28. Chapter 28

Chapter twenty-eight

“Is there anything else you can remember?” Kamir asked hopefully. Jael needed a bath and rest, but he was worried Jael might be intimidated in front of them all and worry any information he wasn’t sure about might be dismissed.

Jael paused, shaking his head, cramming a hunk of spiced lamb into his mouth, then chewed and swallowed. Kamir stared at the little boy who had been forced to grow up way too soon. He watched him eat, then led Jael to the bathing room and began to draw a bath, but Jael shook his head. “I need to go back.”

Kamir looked up, startled. “Go back?”

“I have to make sure Moxie understands in case Tam can’t get to her. It’s too risky.”

Kamir had no words for such an overwhelming offer. He wanted to say something, anything, to Jael, but he didn’t know what. And he was so ashamed. He had a dragon, and yet a child was going to war for him. He helped get some of the grime off him, but Jael refused the clothes. “I’ll stick out,” he mumbled around another spiced hunk of lamb he’d grabbed as soon as Kamir took him back into the salon feeling at a complete loss of what to say. But Kamir couldn’t allow this. Jael was a child. He just didn’t know how to tell him that.

Jael looked up at him warily. “I wanna stay with you. Flynn said I could be like him. That if I worked hard, it wouldn’t matter what I was born to.”

Kamir threw away his caution and hugged Jael tight, vowing Jael would always stay with them. That he had a bright future. “You will always live with us,” he promised. He wanted them to become a family. “But you don’t have to bargain with this. Tsaria and I both need you here safe. I want to spend many evenings playing Shyann .”

“So do I,” Jael mumbled into Kamir’s shirt. Kamir let him go but dropped his voice.

“I want to go myself,” he admitted, hoping if Jael understood he shared the same frustration, the boy would accept it when Kamir refused to allow him to go. “But I don’t know how to get into the sewers,” Kamir blurted out before he could let the subject go. His dragon was telling him they were needed. He was sure of it. And maybe if Kamir went himself, Jael would be appeased.

Jael glanced at the still-closed door, just as Kamir had done a moment ago. “But you’re the emir. You don’t belong there.”

And Kamir could have cried at Jael’s defeated tone. “We’ll get Tsaria back. I promise. Tam and Mansala are working on a plan now.”

Jael didn’t say anything, and Kamir studied his face in concern. “You don’t think their plan will work, do you?”

Jael shrugged, but he might as well have screamed his doubt.

“Tell me,” Kamir urged.

Jael sighed. “Me and Ma were in the cells for weeks before Tsaria came, and there was another boy, Mouse, there for a time. It was a joke ‘cos he was a sewer rat, but he was little. Had a bum foot, and he walked kind of funny. Me and ma only ever worked above ground, but Mouse told us what the sewers were like. The exits change all the time. One day, one gang has control, then it changes. They each have their own secret entrances as well. They’ll send rats to the wrong entrances to fool people.” Jael paused. “Tam’s thinking Moxie will be there, but what if she ain’t? There’s a dozen places she could be in, and he wouldn’t know. By the time Eastside gets outside with Tsaria it could be too late.”

Kamir thought furiously. “You think we need to take him in the sewers before they get outside?”

“But Tam is half-right,” Jael said. “No one can get in there.”

Kamir felt the roar inside him, and he tensed. His dragon didn’t like the idea of defeat, or possibly being told he couldn’t do something. His dragon made it clear he had to be there to rescue their mate. “I have a better idea. I need to be caught.” He needed to be captured. It was the only way to guarantee he could get in there.

Jael looked at him like he was deranged. “You want to be caught? Why?”

Kamir smiled. “Because I have a surprise for them.” And Kamir let Jael look into his eyes and knew when the boy’s eyes widened that he had seen the flames reflected in them, and Kamir felt the strength inside him grow. Kamir blinked and let the fire damp down. “Which entrance?”

“Easy,” Jael whispered. “Back of the palace kitchens. There’s a small black door about a half-mile away for the scourers to get in.”

Kamir grimaced. Those were the slaves that cleaned the human waste from under the palace, and it had to stop. He’d seen the Cadmeeran system and wanted that for Rajpur. He wanted a lot for Rajpur, and it was going to start with orphanages, proper beds and good food. And getting the children out of the hell they lived in.

“I need to go ahead of you,” Jael said.

Kamir shook his head. Jael was a child. “Tsaria would never forgive me if I let you be hurt.” He would never forgive himself but thought that argument might sway Jael.

“I promise not to go near the Eastside. Just go find Pip or get a message to Moxie. I’m the only one that can as Tam is too big for the littlest spaces. You can be caught, but Moxie might not know if Eastside gets to you first.”

Kamir damned himself to hell for even considering allowing Jael to go.

“If you don’t let me I’ll just escape,” he said. “This is a palace. Secret passages. Not hard if you know what to look for. No one can keep me in here,” Jael said confidently, “and we know if you tell them, you won’t be going anywhere either.”

Kamir damned himself to seven hells some more. “You promise you’ll just get Moxie? Give her the message then come back here?”

Jael grinned. “Sure will. I’m going to beat you at Shyann .”

Kamir didn’t doubt it. Now he just had to work out how to get rid of Mansala long enough to get out of the palace, which would probably be the hardest thing he’d ever done, and send a bird to his sister. He had a feeling he was going to need her skills.

Elainore ordered Tsaria to be gagged immediately, lest he cry out and wake the emir. The slave struggled but he was silenced before he got the chance to say a word. She watched dispassionately and tried to calm her fury at the addle-brained woman. Bex was simply a means to an end and would suffer a slit throat when Elainore became queen. Not that Bex knew her plans, of course. Her own people didn’t even know all her plans. They believed in the fight for justice. It was so much easier to sell than the thought of power, but then those fools wouldn’t live long either. Soon, Elainore would be able to buy her protection.

She wouldn’t need her for long though. Bex had simply provided a hiding place so the guards wouldn’t find them, and she had been paid very generously for it. Seemed Bex didn’t much like her chosen career and expected to buy her way out of it. She would be disappointed.

But what had she been thinking? She was simply meeting them to guide them out of the sewers not kidnap the emir. Taking Tsaria was to ensure Kamir’s compliance. Kamir being gone was a boon to Gabar, and probably Damatrious. She hadn’t hung around to see what happened after Kamir had changed into his beast, leaving her men to secure Tsaria, but they told her Damatrious had sworn fealty to Kamir since he had survived the cleansing. Who knew for how long that fealty would last if Kamir disappeared?

And she had been so careless. How had she allowed Tsaria to get anywhere near Kamir?

She needed to come up with a different plan. They needed to get out of this goddess-forsaken place and back to the desert to regroup. Her illusions seemed harder work down here. As if the desperation of the sewers drained her. She could maintain her looks permanently in her sand-baked home aided by the secret mix of herbs she took, but here she might be called on to create a second illusion so they could escape. Not impossible, but hard when she was so drained. Controlling people cost her and her beast too much energy, and Elainore wasn’t stupid; she knew the day was soon approaching when all she could manage was her own appearance, but by then it wouldn’t matter.

In her mind she heard the hiss of temper and mentally soothed her creature, then focused on the immediate problem. Once they were free of Bex, she could easily blame the kidnapping on Gabar. Many had seen he was besotted with her, and she could claim she had rejected him. It would be easy for someone with Gabar’s resources to dress his agents up to blame it on her and her people as revenge. They could return to the palace with the emir and be lauded as rescuers. Save the kingdom. Of course, Tsaria would have to die now. But she’d known that the second Kamir had changed into his dragon.

At least he didn’t have to demonstrate his provenance anymore.

It couldn’t ever be allowed to happen again. Tsaria was clearly the catalyst, and without him, Kamir was simply a wannabe king. But he would never need to prove it again, as his people accepted him. Easy. She could do this. There was only her and some of her people that knew Kamir hadn’t murdered the assembly members or the guards. But it was useful to let him think so, or it would have been if Damatrious had been present to lose his head as well. Everything was supposed to be handled in one. She’d worked too hard for this to get out of control.

Not that she had any problem killing those that outlived their usefulness. Ibrahim had been her most useful conquest. They’d had eyes in the palace for six lunar months and he had been easy to seduce both with her niece’s body and the coin they’d been generous with. Ibrahim had told them all about Kamir and Gabar. He’d even managed to get them word when Kamir had first changed into a dragon so she could time her arrival just as Gabar was getting desperate and put everything into action.

She didn’t suppose he expected to play such an important role in her deception, but it was an excellent way of tying up loose ends.

“We need to move the emir,” Elainore decreed. Tsaria could be left to rot as far as she was concerned, and she jerked her chin at the two guards holding him up and they shuffled out. Bex directed two of her rats to show them where to take him.

“I can guarantee your safety in here. Why not let things die down a little?”

Elainore didn’t bother telling her that the decision was now out of her hands because the imbecile had brought Kamir here and she didn’t doubt with enough coin offered that someone would talk. “Because they will be searching for the emir. I need to get him secure, and away from his slut before the emir wakes. Have you decided on a route out to the sands?”

Bex grunted. “Of course. You have my gold?”

Elainore waved a hand at one of her chosen men and the man dropped a heavy leather purse into Bex’s open, grasping palm. Her eyes lit up in glee and she started barking out orders.

Elainore turned to see the gagged slut staring at her with such hate and she smiled. She recognized defeat when she saw it.

Good, he knew he would die. It was a pity as he was a pretty thing and she could have had some fun with him. She strode out, only to be met by her men. One of Bex’s rats shadowed them closely, suspicion evident in the way he lifted his chin, and Elainore nearly laughed. When she was queen, no factions would work against her. One of her first tasks would be to seal these tunnels with the vermin still in them.

She listened as her man shared his news and wanted to crow in glee. She had assumed she would have to use Gabar as a scapegoat, but perhaps not. Her men had caught him asking questions as to the direction the sand people traveled in, and easily overpowered him.

She changed her course and headed in the direction of Gabar. Maybe he might be of some use after all.

Kamir reached down inside himself as his captors dragged him along. There, a flicker . His dragon was beginning to wake. He tried to send a thought to Tsaria, but Kamir’s brain was still like sludge after the heavy blow. He needed time. Time they didn’t have.

He carefully remained limp since he wasn’t tied, but then they turned into some sort of small cavern carved out of limestone rock by the once clean waters before the waste of Rajpur had polluted it.

The guards dumped him, and he was careful to remain limp and focused on the fire slowly building inside him. The sharp slap to his cheek took him too much by surprise to withhold the flinch. “Highness,” she purred.

Kamir opened his eyes, knowing exactly who he would see, but shock held him still. It was Elainore, but not . Not even an old woman stood in front of him, but something he could only describe as warped . Gabar stood next to her, and he couldn’t have held back the snarl that left his lips if his freedom had depended on it.

“My love,” Gabar murmured, ignoring him. “Let me slit him from arse to throat in front of the rats so they know who their true queen is. All this nonsense will soon stop.”

Kamir stared in shock, then realized that for some reason his uncle must not be able to see her true appearance. His eyes roved over her ravaged face. The peeling, rotten skin. The bloodied lip, and the open sores everywhere. And the smell. The stench down here was brutal, but Elainore was worse than that.

Gabar frowned. “He is untied.”

She smiled and Kamir struggled to hide his revulsion at her blood-stained, rotting teeth.

Elainore stepped forward and hooked a clawed hand under Kamir’s chin. “Before you even think of it, know I have your slut safely hidden away. Behave and when I am finished, you two will be put on a ship to Marston Keys and I care not what you do then. But if I see so much as a scale, Tsaria will be killed. He is hidden in the desert catacombs so deep not even the sewer rats could find him, and unless they hear from me every day, he will be lost to you.”

She lied. Kamir knew this. There was no way once she had Damatrious under her control that Kamir would be allowed to live, which meant his darling Tsaria would also be slain.

He also thought she lied about where they held Tsaria. He doubted they would have had the time to get him to the catacombs. The endless desert was a long day’s ride away.

Bex hurried into the cavern just as Elainore heard shouts. “Stupid bitch from the other end thinks she can take over my territory, but don’t worry, my lads will sort her.”

Elainore frowned. This was all they needed.

“Stay here. Too risky to move while this gets taken care of.” Bex cackled. “Won’t take long.”

Kamir’s heart banged hard against his ribs. It had to be Moxie. Jael must have gotten the message to her, and he prayed Jael had kept his promise and gotten back out. He concentrated on the flames building inside him. He knew deep down that he could summon his dragon, he just needed a little more time.

Elainore turned to the tunnel they had come from as sounds of the fight started dying down. He met her gleeful gaze, and his stomach dropped. “Looks like Bex has delivered as she said she would. The Eastside gang is the most powerful.”

Gabar drew his brows together again, and as if giving up, he pulled a white kerchief out of his breast pocket and covered his nose against the smell. “Vile woman,” he muttered then looked at Kamir. “Why is he still breathing?” Gabar spat.

“Because we need him,” Elainore hissed. “Thanks to your incompetent son who has ideas he could be the emir.”

“My incompetent son?” Gabar hissed. “Might I remind you that I had Iskar killed—”

Kamir gasped and struggled to his feet. “You murdered your son ?”

Gabar frowned. “Because he was a blithering idiot, and if Damatrious didn’t assume he was in charge I would have gotten them both.” Gabar waved a dismissive hand at Kamir. “Why isn’t he tied?”

Kamir almost wanted to laugh, and pitied Damatrious being born to Gabar, but then his own father hadn’t been much better. For the first time in his entire life, he might enjoy killing another being. Or his dragon would.

“So, your Highness ,” Elainore drawled, ignoring Gabar, “Shall we discuss your amazing rescue by your loyal subjects from the endless desert?”

Kamir frowned, trying to shake the sluggishness from his brain. “Rescue?”

As if from a distance, they all heard a silent twang. Kamir barely had time to register the sound as Gabar turned to look in that direction and took a slight step in front of Elainore.

Kamir didn’t think for one moment it was to save her life.

But the fact of the matter was his uncle froze for a heartbeat, his eyes shocked as if he couldn’t believe that he had an arrow sticking out from his forehead. Kamir watched in sickened awe as Gabar’s eyes glazed over and his knees buckled.