal men slumped on the floor like discarded dolls or tired soldiers. The light glanced eerily off one of them. ‘Sam.’ I grabbed his arm, making him jump. ‘I think that one just moved.’
Sam looked where I was pointing. ‘A trick of the light,’ he said. But he took hold of my hand all the same, leading me forwards a little bit more quickly. I heard a small whirring sound as we passed another.
‘That wasn’t a trick of the light,’ I said to Sam. And then the Abdal sat up.
We staggered back as the thing started to drag itself to its feet like a broken puppet being pulled up by its strings. We ran, bolting down the tunnel, following the wires. As we dashed past another metal body it moved, too, seeming to snap to attention. I stopped as we passed by another, pulling my knife out as I did. In one violent motion I prised the bronze cover off the back of its foot and drove the knife through the word that gave it life. I tried to wrench the knife back out, but it was caught in the mess of gears and wires that lived under the Abdal’s skin.
‘Amani.’ I heard Sam say my name, and even as I looked up I realised there was another Abdal coming towards us, blocking us off straight ahead. Sam had his gun out. Three quick shots, but the thing didn’t even falter. Instead it raised its hands towards us in an inhuman imitation of Noorsham blessing his people back in Sazi. I could feel the heat swelling around it as it prepared to burn us.
We turned to run the other way. To retreat. The light from the wire dashed across the gleam of bronze behind us. Two more Abdals were closing in on us, slowly raising their hands. The heat around us was building. We were trapped.
For once, Sam didn’t have anything smart to say. I just felt his hand, looking for some comfort, his fingers squeezing mine. Something hard pressed against my knuckle. The ring that Zaahir had given me.
The ring that was supposed to save me when I released Fereshteh and turned the machine off.
I thought of Zaahir back in Eremot and the way he’d simply extinguished the Abdals’ flame with a touch. His last gift was not meant for this. But the Abdals were getting closer. Inching towards us, the heat building to an almost unbearable point.
I wrenched my hand out of Sam’s death grip, flinging it towards the wall instead.