Six

Of course they'd left the door open. To them, there was no one left to escape.

I tried to dampen the rising adrenaline flooding through me. I could leave without anyone noticing. I could slip into the night on my own.

My breath was tight in my chest as I stepped through the door. This time when I moved through the dark halls, I was soundless, and the other prisoners were sleeping. Noor's cell was on the opposite wing, adjacent to the ocean. I could almost smell the salt spray in the air, nearly touch the cool water with my fingertips.

If I hid from the guards, made it out of the main prison, and climbed the perimeter wall, I could make it to the beach without the alarm being raised.

I was close, so close to getting out of here. My stomach was in my throat, my body fairly vibrating as I slunk along the hall.

This time I was under cover of darkness, this time I didn't leave a trace.

The stone was cold against my feet. I crept along the wall, trying to remember the layout of my prison wing. This one seemed to be organized the same way, and if I kept to the outer hallway, I should make it to the exit.

I turned the corner to find two guards standing at the main door, their murmured voices carrying on the cool breeze. My back was to the granite wall as I watched the two figures illuminated in the moonlight. At last they started their next guard rotation, moving away from the doorway and heading toward the opposite end of the prison.

I took my chance and noiselessly crept to the door. The sea air slapped against me with spirited force, as if it welcomed me outside.

I slipped out and slid along the side of the building, my back pressed to the brick. The rough scuff of a footfall sounded, and I held my breath as a guard stepped around the corner of the building before turning the other way and retracing his steps in a loop. I trod carefully, gaining ground, with only one focus.

Escape, escape, escape.

I made it to the perimeter wall. There was no one else here.

I could climb over and be out in minutes.

But as I looked over my shoulder a light flickering in the distance pulled my attention. A long brick building stood separate from the main prison and the warden's tower, like a lone rider on the horizon. I recognized it from the one time I had been there, after some fairly brutal punishments from Thohfsa.

The infirmary.

Noor .

My foot paused against the mud-brick outer wall, my breath stilling in my chest.

Could I do this? Could I escape and leave her behind, the person who had allowed me to get this far in the first place? Something dark took root in my stomach, a sick feeling I couldn't shake.

If I went back for her, we'd be recaptured. Escaping when they hadn't a clue I was gone was one thing, but rescuing Noor and fighting the guards by ourselves was entirely different. I didn't even know if she was conscious. Or alive.

But Noor's sardonic grin filled my mind, her driven hands black with earth, her face full of reverence as she spoke about Souma. Noor had understood how much I missed my father. She had felt the same.

I couldn't hop that wall.

I couldn't escape. Not if it meant leaving Noor behind.

"Dania, you are such a fool," I muttered as I began retracing my steps and veering off to the right, toward the infirmary. Something churned in my gut remembering her limp body when I dragged her out of the tunnel, seeing that pool of blood spread out across the dirty floor.

She's still alive.

She has to be.

My footsteps were a whisper on the sparse grass, the flickering candle in the infirmary window like a beacon. I pressed against the wall of the prison, huddling into the shadows to avoid a guard rotation moving past me. The prison yard was dotted with low bushes and not much else, but I was thankful there were no torches lining the perimeter wall at this side.

The sharp scent of cardamom wafting in the air caught my attention and I turned my head. I hadn't drunk chai in a long time, but I'd know that smell anywhere. Two guards stood by the infirmary drinking from large cups, the steaming liquid casting vapors in the cool night. I could have easily killed them both just for a taste of it.

They stood at the only entrance, so if I was going to get caught I might as well do so with the taste of chai on my lips.

I crouched down by a thick bush, running my hands along the ground for anything I could use as a weapon.

My fingers shook with the need to hold any kind of knife.

A scimitar.

A katar over my knuckles.

I'd even take an ornamental blade.

My hand pressed against my chest as I remembered the pendant Maz had given me, a real miniature dagger that I could have used at a time like this.

Instead, the pad of my other thumb brushed against the rough bark of a tree branch that must have blown over the wall. I grabbed it with relief and knelt low, nearly crawling toward the guards.

If I attacked them both now, they'd sound the alarm, and any advantage I had would be gone. The last time I tried to barrel through the prison without a weapon it didn't work so well, and this time I was armed no better. I tested the weight of the thick branch in my hands.

I bit the edge of my lip. Noor would never do something so risky as to fight the guards out in the open. And I needed to think a little more like Noor to get us both out alive.

I inched closer to the building, my stomach dragging over the soft grass, thankful for the blanket of darkness making me nearly indistinguishable from the shrubbery. I'd been crawling on my belly in the dirt for weeks, it didn't bother me to do it now. I stopped a few feet away from the guards and listened to their hushed voices as they drank. My breath froze in my lungs at the mention of Thohfsa's name.

"Hashim said Thohfsa is coming personally to see the prisoner. She gave orders to be informed if anything happened to her."

"You think the girl knows where Souma's stolen treasure is?"

The other guard huffed. "A weak girl like that couldn't survive Thohfsa's torture without revealing what she knew. But the warden still thinks she has information, or else why would she give her all those privileges? Or summon a healer of the unseen to heal her?"

"Well, Thohfsa won't learn anything if the prisoner's dead."

My heart stuttered at his words.

Please don't be dead, Noor.

"Hopefully the healer did her job."

I bit down on my bottom lip so hard I tasted iron. If Thohfsa herself was coming to see Noor, that meant I had limited time to get her out. And if a healer of the unseen had been summoned, that meant the emperor himself had sanctioned the use of zoraat to heal her. Emperor Vahid approving the use of one of his prized djinn magic healers meant he did suspect Noor knew something about Souma's treasure. But right now, I was more relieved than anything—if Noor was healed, she was alive. And if she was healed, I wouldn't have to carry her, and we might actually have a chance of escape.

I closed my eyes and inhaled the billowy scent of chai one final time before making my move. Then, I grabbed a large rock nearby and threw it into the bushes on the other side of the infirmary. I didn't have time to be stealthy anymore, not if Thohfsa was on her way.

My fingers clamped around my stick, the makeshift sword cutting into the meat of my palm.

"Eh, did you hear that?" One of the guards turned toward the sound. "There aren't any guards on patrol over there."

The other guard snorted. "You're in your head again. No one will attempt escape after what Thohfsa did to the last girl. And it's unlikely she'll try again." He gave a low laugh, and I nearly laughed right along with him.

Let them think I gave up. They would know soon enough how wrong they were.

I curled my hands tighter around the branch, ready to take them both on. But just as I was about to rise from the shadows, the first guard shook his head and walked to the other side of the building to investigate the noise.

Leaving me alone with his friend.

I rolled from the bushes, stepped into the torchlight, and raised my stick high.

The guard's eyes went wide, his mouth open in a surprised scream, but thankfully he didn't have a chance to make a sound. I clubbed him with the thick end, and he dropped to the ground.

"I did try again," I muttered as I kicked his motionless body. But I couldn't leave him here, not if the other guard was on his way back. A ring of keys hung from his waist and I grabbed them as noiselessly as I could, unlocking the front door and dragging his heavy body through the entrance, along with the tree branch I'd hit him with.

I closed the door behind us and we were encased in silence, except for my harsh breath.

The same stone floors as were in the rest of the prison graced the infirmary but with considerably less grime. In fact, the whole building was cleaner, as if it had barely been used, and with only the slight smell of turmeric from the salve they applied to our wounds after Thohfsa's interrogations. It wasn't large—only one long hall with different rooms where patients were housed. The entrance was dark except for the faint glimmer of the moon through a window above and a low light from an open door at the far end of the hall. Various unlit torches dotted the walls and a slight draft blew its way down the corridor. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself, wishing I had some of that chai now to warm me.

I lifted the guard's arms once more and grunted with the effort of pulling him to the nearest room—an empty chamber housed with medical supplies. Once I dumped his body, I flexed my hands, working the blood back to my fingers, wishing I still had some of the physical endurance I'd come to prison with.

All the muscles I'd honed from sparring with Mazin in the training yard had melted away when met with the steady starvation rations of the prison.

I nudged the guard's leg with my toe and he didn't react. My hands raked his body, feeling for any kind of weapon, but he didn't have anything on him I could use. Pity. There wasn't anything to tie him with, so I propped one of the gray metal chairs under the door handle. Then I went in search of Noor.