Traitor to the Throne (Rebel of the Sands, #2)(75)

The Rebellion was rising up like bursts of gunpowder all over Izman. Most exploded in neighbourhoods that had suffered under Gallan rule. A NEW DAWN was burned onto walls in the night. Bombs made in kitchens were flung at soldiers in the streets. Folk had started painting Ahmed’s sun on hulls of ships. The Rebellion was spreading, further than it ever had before. The Sultan’s army came after the culprits. But the names of those they planned to arrest were in the Rebellion’s hands before the army’s. By the time men in uniform got to their doors, their homes were empty.

I brought Sam a report of thirty Izmani citizens languishing in prison, due to be hanged as examples of what happened when you supported the Rebellion. Last time, it’d been a whole tavern arrested when a bit too much alcohol had them standing on the table chanting Ahmed’s name. The Rebellion had managed to get half of them free of the noose before the trap opened below their feet. The rest had choked to death slowly. The Sultan’s hangman had made the rope too short, deliberately. So they’d suffer.

So Ahmed would watch them suffer.

We’d get there first this time. Or we hoped we would.

We had the people. We had the city. But there was no taking the palace. Not without the army Rahim had promised us. And there were a whole lot of fires to keep burning until then. Fires we’d started, for the most part. Sam told me it felt like we were trying to plug holes in a wicker basket. I couldn’t remember when Sam had started saying we instead of you.

‘There’s a plan to rebuild the factory in the Last County,’ I told Sam when we were a few short weeks away from Auranzeb. ‘The one outside Dustwalk. Once they’ve reclaimed our half of the desert.’ As a gesture of goodwill to the Gallan, of future willingness to continue to provide them with weapons in their war against any other country that didn’t share their beliefs. ‘They’re sending a small party down there, soldiers and engineers, to assess the feasibility of it.’

‘What am I missing?’ Sam might be a posturer most days, but he wasn’t stupid, either, even though he behaved like he was half the time.

‘Dustwalk is where I’m from,’ I said, leaning back against the tree. I was tired. Cool air ran its fingers through my hair, lulling me. ‘I was born there. It might not be that nice a place, but it still deserves better than this.’

Sam nodded. ‘So we make sure their party never makes it back.’

He listened to me rattle off the rest of what I’d gathered since I last saw him. But when I was done, he didn’t leave straightaway. ‘You know,’ he said, still leaning on the wall across from me, ‘I heard a lot of stories about the Blue-Eyed Bandit. Granted, some of them were about me. I particularly like the one about how the Blue-Eyed Bandit stole the necklace right off a woman’s neck, got caught, and still managed to seduce her.’

‘Is there a point to this, or are you just trying to remind me that the longer I’m in here, the more sullied my reputation becomes?’

‘My point,’ Sam said, ‘is that none of those stories said the Blue-Eyed Bandit was a coward.’ That got my attention.

‘Oh, so is your point actually that you’d like to get punched in the face?’

‘If I’d known the famous Bandit, who fought at Fahali and struck fear into the Sultan’s soldiers, was this lily-livered, I probably wouldn’t have taken her reputation. It’s bad for business to be known as a cowardly bandit. And you should take my stealing your reputation as high praise. I could easily have chosen to be the Blond Bandit or the Dashingly Handsome Bandit or—’

‘I swear to God, Sam.’

‘No, really, go ahead and tell me I couldn’t rightfully call myself the Dashingly Handsome Bandit – eh, truth-teller? Tell me I’m not handsome, I challenge you. See? You can’t.’

‘You really seem to think I’m not going to break your nose.’

‘See’ – Sam wavered back on track – ‘cowardice is the only reason I can possibly think of that makes any sense of why you still haven’t gone to speak to the person who might be able to get that little piece of bronze under your skin out so that you can leave the palace with us.’

I sobered. ‘Shazad told you about Tamid.’ I felt a little bit betrayed by that. ‘It’s not that easy.’

‘It’s certainly harder if you don’t try. And for all my many feats of bravery, I’m deeply afraid of your general, so I sincerely don’t want to bring back the news that you haven’t even tried yet. Because guess which of us will get blamed? It’s not the one she actually likes.’

‘Shazad likes you fine,’ I said offhandedly. ‘Why do you even care?’

‘She depends on you. You don’t see it, but she does.’ For just a moment he actually seemed serious. ‘And I don’t think you’re selfish enough to die on her just to avoid an uncomfortable conversation. Besides, if you die, I can’t be in two places at once any more.’

I ignored that last part. Sam annoyed me even more than usual when he was right.

*

I dragged my feet as we left the negotiations the next day, forcing Rahim to drop back with me.

The Sultan caught his eye, a question mark there. A spark of suspicion neither of us could afford. Rahim saw it, too. He leaned in towards his father, whispering low in his ear. ‘The Gallan ambassador has the look in his eye of a man about to do something very foolish.’ He wasn’t wrong about that. I’d torn down three of the Gallan ambassador’s lies in the meeting, as he got angrier and angrier. ‘If he were one of my soldiers, I would have him run drills until he cooled off. As he isn’t, I think it’s best to let him go ahead.’