Hero at the Fall (Rebel of the Sands #3)(70)

The rabble of prisoners parted as Zaahir moved forwards, Noorsham’s body floating ahead of him.

I wanted to save him. I wanted him to live. I had asked Zaahir for it. But he hadn’t promised me what kind of life Noorsham would have.

And there was another power at work here. Noorsham’s mother had wished that her Demdji son would do something great. Our father had granted it. And Noorsham believed he would, in the name of God.

I didn’t know if there was a God. But I knew that there were monsters. And he could protect us from those.

All eyes turned as Noorsham’s glowing form reached the same place where Ashra’s soul had stood as a wall for thousands of years, his body shifting, seeming to grow. As I watched, Noorsham seemed to turn towards the mountain and wrap his arms around it before all sense of his body disappeared, transforming into a burning wall of light instead.

He stood where Ashra had, relieving her watch finally after thousands of years. Shielding us from the evil that lived inside. Here he would get what he had wanted. He would save far more people than he had ever killed.

And his mother would get what she had wished for. Greatness.





Chapter 27

I woke to a setting sun and the feeling of movement below me. I blinked blearily, feeling like I was coming back to life.

‘She lives,’ a familiar, rueful voice said quietly in my ear. I tilted my head back. Jin was behind me. I was settled against his chest, his arm around my middle steadying me. We were on a horse, I realised. A blue one. Izz. And around us, walking at a slow but steady pace, were our people. We were making our way down the mountain, by the look of things. ‘You passed out,’ Jin said from behind me. I felt his hand slip away from me momentarily, and then he was pressing a flask of water into my hands. I gulped from it gratefully.

Everything was a blur after I released Zaahir.

In the stories, Djinn appeared and vanished in great claps of thunder and smoke. But the truth was, when I released Zaahir, he was just there one moment and gone the next. It was like waking up from a dream. And all that was left was destruction.

The last thing I remembered was Jin finding me, sitting among the ashes, and gathering me to him. And then nothing.

‘Tamid says you must’ve hit your head when you got knocked down,’ Jin was saying. When he spoke, I could feel the vibrations through his chest and into my spine. ‘Hence you passed out. But we had to keep moving. So we moved you.’

We, he said. As if it was the most casual thing in the world. But it wasn’t. We meant all of us now. Because we’d done it. We’d got everyone out.

The realisation settled over me as I looked around, seeing faces in the light of day. Shazad was walking a few paces ahead, Sam next to her, talking at the rattling speed of a runaway train. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but every once in a while, a small smile danced over her face. To one side of us, Tamid was limping painstakingly down the mountain, eyes on the path to keep from tripping, sometimes leaning on Delila for help. Or maybe she was leaning on him, it was hard to tell. Ahmed led the way up ahead, Rahim next to him, the rabble of former prisoners dragging themselves to safety in his wake. We were a sorry collection: wounded, burned, half-starved, bedraggled, exhausted.

But free. We had done it. The impossible. We’d left Eremot alive.

‘Where are we?’ I asked. My voice came out raspy.

‘Nearly at Sazi,’ Jin said. He nodded upwards, and I noticed a small bird swooping in circles over our heads. Maz, I realised, our scout.

A sudden panic gripped my chest. We needed to slow down. We needed to be careful.

‘I can walk,’ I said hastily. ‘Izz, stop.’ Our blue Demdji did as I said, and I swung one leg over him, sliding off his back. Jin followed close behind, steadying me as I hit the ground, head swimming.

I pushed through the tired mass of rebels and released prisoners. I needed to talk to Ahmed. We couldn’t just barge into Sazi like this. But it was too late. As I broke through to the front of the pack, I saw the outskirts of Sazi. People were already gathering at the bottom of the slope, staring up at us expectantly. But I knew they weren’t waiting for us. They were waiting for Noorsham.

‘Where is he?’ someone called out from the assembled crowd, as we got closer. ‘What have you done with him?’

Ahmed’s brow furrowed as he turned to me. ‘What are they talking about?’ But I didn’t answer Ahmed. I called out to the crowd instead.

‘He’s …’ Dead stuck on my tongue as we drew to a stop a few paces away. That wasn’t true. He wasn’t dead. He wasn’t alive either.

‘Noorsham is not coming back.’

A rustle went through the crowd around us as this news settled. I shifted nervously; it wouldn’t take long for it to turn to anger. ‘You killed him.’ An accusation came from a skinny woman at the front of the crowd.

‘No,’ I protested, shaking my head, scrambling for the right words. Shazad pressed through to the front now to stand beside me. I could feel the tension building in her like it did before a fight.

‘Liar!’ another cry came up angrily from the back. The rest of the crowd was shifting uncertainly, but I didn’t think it would be long before they turned against us.

‘She’s not lying,’ Tamid said, but his voice was drowned out by the shouting.

‘Well.’ Sam came up behind me. ‘This doesn’t look good.’