The Fire Queen (The Hundredth Queen #2)(78)

“The Voider.”

Brother Shaan lifts his chin, praying skyward. “Gods protect us.”

Natesa groans and sits up, holding the side of her head. “What’s going on?”

Pons kneels down to help her, and I explain what they missed. “Ashwin released the Voider to stop Vizier Gyan from doing the same. The Voider came disguised as Tarek to help fulfill Ashwin’s wish to take back the empire. I tried to stop the demon rajah, but he is immune to my powers.” Brother Shaan prays more fervently. “Ashwin and the demon rajah are headed to the camps. We have to warn Deven.” I try to sit up again, but a sharp pain pushes into my side, and I double over. Beads of sweat from the exertion of trying to stand wet my forehead.

Indah helps me lie back. “You’re bleeding through your bandages, and you shouldn’t stand on your leg. Pons will carry you to the boat.”

“Where are Opal and Rohan?” If I cannot go to Deven, I can send someone else.

“They brought Brother Shaan here and then went to the boat,” replies Indah. “We have no time to go to the camps. Iresh will fall into disarray without the sultan ruling or the vizier leading their army. The city is beyond saving.”

“He has Ashwin,” I protest. The Voider recognized Ashwin, Sultan Kuval, and me. Will the demon remember Deven betrayed Rajah Tarek?

“Kalinda, we cannot stop the Voider,” says Brother Shaan. “He does not need to refuel his powers and rest like bhutas. Demons are immortal, like the gods. We must run while we can.”

“But our people—”

“Will follow their rajah,” he finishes. “Even with your tournament win, the people will not stand with you, a bhuta, against their ruler. The Voider is a master deceiver. Our people will believe the demon rajah is Tarek.”

Shrill screams of panic and terrified shouts spill in from the garden. The Voider comes into sight out the open balcony door. He has set the sultan’s head on a pike and lifts it for all to see.

“This is what the gods think of traitors,” the demon rajah proclaims. “Anu raised me from the dead to punish my enemies. First Vizier Gyan and Sultan Kuval. Next the warlord Hastin!”

Janardanian bhuta guards rush at the Voider. He throws blue fire, and the guards are blasted backward in a radiant explosion. Those overtaken by the blue fire melt away. I gawk in amazement as the Voider cuts them all down. His blue fire eats through bhuta winds and rocks, banishing all hope of reprisals.

The demon rajah continues across the courtyard. At the cliff, he stakes the pike in the ground so the people of Iresh can see what is left of their ruler. Then Tarek and Ashwin disappear over the cliff’s edge, traveling the stairs down to the city.

“We have to go now,” Indah says, trying to help me to my feet.

Hot tears flood my eyes. “I cannot go like this.”

Indah sweeps my hair from my clammy face. “I can take away your pain for a time by tricking your body into thinking you’re better.”

“You can do that?” Natesa asks.

“The pain blocker is temporary,” answers Indah. “Kalinda will be pain-free for about half an hour.”

Explosions crash nearby, and blue flames lick the sky as the demon rajah carries on his way to the encampments.

“That’s all I need,” I say.

Indah runs her hands up my leg and over my abdomen. She chants under her breath, and the pain falls off of me like a leaden weight, lightening my whole body. Adrenaline pulses through my limbs. I stand on my broken leg, my stance offset and my balance not quite right. My body will punish me later, but for now, I can walk.

Indah hoists her trident, and Pons fills his blowgun with darts.

Natesa borrows a khanda from a fallen guard. A bruise darkens her cheekbone where Vizier Gyan struck her. “I’m going to find Yatin.”

“My healer is still in camp,” Indah says. “He’ll help you bring Yatin to the boat.”

“Bring him and Deven back,” I add, trusting Natesa to find them both. “We’ll send Opal and Rohan to help you if there’s time.”

Natesa hugs me, a quick embrace. “Send them no matter what,” she says and then darts off.

I sheath my one dagger. Indah’s pain blocker is holding, but this invincibility will not last. I need to make the most of it. “Let’s get to the river.”





30


DEVEN

Vibrations rumble through the ground around me. I try to move, but the pit holds me like a clenched fist. The guards outside shout orders to launch a defense attack. More quakes shake through the land, the whole world trembling.

The cell door is blown off, devoured by incredible sapphire flames. A figure manifests in the smoky haze. I cough and blink to clear my vision. Tarek? The man looks like Rajah Tarek, except his hands weave blue fire.

The rajah casts more cobalt flames at the guards, and they fly back against the walls. He marches past the open cell door, Prince Ashwin behind him. Neither sees me buried up to my chin in the cell, but someone sneaks in.

Natesa kneels beside me and begins to dig me out.

“What in the gods’ names is going on?” I demand.

Natesa presses a finger to her lips to shush me. “We don’t have long. You have to show me the way to the sick tent.”

More bhuta guards are flung back by the rajah’s power. When no more Janardanians charge him, the rajah raises his arms. “My army! Come out from hiding!”