Twelve

"Tell me what happened."

Nanu took us to her little house a few minutes away and we sat in her front room, cradling cups of chai she'd poured from a pot hanging over the fire.

"The house was raided after your father was killed."

After my father was killed .

I knew it was true in my bones, the way you feel a mountain storm about to descend. My father wasn't here anymore.

And I needed to know why. But my grandmother had thus far avoided my questions and instead made up a bed for us in the main room.

"Tell me what happened," I repeated, my voice low, coming over to her as she stoked the flames. She poured more chai, and a green cardamom pod floated to the top of the milky tea. I gripped the warm cup but couldn't bring it to my lips, my tongue feeling thick.

"Drink your tea," she said firmly.

I swallowed thickly, trying to bury my frustration. She met my glare with a stoney stare of her own, so I lifted it to my lips and downed the hot liquid, not tasting a single drop, barely noticing the scalding tea as it flooded my throat.

"There." I slammed my cup on the table in front of us. "Now, tell me what happened!"

Noor laid a soft hand on my shoulder, and I shot her a grateful look. I closed my eyes and let a long breath flow through me, trying to calm the riot of emotions bursting to get out. I knew this wasn't my grandmother's fault, but I needed information from her.

Nanu took a deep breath. "When they took you, your father was consumed with rage. He gathered his best weapons, intending to free you. No one could talk sense into him. His friend Casildo said he would help him, so together they went at nightfall to find you."

Casildo.

My father visited him when we'd made trips to Basral and Casildo would often purchase swords from him. He had been a good friend to my father, and I considered stopping at his house when we rode here. But the fact that Casildo helped my father try to rescue me made something rise in my chest.

I didn't even know that my father had mounted a rescue.

My hand reached out of its own accord to grasp Nanu's cool fingers. She paused and looked down at our joined hands, a frown curling her mouth. We didn't touch often, and now I had both embraced her and held her hand in the space of a few hours. When my mother had died, it wasn't my grandmother I could turn to in my grief. But now she was the only left who knew my father as I did and who knew what he meant to me.

"I didn't know of Baba's attempt to break me out," I said, remembering those early days of imprisonment in the palace dungeon, before they had transported me to the island and left me to rot.

I had expected to be executed, but they'd sent me to a place much worse than death. And all the while my father had died trying to free me. That dark, sick feeling grew bigger and more encompassing.

"Baba is dead because of me?" I turned my face away from hers, not wanting to see the confirmation in her eyes.

"No," she said, her voice cutting through the roar in my ears. "He was betrayed by his friend Casildo, who said he could get them into the palace prison. Instead, he led your father straight to the city guards. But your father would not go quietly. He fought them until he was overwhelmed by the soldiers. Foolish."

Nanu's words were quiet, but I heard them so loud in my head I couldn't see straight. I pictured everything—the way he would have drawn his favored filigreed talwar upon seeing the guards, the twist of his mouth when he whirled on his friend and realized his treachery. It would have been a lot like the way I had looked at Mazin before the guards took me.

He would have felt that same drop in his stomach that I did, the same rush of disbelief at the realization your closest ally had betrayed you.

The understanding that you were alone.

"Where is he now?" I asked with deadly calm.

Noor met my gaze, her feet tucked under her as she sat on the date palm mat.

She nodded at my expression.

Yes.

She knew what I wanted. Because she wanted the same thing, for the same crime. The answer to what my next steps would be was as clear as day.

Nanu watched our exchange with a tilt of her head, as if seeing our bond for the first time.

But she hadn't yet answered my question.

"Casildo?" I repeated. "Where is he?" My words were barely a growl, but the air changed with the force of them. Anger and anticipation sat heavy in the room, and I curled my fingers around my father's little pocket dagger.

Nanu narrowed her eyes. "Casildo is back in the city, still a respected merchant. If anything his betrayal advanced his position with the emperor. But before he went back, he raided your father's smith. Took all his swords. Helped himself to everything he could get."

Why didn't you stop him? I wanted to scream at her.

But I knew the answer to that. My grandmother was no warrior, and with me arrested and my father dead, there would have been no one left to defend.

"Is that why Casildo betrayed my father? For his swords?" My voice rose, the words too loud in the silence between us.

My grandmother smiled faintly. "Casildo claimed he was afraid of the emperor and that is why he turned your father in. But I know he's been showing off your father's knives in his armory ever since."

"My father's death for a collection of swords." I shook my head.

"Dania, I had no idea your father was heading to his death." My grandmother's eyes were shadowed.

"I don't blame you, Nanu." I gentled my voice, even though the old familiar rage was flooding my veins, the dam breaking wide open. "I blame the people who put me in prison."

Mazin's cold face flitted through my mind. The memory of Darbaran's smirk nearly had me spitting. Emperor Vahid had orchestrated it all to take out an opponent without inciting a civil war.

But now I could add Casildo to that list.

Casildo, who I thought was our ally and became just another betrayer.

"And I blame the man who deceived my father while pretending to be his friend."

"Don't do anything foolish, Dania," cautioned my grandmother, but without any heat. Maybe she was tired of fighting with my father for all those years, and didn't want to waste the energy on me. She knew it would be no use.

My lips lifted, a humorless smile. "Whatever I do, it will not be foolish."

Vengeance was what I wanted, and Noor had the access to make it happen.

I could tell by Noor's pursed lips that she expected my next words. She wanted to right the wrongs done against hers just as I did mine.

"We will stay here a few days to rest, and then Noor and I will continue our journey."

I didn't explain to my grandmother where we were headed or what we were seeking. If I mentioned the zoraat to her, it could be tortured out of her. It was better that she be kept in the dark.

"But you cannot leave now." Nanu took a step toward me, her eyes darker. I blinked, wondering if it was concern I heard in her voice, or something else. Nanu had never been the type to show her emotions. "I thought you were dead," she continued, her voice pleading.

Something tugged at my heart, but I had already made my mind up. My blood had turned to steel now, as if I were one of Baba's weapons, and with his death my purpose had been forged.

It wasn't about me or Nanu anymore. It wasn't about justice.

This was about revenge.

"We'll stay for a short while, but I can't risk anything else. Not with news of my escape likely reaching Vahid."

She nodded, and I could feel her disappointment. She wanted me to stay, but I couldn't. Not now. I would never be able to live with myself if I didn't do something about my father's death. I couldn't let that go unanswered, couldn't let his betrayer roam free, nor those who had played a part in betraying me. I was unleashed, and all the dark parts of me were clamoring to get out.

Casildo. Darbaran .

Mazin .

I glanced up at Noor. One name in my puzzle intersected with hers.

Vahid .

I said their names over and over again in my mind, until a plan formed, until I could visualize every step I needed to take to get there.

And the very first one was getting our hands on that djinn treasure.

That night we feasted on stewed goat my nanu slaughtered for the occasion. I scooped the last of the gravy from my bowl with a piece of chewy flatbread and savored the black cardamom and chilis on my tongue, wondering how I ever made it through the year without eating this. I sat at the low table in Nanu's main room, picking at the remaining spicy pickles on my plate, the sour sharpness keeping me present.

Nanu had invited some of the women of the village over to assist with the food, and I kept my gaze low as they shot curious glances at Noor and me. Nanu assured me they wouldn't report us to Vahid, but I still felt uneasy about so many being aware of our escape. I didn't want anything to stand in the way of what I was about to do.

My father's death had solidified my resolve.

But I didn't cry. I didn't grieve.

All my sorrow had channeled itself into anger. The fierce need for retaliation wrapped itself around my throat, claws piercing my skin. I gripped the edges of my bowl so hard I was surprised the stone didn't crack in half.

"Are we really going where I think we're going?" Noor sidled up next to me, plopping herself down on a cushion, her plate as empty as mine. "Are you finally agreeing to go after Souma's treasure with me?"

I leaned back, releasing a heavy breath. Noor and I were both on a familiar path of revenge. And with her access to Souma's treasure, we could do much more than dream about it.

"Yes."

Noor spooned more rice onto her plate from the serving bowls in front of us and lowered her voice. "I thought you didn't care about it."

"That was before I knew my father had been murdered. Now, I understand what you wanted to do. And I agree. We both deserve a path to retribution." Those choking fingers of rage tightened on my throat, and I almost couldn't breathe.

Noor set down her bowl and rubbed the back of her neck. "Dani, I know you are angry—"

"I'm much more than angry." My voice was a low snarl.

"Right. But don't make big decisions on the heel of finding out what happened to your father. Think this through."

"And is that what you told yourself when Vahid killed Souma? When he killed your father?"

She sucked in a breath through her teeth, but I continued.

"I am thinking this through. More than anyone ever has. I am thinking of every cut, every bruise, and every blow I'm going to give in repayment for what they did to my father. For what they did to me." My mouth pressed into a grim line, and I stared at the aunties of the village laughing together. A few had come in from feeding the chickens, and another woman was rubbing warmed mustard oil into my nanu's hair. Afra, the village elder, was burning a chili in the doorway of the house, warding off the evil eye that might have followed me from prison. It was an atmosphere of festivity—the swordsmith's daughter, returning to the family of aunties who'd been there all her life.

Except that daughter was different now.

And though this was the place I'd grown up, I didn't become who I was here. Not really. It wasn't until I had lain on that stone floor in prison that the molten iron had truly entered my veins.

"I want you to be sure. Once we go down this path, we can't turn back."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Are you sure? Can you go on, knowing that Souma's killer is still out there?"

Noor looked away from me, the pain flashing across her eyes before staring at her bowl.

I nodded. "I didn't think so. That isn't possible for me anymore either. Not while they live."

Mazin's face floated to the top of my mind, like the first cloud in a gathering storm.

It would always come back to him.

There were others that deserved my ire just as much, but it was Maz's betrayal that was a festering raw wound of hurt spreading to everything else.

He was the person who had betrayed me the most.

If it wasn't for him, Baba would still be alive. I swallowed and closed my eyes briefly before focusing them back on Noor. "Not while Mazin lives. He's the catalyst for everything. And I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure he feels my rage."

Noor watched me, her expression inscrutable, the torchlight flickering off her bright eyes. "If this is what you truly want, then I'm ready. And I want to take him down."

I knew her him was different, but we were fighting two sides of the same coin.

Noor raised her chin. "I want Souma to have justice too."

"Vahid will be taken care of, trust me. Are you sure you want to share all that power with me?"

She nodded, and before I lost the nerve, I had to ask her the question. "Why?"

Noor sucked in a breath and watched the flames dancing in the fire. "Because when I could have been trapped in that prison with Thohfsa, you came back. And because I don't think either of us should do this on our own. Because we make a great team. And because…" She hesitated. "Because we both know what it's like to lose a father and be powerless. And I want us to have some of that power back."

I exhaled, some of the anger draining away. She was right, we did work well together—our escape proved that, as had the journey here. And we had a common enemy. As much as I wanted to ride into the city with my swords high, I knew I needed to be smarter about this, more subtle.

This wasn't just about punishment, this was about making them pay, with all the might I could gather.

"This won't be an easy path," I said, watching the village women, realizing that I would likely never come back here again. Not with what came next.

"Trust me, as soon as I met you I knew you wouldn't be an easy path." A slow smile spread across Noor's face.

I reached out and squeezed her hand, unused to feeling grateful. "Thank you, friend."

Noor didn't have to share her power. But I wasn't about to refuse it either.

"Thank me when you are holding the magic of the djinn in your hands. When you have the power to do nearly anything."

I nodded, but my fingers curled against the weathered wood table knowing the only thing I wanted was to have my father back.

But no djinn power could give me that.

Nothing could.

Baba was gone, and my peace would now have to come from destroying my enemies. They would pay the price for what they had done.

"I don't think we should stay here very long," Noor said, her voice low while she smiled and nodded to a woman walking by Nanu's fire. "The villagers are watching us."

I started at her words. "You think they would tell the emperor?"

Our village was loyal to our own, and I would be surprised if someone turned us in.

But then, I never thought Mazin would have done that to me either.

"A village like this? You'd kill for some extra coins in your pocket to see you through winter."

I watched some of the women singing by the fire. "We should leave at first light then."

"I'll start filling my pack with your grandmother's rotis. It's a long journey where we're going, and I've had my fill of dates."

I flashed her a smile, the first time I'd truly felt like smiling since I heard of Baba's death. "Pack the pakoras too. I saw an extra plate by the fire."

"Ohhhh, good thinking."

Noor wandered over to the food and I popped a few fennel seeds into my mouth and chewed on them as I stared into the fire.

It felt as if Baba's death had unleashed something in me, something I had kept tethered when I still had hope of him.

But now, there was no hope.

I wasn't going to rein myself in any longer.

I closed my fists tight, thinking of Casildo, the man who had double-crossed my father. They had been friends since childhood, and the man had been like an uncle to me. That he could so easily turn my father in made my skin cold. But in that coldness I found power, as if I could lock out all emotion and it would distill my goals to the only ones that mattered. Maybe that was the answer to everything. Maybe if I turned my body to ice I could become the weapon I needed to avenge my father.

To avenge myself.