Page 80 of Queen Demon
Hierarchs wouldn’t want to walk on boards fouled by demons or Witches either, but Kai was too distracted to correct that assumption. “But you didn’t see the Hierarch?”
“No.” She waved a weary hand. “But who else could it be?”
Amabel sat back, hope fading from their expression as the reality set in. Kai wasn’t ready for that reality yet. He asked, “The legionary troop bound for Nibet. Did they board yet?”
She shook her head. “No, but they loaded supplies.”
Kai hissed out a breath and rubbed his face. This was bad. They expected to have a few more days at least until the Hierarch arrived. The spies in Palm had been wrong. He needed to think. He fumbled in his coat pockets for the map until Dahin pushed it into his hands. He asked Ilanu, “Do you need water, food?”
“Me?” She looked surprised at the offer, as if she hadn’t expected it from Witches. “If you’ve enough to spare.”
Amabel slung their satchel around and pulled out a wrappedcloth packet of the hard dry lentil cakes they had all been eating for the past few days. Dahin passed over his flask of water. Amabel smiled and said, “Sorry, no pepper sauce.”
“It’s better than what I had yesterday,” Ilanu assured them, biting into the cake.
Kai unrolled the map but the dim lamp wasn’t enough for him to read it. Especially when so much of his attention was going toward suppressing his agitation. Even with his lack of experience, he knew this was a bad time to show his dismay. “I need a better light,” he said to Dahin.
Dahin dug immediately in his bag and set out a small rounded piece of clear glass or crystal. He ran his finger across it until it started to emit a white glow. Kai flattened the map on the rock.
From the wall, Salatel asked, “How bad is it, Fourth Prince?” She sounded bleak.
Kai had marked Bashasa’s last position when Amabel had reported it yesterday. Hoping against hope, he measured with his fingers, estimating the distance the army had traveled and the ground they had left to cover. “The Hierarch is here too early.” The Arike were swift, too swift. “The army will reach position before dawn,” he told her. “If they begin the attack the way we planned, the Hierarch will go out to the fortress wall with an expositor and kill us all.”
Still chewing, Ilanu asked, “What was supposed to happen?” She sounded so resigned. It didn’t help the sense of desperation Kai was currently drowning in.
Dahin leaned down to study the map. “After we took the fort, we were to wait for the Hierarch’s ship. Ziede thought she could drive it against the rocks with wind-devils, then get aboard with my sister and kill the Hierarch.”
Ilanu’s mouth twisted. “That might have worked.”
Kai said through gritted teeth, “Stop talking about it in the past tense.” There had to be a way. “I can try to set fire to the whole fort.” And just hope the blaze distracted the Hierarch enough tokeep them from using the Voice. Except it was an old Arike fort, made mostly of carved stone. Kai couldn’t set stone on fire, much as he might want to. His store of intentions was still so limited, he could think of nothing that would help.
Ilanu swallowed the last bite of cake and said uneasily, “The people from the work camps are still in there.”
Kai’s huff of exasperated breath possibly sounded more like a snarl. Bashasa’s forces couldn’t retreat, they had to take this fort. Nibet, the Enalin, the slim chance of Renitl-arik’s survival, their attack on the southwest, everything depended on it. “Then I have to go in before dawn and kill the Hierarch.” It was the only thing that might work.
Dahin was startled. “Alone?”
Amabel shook their head. “Not alone. I’m going with you.”
“No, you aren’t.” Kai folded the map. The decision made, he felt calm settle over him. There were a lot of things he was afraid of. Being captured again and turned into a Hierarach’s slave. His body dying and drifting for eternity, trapped in the mortal world. But at least if those things happened, they would happen while he was fighting. “You’re going to Bashasa, right now, and report all this.”
Amabel grimaced unhappily, but didn’t argue.
“Then you go with us,” Salatel said. She sounded calm now too, no hint of hesitation in her tone. Maybe she felt much as Kai did. “We’ll go in together, the cadre and the dustwitches.” She added, more quietly, “We fight together, Fourth Prince.”
Ilanu watched them all, wide-eyed, a stirring of hope in her expression.
Still studying the map, Dahin said thoughtfully, “Can we trust the dustwitches?”
“Most of them,” Kai admitted. He would like to say no, to send them away, but he wasn’t a fool. If he didn’t succeed, they would die in the fighting anyway. “Then we’ll all go. But we need to get past the bridge gate.”
Dahin said, “I think I have a plan for that. I can go to the gate. I’ll be a messenger who was attacked on the road and lost my escort.” He must have read Kai’s expression because he continued quickly, “I’m a Lesser Blessed. It can’t be anyone else here but me, not an Arike, certainly not a Witch. We even know the name of an expositor who might be at Dashar, that one Var—Vartasias. From the other expositor that thought you were sent to kill him.” Dahin’s gaze gleamed with excitement as the plan came together. “What’s his name’s body was found by Immortal Marshalls, and they sent me to deliver some documents or something that he had on him, to Vartasias. I don’t have to convince anyone important, just get them to open the gate, and you all can do the rest.” He added a little desperately, “Kai, please say something.”
The thing Kai hated was that it was a good plan. “Your sister wants me to protect you.”
“You outrank her, you’re Bashasa’s officer,” Dahin persisted. “It’s your decision.”
So it was. Kai let his breath out. “Tahren will skin me.”
