Traitor to the Throne (Rebel of the Sands, #2)(28)

Finally I couldn’t hold on any longer, and neither could the horses. If we hadn’t outrun them by now, we would have to stand and fight. I dropped the shield behind us. Jin seemed to feel the tension flee my body. He wheeled the panting beast around, gun drawn, checking behind us for pursuers. My vision blurred from the sheer relief of not using my power any more. I shielded my eyes against the last of the desert sun. We were all perfectly still as we scanned the horizon for any sign of movement. But there was nothing behind us but open sand. We’d lost them.

‘We can pitch camp here,’ Jin commanded, his voice reverberating through his chest, into my back. He was hoarse with thirst.

‘We’re not safe,’ I started to argue.

‘We’re never safe,’ Jin said, so only I heard.

‘We’ve got no cover, and the horses—’

‘The horses aren’t going to make it any farther without a rest and we can’t outrun them on foot,’ Jin said in my ear. ‘And we can’t outrun them without you, either. We’ll post a watch, move again if there’s even a cloud of dust on the horizon.’

He slipped off our horse and started giving orders to pitch tents and go through the supplies people had grabbed as we evacuated. He uncapped something at his side and took a swig before passing it to me.

I brought the water skin to my mouth and with shaking hands sipped slowly, cradling my injured shoulder close to my body. There were a dozen of us, give or take. That meant a whole lot of missing faces who were now just bodies in the sand if they hadn’t gotten away with Ahmed and Shazad. I was the only Demdji among us. Hopefully that meant Hala and Delila were together, and between them, they could hide even a big group of moving rebels. And Shazad would get them all to safety. I had to trust they’d be waiting for us.

My aunt, Safiyah, was among those who’d escaped with us, as were two of the other women from Saramotai. I supposed it was hard to follow an escape plan when you didn’t know it. Safiyah was helping dole out food. A few other familiar faces were dotted around. Relief eased my heart a little.

There’d be no fire tonight. It left us vulnerable to Nightmares or Skinwalkers but we were a lot more vulnerable if we lit a beacon to the Sultan’s army. We’d just have to ring the camp in whatever iron we had and hope for the best.

Everyone was ravaged from the escape. Some were already stuffing bread into their mouths and simply collapsing as the sun sank low. We’d need to set a watch, and divvy up the supplies among the horses and pitch the tents. And there were a thousand and one other things to think of. But my head was spinning and I couldn’t think of them.

I downed the water until my head steadied. We wouldn’t have to make it last that long anyhow. By now I knew our part of the desert. We were a three-day ride from the port city of Ghasab, but at the pace we’d set, riding all night and through the day, we’d be there by sunset tomorrow. From there we could resupply and rejoin with everyone at the meeting point in the mountains. Well, everyone who’d gotten away.

I stowed the water away and gingerly tried to slide off the horse, testing my weight on my tender right arm as I braced myself against the saddle. It surrendered instantly, buckling me towards the sand in a messy heap.

‘You’re hurt.’ Jin reached down toward where I was sprawled. I ignored his hand and pulled myself up with my good arm, using the stirrup. The horse was so tired it barely protested.

‘I’ll survive.’ I tried to hold my arm as normal as I could as I turned away from him. ‘I always have.’

‘Amani!’ He raised his voice as I walked away, loud enough so a few of the rebels glanced our way, before quickly getting back to work. Everyone knew enough to stay out of it. ‘I watched you walk across an entire desert. I’ve memorised the way you move. And right now you’re moving like you’ve dislocated your shoulder. You need to let me take a look at it.’

‘I can give you something for the pain,’ Safiyah interrupted, brushing sand off her fingers. Almost everyone knew enough to stay out of it.

‘She doesn’t need something for the pain,’ Jin said evenly. He was talking to Safiyah, but his eyes never left me. ‘She needs someone to pop her arm back in its socket before we have to saw it off.’

That made me stop.

I turned back to face him. He had unwrapped his sheema and wound it around his neck and I could see his face clearly. Jin had always been good at bluffing. A faint smile reappeared, like he could read what I was thinking more easily than I could. That smile always meant trouble. ‘Willing to chance it, Bandit?’

I was almost sure he was lying. But I wasn’t more sure than I was fond of having two working arms.

‘Fine.’ I extended my arm to him as far as I could, like a kid holding out a wounded animal she’d found in the desert. Jin didn’t take it. Instead he put a hand on my back. The familiar thrill rushed up my spine. My body didn’t seem to know I was angry at him. He led me into the small blue tent I claimed when we were on the move. Someone had pitched it for me. He let the tent flap fall shut behind us, sealing us in privacy.

The tent was too low to stand in. I stooped stubbornly until Jin pulled me to the ground to sit across from him. Night was descending fast around us, but there was still just enough light to see by. Outside I could hear the shuffle of the camp as it got ready for a night in the desert.