The Traitor Queen (The Traitor Spy Trilogy #3)(90)

But what if she wasn’t? That was what he was most afraid of: to discover that the girl hadn’t known the water was poisoned. It was much easier to live with his decision, believing that she had deliberately taken her own life.

If this is what it feels like to have killed someone when they wanted it, what is it going to be like when the war starts and I kill people who don’t want it? Maybe it wouldn’t be so difficult, given that they had enslaved, tortured and killed others. Maybe it will be easier.

He looked around at the Traitors. Their expressions were grim and determined. Talk had ceased but for the occasional low murmur. Slowly they made their way down the last dune and onto the plain, then toward the sprawling buildings. The first people they encountered were two slaves, watching over a small herd of reber. Both young boys, the pair rushed over to throw themselves on the ground before Savara. She told them to stand, and never to lower themselves before another man or woman again.

“It’s time?” one of them asked, gazing up at her eagerly.

“Yes,” she said, then nodded toward the buildings. “You know what to do?”

“Stay out of reach,” he replied. “Move away from the city. But we can’t get much further away than here.”

“No. Just stay away from the house until we are done.”

He frowned. “If I go back I can tell the others to get out.”

“That would be very brave. You must not let the Ashaki suspect we’re coming, though.”

“We won’t. We’ve all been planning for this for years.”

“Go, then.”

As the boy ran toward the buildings, Savara straightened and beckoned to the Traitors. They continued on, quickening their pace. A thrill of excitement and fear ran down Lorkin’s spine. Some of these outer estates were run by trusted slave masters, so they might not encounter an Ashaki. Or the Ashaki could be out visiting or tending to business. But the boy would have told Savara if that was so.

There’s little chance we’re not heading toward our first fight.

All too soon they were within a few hundred paces of the buildings. Then they were stepping through a gate in the low wall that surrounded them. As the Traitors spread out, in twos and threes, to approach the building from different sides, slaves emerged. They hurried, some running, past the invaders and the low wall, and out onto the plain in all directions.

Spreading out, so that even if the Ashaki used magic to drag them back, he’d have to use more magic and time collecting all of them. Some might still escape.

The Traitors split into smaller groups so that they could enter the buildings from different directions. Tyvara grabbed Lorkin’s hand and drew him toward what looked like a stable.

“Stay with me.” She plucked at her vest. “I’m carrying plenty of stones, but we’re supposed to avoid using them until the battle. Our own power can be replaced, but most stones are single-use.” She glanced at him. “I’ll make sure you have your own set, for the final battle.”

Once in the stable he saw the stalls were furnished with benches covered in blankets. He realised with a shock that this was where the slaves lived. Several were hiding there now, looking confused. Tyvara ordered them out, telling them to run away and come back in a few hours. One very pregnant woman shrank back into her stall, shaking her head.

“Come on,” Tyvara said, extending her hand and smiling. “We’ll protect you. It won’t be for long.”

“What’s going on?” a voice demanded.

They turned to see a slave with a red cloth wrapped around his brow emerge from another building. Judging from the smoke wafting up from a chimney pipe, it contained the kitchen and perhaps other domestic rooms. Lorkin’s stomach turned as he saw the man was carrying a short whip.

From somewhere beyond the building the man had emerged from came a boom. They all jumped and looked up to see fragments of what might be roof tiles flying into the air.

The man turned back and stared at Lorkin and Tyvara, his eyes widening. “It’s time?” he asked.

“It is,” Tyvara replied.

He grinned and tossed the whip onto a pile of firewood. “At last.” Turning from them, he strode away from the buildings.

Lorkin looked at Tyvara, expecting her to stop him, but she only smiled.

“Wherever we could, we let the slave masters know that if they weren’t unnecessarily cruel, we’d consider giving them some of their Ashaki’s estate when we took over.”

More slaves darted from the buildings, some looking terrified. Tyvara glanced back to the pregnant woman, then turned to Lorkin. “We’ll stay here and keep watch in case the Ashaki comes after them.”

Lorkin did as she asked, but the next person to emerge was a Traitor, Adiya. The woman looked around and, seeing Lorkin and Tyvara, walked over to meet them.

“It’s done,” she said.

Tyvara nodded and looked over her shoulder at the pregnant slave. “You’re free now. Our work here is finished. Soon the others will come back and join you. They’ll keep you safe.”

The woman stared at her and said nothing, but she seemed a little less afraid now. Tyvara started toward the building Adiya had emerged from. Lorkin followed her inside. They wound through the familiar layout of passages and emerged at what must have once been the Master’s Room. The roof had been blasted away, and the walls bulged outwards or had toppled into rubble.