Traitor to the Throne (Rebel of the Sands, #2)(47)

‘You’re going to have to do me one better than that, cousin.’

‘You want something else?’ She scoffed, still running her hands across her stomach over and over. She had a whole lot of power here. But she didn’t have any over me. Finally she pursed her lips, as if the words she was about to spit out tasted bitter. ‘Of course you do. Fine.’ Then Shira tossed her head back and laughed like I’d just said the funniest thing in the world. For a second I thought she’d lost her mind. Her voice echoed around the tiled walls, carrying over the commotion in the water and making Kadir look up. And he saw me. Damn it. Shira gave me a satisfied smirk. ‘Better talk fast, cousin. I’m guessing you’re the new toy Kadir keeps talking about. The one he’s not allowed to have. So you have until he gets here to play with you to spit out what you want.’

I really wanted to push her into the water. ‘Rumour has it you’ve got a way to pass contraband in and out of the harem.’

‘Who says that?’

‘People,’ I evaded. ‘Do you or don’t you?’ I kept one eye on Kadir as he got to his feet, sauntering lazily around the iridescent blue tiles of the pool towards us. It was like being tracked by a hungry Skinwalker. I wanted to get out before he got to me.

‘I might,’ she said, hedging. Wasting time. ‘What is it you’re so desperate to get in that you’d threaten my life for it? A bottle of liquor? New clothes? That certainly seems worth the price of my head.’ It wasn’t a half-bad attempt to make me feel sorry about blackmailing her. Anyone else and I might’ve actually been sorry.

‘I don’t want anything brought in.’ I kept an eye on Kadir, getting closer now. ‘I need to get a message out. Can you do that?’

‘I suppose so.’ Shira ran her tongue over her teeth, deliberately slowly. She was trying to keep me here. ‘I’d need some time.’

‘I don’t have a whole lot of that. Can you help me or do I tell your husband that you climbed into another man’s bed and get you hanged?’ He was halfway across to us now.

‘I can help.’ Shira set her jaw angrily, resting her hand on her middle. ‘If you—’

‘Come to join the game?’ Kadir called, interrupting whatever Shira had been about to say next. He was close enough to be heard. His eyes travelled up and down my body. ‘You’re a little overdressed.’

I pushed myself to my feet. Shazad had taught me enough to know that you didn’t stand against an enemy from lower ground. ‘I’m dressed just fine for leaving, Your Exalted Highness.’

Kadir made a noise at the back of his throat, like a hum of agreement. Except it sounded an awful lot like a laugh. ‘You are free to leave, of course.’ He was rolling a perfect white pearl between his thumb and forefinger. He circled around in front of me, standing between me and the way out. Then he tossed the pearl carelessly aside, letting it land in the water. The girls, who’d been watching the exchange, didn’t scramble for it. ‘As soon as you bring me back that pearl.’

‘I can’t swim,’ I said. Anywhere else I’d be able to stand up for myself. I’d be able to fight him. But I was helpless. I tried to hold myself like I wasn’t.

‘Then you can’t leave.’ He smirked. ‘That pearl is very precious to me.’

I couldn’t fight him. Just the thought of raising my fist and putting it in his too-pleased-with-himself-looking face made the tug of the Sultan’s orders twinge in my stomach. And I wasn’t sure what he’d try to do if I walked out. What he could do. Or whether the Sultan had warned him against hurting me.

If the Sultan cared whether his Demdji prize got hurt. I didn’t even know why I was still alive. He had his Djinni.

The silence was broken by a splash as one of the other girls dove under the water and sprang back up a moment later, the pearl between her fingers. ‘I got bored waiting,’ she said, pouting prettily, her pale hair sticking to her forehead as she brandished the pearl. But there was a tightness to her smile. And I understood what she’d done. For me. The risk.

The tension broke as Kadir lounged over to her. Shira was on her feet, grabbing me by the elbow, pushing me out of the baths. ‘Tonight.’ She shoved me back towards the safety of the gardens. ‘Meet me by the Weeping Wall after dark.’





Chapter 19

The Weeping Wall was the easternmost wall of the harem, a small, closed-off part of the garden dominated by the biggest tree I’d ever seen in my life. It would’ve taken three of me to get my arms all the way around it, and the branches stretched so far they touched the top of the walls on either side.

According to the women of the harem, it was the place where Sultima Sabriya had waited for Sultim Aziz a thousand years ago. He had gone to war on the distant eastern border and left his love in the harem. The Weeping Wall was the closest she had been able to get to him while he was away in battle. She stood there every day, waiting for him, her tears watering the tree so that it grew higher and higher every day. Until one day it was finally high enough for her to climb to see over the walls of the harem to where her husband’s army was. That day, the other women found her on the ground, screaming and wailing and clawing at the wall. She couldn’t be consoled and she cried until her voice left her; and the tree grew greater still.