“You haven’t figured it out yet?” he teased.
“I didn’t want to steal your thunder,” I replied.
“No, it wouldn’t do to repeat yourself,” he agreed, earning an eye roll from me. “But it occurred to me that the great weakness of fire zahhaks is their tremendous strength and size.”
Sunil arched an eyebrow at that. “Size and strength are to be considered weaknesses?”
“In the air they can be,” he said. “A fire zahhak can’t turn as tightly as a thunder zahhak, can’t climb as swiftly. In a one-on-one fight, a fire zahhak almost always loses to a thunder zahhak or an acid zahhak if the odds are even. They’re tremendous animals for attacking fortresses, fleets, and armies, but in aerial combat they are second-tier.”
“It’s true,” Udai agreed. “Much as we love our animals, and take great pride in them, they are always at risk when facing lighter, faster zahhaks in the air.”
Haider added his voice to the mix. “In Safavia we’re blessed to have both thunder zahhaks and fire zahhaks, but the fire zahhaks are used primarily to attack our enemies on the ground, while the thunder zahhaks protect them in the air. Even against the best fire zahhak flier, Roshanak and I can get around on their tail feathers in two turns at most. Can’t we, girl?” He gave the thunder zahhak in question a very fond pat.
“So, what if getting on our tail feathers was just as dangerous as flying in front of us?” Arjun asked, gesturing to the cannon. “What if we used double saddles with a gunner facing backward, using the swivel mount to let him take careful aim? A river zahhak can’t carry so much weight, but a fire zahhak could.”
“I wouldn’t want to line up a shot behind a fire zahhak if I had that thing pointed at my face,” Tamara murmured, glancing to Haider for his thoughts.
Haider was nodding right along with her. “It wouldn’t have the range of a thunder zahhak’s lightning, but acid zahhaks have to get closer, and so do ice zahhaks. A cannon that could shoot a hundred yards could hit them just as easily as they could hit you . . .”
“That would give us a huge advantage in the fight to come,” I allowed, “but how long would it take to modify your saddles?”
“We flew with double saddles in case we needed to get you and your sisters out of the palace,” Arjun said, gesturing to Padmini, who wore the double saddle he and I had ridden together so many times before. “With some sharp knives and some of these Zindhi sailors and their sewing skills, we could get it done in a hurry.”
I frowned. I would need Padmini to get Lakshmi out of Ahura, and at least one more animal for Sikander. There was no way we could get them into the zahhak stables to claim their mounts, not with guards crawling all over the place. If I waited to outfit these saddles, and the sun came up before I could get to Lakshmi . . .
“My prince, if this must be done, it must be done right this instant. Lakshmi’s life depends on it.”
“Then we’ll get to work immediately,” he said, resting his hands on my shoulders and rubbing them gently. “While you’re testing Hina’s cannon, we’ll have all six of our saddles modified. We already know it will work, because every nobleman in Registan has hunted from a double saddle before. We just never had these small ship-mounted cannons, because we don’t have any water.”
“If this works, Razia, it could change the whole balance of power in the world,” Haider said. “There are so many zahhaks all across the continent without breath. Once word of this gets out, kingdoms will be desperate to arm them.”
“If it works, then Jama Hina will be one of the world’s great queens,” I agreed, noting the looks of shock I received from the Zindhis gathered around me. But Hina didn’t look surprised.
“You will always have a home here, your highness,” she assured me.
“I know,” I said, but this wasn’t the time for that conversation. When Ahmed and Karim were dead, we could talk about Zindh and its freedom, but until then it was premature. I left everyone to their work, instead going to collect Sultana, to make certain that she was ready to fly.
I found her lying on the surface of one of the lotus ponds, cuddled up against Natia. The bigger ice zahhak had used her breath to freeze the water solid, and now Ragini and some of the river zahhaks were testing the cold, hard surface with their noses, attracted to the soothing cold on a hot desert night, but most of them having never seen ice before.
“The poor thing gets hot quickly in this climate,” Tamara lamented, and I could have said the same thing about her. Though she’d doffed her fur hat, sweat had plastered her red hair to the top of her head and was pouring in rivers down her face. Her cheeks were bright red, and she had unbuttoned her undergown down to the tops of her breasts in an effort to keep cool, though it didn’t seem to be working.
“You get used to it,” I assured her.
Tamara shook her head. “No, I think we belong in the mountains.” She lay down on the ice beside her zahhak, shivering and sighing with relief.
“It’s a shame Natia isn’t a little bigger; you could throw a cannon on her too,” Haider said, coming up behind us.
Tamara shrugged in response to that. “Ice zahhaks may not have the size of fire zahhaks, nor the speed of thunder zahhaks, but they do everything well. And they’re fiercest on the ground.” She reached up and petted the end of Natia’s enormous hooked beak for emphasis. It was designed for crunching through frozen prey and tearing giant chunks off of them. I shuddered to think what it would
