The Wrath and the Dawn(14)
“And after his wife’s death, I heard he lost his mind and was subsequently demoted. Now he’s a librarian.”
I can’t lose my temper. She’s clearly trying to bait me. But why?
Shahrzad replied instead with a measured silence intended to reestablish control. She fiddled with the heavy silver at her throat, despising its weight.
“So, do you still want to know who the second-best swordsman in Rey is?” Despina asked, changing tack.
“Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”
Despina smiled knowingly. “The second-best swordsman in Rey is Khalid Ibn al-Rashid. Our illustrious King of Kings.”
Shahrzad’s heart sank. Gifted swordsmen tended to be stalwart strategists. Quick to spot signs of subterfuge.
And this presented yet another obstacle. If he ever suspected her of treachery, it would be even more difficult to plot his death and catch him unawares.
She swallowed carefully. “Again, it doesn’t matter.”
“I guess it shouldn’t matter to you. But I thought you might want to know, nevertheless.”
What kind of game is she playing?
“You thought wrong.” Shahrzad walked to the doors of the chamber and tugged on the handles. As soon as she crossed the threshold, a hulking figure stepped into view. His skin was the color of burnished copper, and he towered over Shahrzad, with his head bound in an intricately wrapped turban. His exposed arms were thick with corded muscle, and his black beard was neatly trimmed to a point just below his chin. Eyes the color of a moonless night gleamed down at her, stark and merciless.
“Uh, yes. You must be . . . I’m sorry, what is your name?” Shahrzad stammered.
“I told you; he’s the Rajput,” Despina replied from behind her.
“But he must have a name,” Shahrzad rasped over her shoulder.
“If he does, I don’t know it.”
With an irritated sigh, Shahrzad faced forward and braved the sight of her potential executioner once more.
“I’m Shahrzad.” She met his black gaze.
He glowered at her before moving aside to let her pass.
As she slipped by him, she noticed the long talwar sword hanging from his hip, shining with menace in the midday sun.
So this silent brute is the only swordsman who can best my enemy . . .
How am I to find any weakness in Khalid Ibn al-Rashid with his spies all around me, watching my every move?
She exhaled protractedly.
I might have a serious problem.
DRAW WEIGHT
THE ORIGINAL STRUCTURE OF THE PALACE HAD BEEN built nearly three hundred years ago, by a king with a flair for extravagance. In the years since, many wings had been added to augment the base of marble and limestone. They branched off like tributaries, winding toward an unseen destination far in the distance.
It would be easy to get lost in such a place.
“How do I get to the courtyards?” Shahrzad asked Despina, after they had wandered the shining halls for half an hour.
Despina canted her head to the side in thought. “I suppose that would be fine. No one expressly forbade you from going outdoors.”
Shahrzad resisted the urge to retort as Despina backtracked down a corridor to the right. The Rajput stalked alongside Shahrzad, his posture as rigid and implacable as his expression. After several minutes of traversing in silence, they came to an open-air gallery with a series of arched double doors leading outside.
An attendant pushed through one set of doors to allow them passage, and Shahrzad walked into a terraced courtyard arranged like colossal steps in a descending staircase. The first of these terraces was filled with flowering trees and an elaborate aviary enclosed on all sides by carefully wrought trelliswork. The sturdy acacia wood was covered with a thin layer of white paint and anchored by bolts of polished bronze. Lush blue-green grass flourished between pavestones of coarse granite.
Shahrzad strode past the aviary, glancing at the colorful trove of songbirds flittering within: nightingales, goldfinches, larks, canaries . . .
A loud squawk blasted from behind her. She twisted around to find a peacock strutting across the lawn, his plumage of malachite and gold fanning in the sun, catching errant beams of light.
Shahrzad glided closer. The peacock stopped to glare at her before lowering his fan and scurrying away.
She laughed to herself. “So quick to strut. So quick to flee.”
“What are you talking about?” Despina asked.