I nodded, and after that fear robbed me of my voice. It was everything I could do to steer Sultana straight at the tower, the pressure of my hips in my seat urging her onward with every last ounce of speed. I was frantically scanning the windows for some sign of an ajrak cloth. It should have been bright enough for me to spot, and it was long, it would be waving in the sea breeze. Why couldn’t I see it?
A thought occurred to me then that made my insides churn. What if Sikander hadn’t been able to do it? What if he’d been imprisoned, or killed? Or what if the cloth had been spotted by the Mahisagaris, and they’d punished them for it? What if I was already too late to save Lakshmi from the fate I had suffered at Karim’s hands six years before?
“Razia!” Haider called. He was pointing ahead of him. “Second light down from the top on the left!”
My eyes snapped to the spot he’d named and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. There it was, an ajrak cloth floating in the breeze. I wasn’t too late. Sikander had done as I’d asked. Lakshmi was in that room, and I was going to get her out of it no matter what.
I leaned low to let Sultana fly that much faster, snapping the reins, letting her know that if there had ever been a time in her life to fly swiftly, this was it. Her wings beat a blur on either side of me, and we rocketed past Roshanak, diving toward the top of the tower. I really should have done a proper reconnaissance, should have waited to count the guards, but I had plenty of time to spot them up there if there were any. I thought most of them would be on the ramparts lower down.
We were screaming out of the sky at such a tremendous speed that without my flying goggles, I’d have been blinded by the wind tearing past me. As it was, I was sure that we’d be invisible to whatever sentries the Mahisagaris had placed around the fortress. The first warning they got of our arrival would be a zahhak slamming into them, crushing them into paste.
As it happened, there were two men on the roof of the fortress, patrolling lazily, each man staying on the opposite side of the top of the square tower from the other. I aimed for the man nearest to me, lining him up so that Sultana could take his head off and keep flying directly into the second man. She knew what I wanted. Her maw gaped, and the next thing I knew there was a sharp impact, and blood spurted past me, and then there was a second, harder impact, and we were soaring skyward, half of a man hanging from Sultana’s tightly closed mouth.
We wheeled back toward the tower and landed atop it at about the same moment that Padmini came fluttering down with Arjun, and Udai joined him with his zahhak a second later. Sultana spit out the half-eaten Mahisagari guardsman, covered in blood and slime, and then looked back at me, half grinning, her emerald eyes inquiring as to whether or not she’d done a good job.
“You’re the best girl,” I told her, giving her pats on her neck, but only for a moment before my worries for Lakshmi consumed me again. I slid out of the saddle, taking the rope I’d brought with me. I rushed to the ramparts, making sure that I picked the right spot, directly above the window with the ajrak dupatta hanging from it, and then I set about tying the rope off on one of the tall merlons of black volcanic stone, wrapping it tightly and knotting it securely. Sikander’s life would depend on this rope, and maybe mine and Lakshmi’s too. It couldn’t fail.
When I was finished, I moved to throw myself over the side of the wall and rappel down to get my sister, but Arjun stopped me with strong arms around my waist. He leaned in close, kissed me on the cheek, and whispered, “I’ll be right here waiting. You get your sister. I love you.”
“I love you too, my prince,” I replied, and I kissed him back, pressing my lips to his for a single moment before rushing over the wall to get Lakshmi back. Until she was safe, I couldn’t rest, couldn’t focus on anything else. The thought that she was hurt, that Karim had raped her or beaten her or killed her, was so overwhelming that it consumed every ounce of my attention.
I had tied the rope off so that it had two ends dangling free, reaching just below Lakshmi’s window. I now wrapped them around myself, forming a makeshift seat for my hips, holding the extra rope in my left hand, letting my right hand hold the part attached to the stonework. And then I sat down over the edge of the wall, kicked off, and started moving down as quickly as I could without slicing through my own legs with the burning friction of the rope.
It took no time at all to get to Lakshmi’s window, since it was so close to the top of the tower, but I hung above it for a moment and listened carefully. There was a chance that my plan had been betrayed, that enemies might be lurking inside. I didn’t want to risk getting killed now; then Lakshmi really would have no hope left at all.
What I heard broke my heart. Crying. She was sniffling and crying. Had Karim hurt her? I was going to kill the bastard!
I let loose the rope, unwinding it from my legs, holding on with both hands, and then I lowered myself, swinging at the same time, bursting feet-first through the window, landing easily on the stone floor in the middle of a small bedchamber, my katars whisking from
