I sheathed my katars, because there was no sense in prolonging the inevitable. Karim noticed, and his eyes widened slightly.
“If you think I’m going to make it quick, you’re fooling yourself,” he ground out through clenched teeth, his dark eyes smoldering with hate.
I forced myself to shrug, to show him none of the fear I was feeling. I turned my thoughts away from him, to my sisters and to Arjun. It would have been so nice to have lived in peace with them for a little while. But they would have the peace and safety I had never known. I’d guaranteed that when I’d given Hina the power to protect her homeland, and when I’d brought Haider and Tamara here. Sakshi and Lakshmi would be spoiled for choices when it came to building a new home. And that was all I’d ever really wanted anyway.
Karim was standing over me, his sword tracing a line from my lips to my navel, the sharp point just barely kissing the surface of my skin, without tearing it open. “Where shall I cut you first?”
I said nothing. If I was going to die, then I would die well.
“You’re so proud of that pretty face of yours. Well, when your precious Arjun finds your body, he’s going to be disgusted by you, I can promise you that. What shall I take first? Your nose? An eye? Yes, I think one of those pretty green eyes will make for a fine trophy.”
I saw the tip of his sword move toward my right eye, and then I just saw a shadow. At first, I thought I was blind, that he’d done it, but then I was aware of feathers and scales between me and Karim. Sultana’s wing.
Karim reared back in shock as Sultana’s head rose from the sea, water dripping from sparkling sapphire scales, her emerald eyes wide and alert. They knew. Somehow, she’d seen what he was doing to me, and it had brought her back to herself. Karim thrust at her with his sword, and I screamed, but she bit the blade, snapping it in half like it was made of rotten wood. Then her head darted forward and she bit again, and when she pulled away, Karim’s legs toppled into the water, his entrails dangling from her teeth.
Sultana pointed her nose skyward, relaxing her jaw, loosening her throat, and the better part of Karim Shah slid straight into her stomach.
CHAPTER 33
My eyes flickered across the creamy marble ceiling, inlaid with lapis lazuli, turquoise, and jet river zahhaks streaking through the skies. If I was going to live in Kadiro for the rest of my life, I thought I might have a stoneworker inlay some golden cannons atop the animals’ backs. It would make a nice touch.
I half expected to drift back to sleep, but there was a spasm of pain in my back before that could happen, and I had to grit my teeth to keep from crying out. The doctor said that it would heal, he thought. It was already better. The pain in my legs had stopped, and there was no numbness. I wouldn’t be paralyzed. I just had a pain in my lower back that came and went with varying degrees of ferocity. At the moment, it was clawing at me like a frenzied zahhak in the breeding season.
“Arjun?” I looked around for him, my eyes scouring the cushion-covered wooden beds that had been placed beside mine for visitors, but there was nobody to be found.
“He was called away for a few moments, your highness.” Sikander came to my bedside at once. He’d been standing watch near the doorway, but now he sat beside me on my bed, putting his hand over mine. He must have felt the tension in my muscles, because he said, “It’s the pain again, isn’t it?”
I managed a slight nod in response, but I knew that if I spoke I’d make it sound worse than it really was. It was getting better. I just had to keep it together for a few more days.
“I’ll fetch the doctor,” he offered, his hand slackening and pulling away, but I tightened my grip around his fingers.
“No,” I gasped. “Stay.”
Sikander’s brow furrowed in alarm, but he eased himself back down onto the bed. “Your highness, if you’re hurting I should fetch the doctor. He can give you something for the pain.”
I shook my head. “I’m tired of being drugged witless. It’s just a little spasm. It’ll be gone in a moment.”
He frowned, but he didn’t insist on getting the doctor; that was something. He just let me squeeze his fingers until my knuckles were white without a word of complaint or any sign of pain on his part. Maybe my grip wasn’t as strong as I thought it was. It certainly wouldn’t have been with my right arm, which still ached ferociously whenever I moved it, though it always seemed to pain me less than my back.
“It would only take me a moment to fetch the doctor, your highness,” Sikander whispered, using his free hand to stroke my sweat-soaked hair back from my brow.
I shook my head and let myself relax a little against the mattress. “No, it’s already easing. Just distract me.”
“And how shall I do that?” he asked.
“Tell me a story,” I replied, half teasing, smiling in spite of everything.
Sikander didn’t smile back. His jaw clenched, and for a moment I worried that I’d sounded too effeminate for him. He’d always got that same look on his face
