“You flatter us,” Hina quipped as she and Arjun breezed into the room.
“My prince!” I exclaimed, though I couldn’t sit up to see him with my sister and Sikander still holding me down.
“Are you trying to get out of bed again?” he demanded, struggling to sound harsh and serious, but unable to keep the smirk off his face.
“Akka wants to lie on the roof so she can see Sultana,” Lakshmi explained.
“Oh, she does, does she?” Arjun asked, ruffling Lakshmi’s hair. “Well, what do you think we should do about that?”
“I think we should let her,” Lakshmi answered, which brought a smile to my lips. “Sultana is worried about her too. She’s always smelling me when I go into the stables if I’ve seen Akka first.”
“Me too,” Sakshi agreed.
“Then we’ll have to take her up to the roof,” Arjun decreed.
“Thank you, my prince,” I said, staring fondly into his eyes, wishing my back were up to more than just the occasional kiss or handhold these last few days.
He came to my bed, and I was surprised and pleased when Sikander stepped back so that Arjun could be the one to sit beside me. He reached out and placed his hand on my cheek, the warmth of his palm helping the pain to melt away. “I’d intended to tell you this in private, but perhaps it’s better if everyone hears.”
“Hears what?” I asked, my voice rising a note in alarm. There was something about the way he was looking at me. It was serious, whatever it was.
“I asked my father to send a letter to your father,” Arjun told me.
I frowned. “Why on earth would you want to send a letter to my father? What sort of letter?”
“A letter asking for your hand in marriage,” he said. “What else? Do you really think I’m going to wait around and miss my chance a second time?”
“After what happened to her last unwanted suitor, I wouldn’t worry myself over that too much,” Hina quipped, grinning mercilessly at the fate that had befallen Karim and his family.
But I was staring up at Arjun in shock and wonder, my heart swelling in my chest until it was physically painful. “You want to marry me? But what about heirs?”
He shrugged. “I don’t care about any of that, and my father agrees with me. He’s behind this proposal. If you’re willing, that is.”
“Willing? My prince, I can think of nothing I want more.” I reached up to kiss him, but he leaned his face down so I wouldn’t have to.
“Then we’ll see what your father says, and if he doesn’t like it, we’ll devise a plan to conquer Nizam and hold him hostage until he agrees,” Arjun replied.
I grinned. “I’d like that, my prince.”
“I thought you might.” He kissed me again, lingering longer this time. “But for now, let’s get you to the roof so you can stop trying to sneak out of bed to see Sultana.”
“All right,” I agreed, and I lay back against the cushions and actually relaxed for a change, thoughts of marrying Arjun swirling in my head.
CHAPTER 34
Viputeshwar reports that things seem to be moving smoothly in Mahisagar, your highness,” Sikander told me as I sat under my canopy on the roof of the palace, Sultana curled around me, her neck and shoulders helping to support my back, which still didn’t much care for sitting up straight unaided.
“The fleet is ours?” I asked.
“It is, your highness,” he agreed. “And the zahhaks Hina dispatched have been on constant patrol, making sure no one gets any ideas about invading.”
“And the riders I requested for the three acid zahhaks we captured in Ahura?”
“Viputeshwar has selected three girls from the local hijra deras in Rajkot,” Sikander said. “They’re all well educated, all young and eager, and they speak Daryastani. He says they should arrive any day now.”
“Good,” I said, turning my attention to Hina, who was sitting just a few feet away, on a cushioned dais of her own. “And Zindh, your majesty?”
“Zindh is secure, your highness,” she replied. “All of my emirs have sworn oaths of loyalty to me as the rightful jama, and they all agree that we will permit Zindh to remain a subah of Nizam so long as you are the subahdar.”
It was a strange arrangement, I had to admit. I had promised Hina that she would be the queen of her own land once again, but we’d both known that my father wouldn’t permit a Zindhi bid for independence, especially not now that the river zahhaks had been made so valuable, though I wondered if he had heard about it yet. At any rate, I would be the nominal subahdar, but in effect that simply meant that Hina provided certain tax revenues to my father’s court, and ruled Zindh as queen, while I was permitted to live in Kadiro or Shikarpur as I liked. In exchange, she would fight for me in times of war and I for her. I thought it was a mutually beneficial arrangement, though there was one oddity yet to be worked out.
“Have you decided how you will manage the succession?” I asked, as she couldn’t have children of her own.
“The men of Zindh have agreed that from now on, a chosen cela of the Talpur dera will become the new jama once I am gone, and thenceforth in perpetuity.”
My eyes widened and a smile spread slowly across my face. “A hijra dynasty?”
“Just so,” Hina agreed, and she was smiling too. “A first in the world, I think.”
“And hopefully not a last,” I replied.
With Zindh secured, my eyes fell on Arjun and my happiness grew, because I knew that the letter had been sent from his father to mine concerning the prospect of marriage, though I had not the slightest idea how it would be received. I still didn’t know why my father hadn’t arrived yet. Nizam
