Gifting Fire by Alina Boyden (read my book .TXT) 📕

were seated right beside my throne. If I fired on my father’s men, they would fire on me, and while I was prepared to die rather than marry Karim, I wasn’t prepared to let Lakshmi die in my place.

My father didn’t understand me, but he knew an opportunity when he saw one, and he smirked at my hesitation. “Enough bluster, Razia. Have your men stand down.”

“I can’t do that, Father,” I said, because I wasn’t yet ready to cede the field to him. Marrying Karim filled me with such dread that I wouldn’t surrender to it unless it was my absolute last resort. Right now, with friendly soldiers all around me, we hadn’t reached that point.

“Stand them down if you want your sisters to live,” he repeated, his voice taking on a sterner edge.

“They don’t obey her, they obey me,” Hina growled, “and I’m not about to order them to stand down, not when I have the bastard who murdered my brother in my sights.”

“Who is this girl?” my father asked, his emerald eyes searching her face, but betraying no signs of recognition.

“Hina Talpur, daughter of Rustam Talpur,” Sikander answered. “She’s a hijra and she serves her highness as an adviser and general.”

“That’s why we couldn’t find the second son . . .” my father murmured, stroking his mustache as he stared at Hina, scrutinizing every inch of her, no doubt looking for some sign of her past written into her body. I’d been on the receiving end of that same gaze often enough to recognize it.

“Hina is under my protection,” I said. “She is not to be harmed.”

“She’s a rebel and a traitor and you should have put her to death the moment you discovered her identity,” my father replied.

“Oh? And that’s why Karim Shah is still alive after he invaded our province, is it, Father?” I countered.

My father shrugged, because he couldn’t deny that he was being hypocritical, but then he’d always had a soft spot for ruthless, coldhearted men who took advantage of others when they were weak. I supposed it was the only kind of person he really understood.

“I was going to kill Karim for what he did in Kadiro, but he made me a better offer.”

“And what offer was that?” I asked, though I thought I already knew. I was just praying that I was wrong.

“Your hand in marriage,” Karim said, his eyes roving up and down my body with a lingering lasciviousness that turned my stomach.

Even after all that he had done to support Bikampur in our fight against Javed Khorasani, the truth was that I could scarcely stand to be in the same palace as Karim Shah. Just the sight of him was almost enough to make me vomit up everything I’d eaten that day, to say nothing of the queasiness I felt at this ridiculous notion of a marriage. I tried to suppress a shudder, but didn’t quite manage it, and I was sure my disgust was plain on my face as I said, “I’m never going to marry you, and imagining sharing your bed is making me sick to my stomach.”

Karim clucked his tongue. “Oh, come now, Razia, you don’t need to imagine it, you just need to remember it.”

I set my jaw against the torrent of emotions that flooded my body at the explicit reference to my rape. If I’d thought for an instant he would obey, I’d have ordered Sikander to murder Karim right then and there, but I knew he would refuse, and then I would look weak. Hina would shoot, but with toradars already aimed in every conceivable direction, the slightest movement would set off a fusillade that would kill us all. No, I had to keep myself under control, for Lakshmi’s sake if not for my own. She was still seated beside the throne, with no way to escape the cross fire.

“Let me make this plain, Karim—I will never marry you. It’s a stupid idea, and I can’t believe you were foolish enough to bring it to me like this.”

“It doesn’t look stupid from where I’m standing,” my father said. “If you ask me, it solves all of my troubles. Mahisagar’s army is strong enough to control Zindh and to discourage an invasion. A marriage alliance between my own daughter and Sultan Ahmed’s heir will unify our two kingdoms, growing Nizam’s strength. And your offspring with Karim will command the most powerful empire in the world.”

“Offspring with Karim?” I raised an eyebrow at that, wondering just how ignorant my father was in matters pertaining to hijras. “Father, you must know I’m not capable of bearing children.”

“No,” Karim agreed, “but your cousins are. I’ve heard they’re pretty enough, and they’ll serve the purpose.”

I frowned, confused now. “You’re going to be marrying one of my cousins, then?” That made more sense, but it didn’t explain all this nonsense about his being my fiancé.

“No, I’m going to sire an heir off one of them, and then we’ll adopt the child as our own,” Karim said. “It’s not perfect, I don’t think any of your cousins is as clever as you are, but maybe there’s enough of you in their blood to make it worthwhile.”

“Uncle Shahrukh would never permit that . . .” I murmured. The idea of treating a princess of Nizam like a broodmare was horrifying, even to me. Not even my cousin Sidra deserved that.

“He’ll permit it, so long as his grandson is the heir to the throne of Nizam,” my father replied. “And if he insists on a marriage, then so be it. There is no law limiting a man to a single wife.”

I saw the genius of it then, though I wished I hadn’t. “It would solve all the squabbling and infighting between the two of you . . .” I whispered, realizing that if I were raising Uncle Shahrukh’s grandson, he’d be far less inclined to try to take my father’s throne by force, though all bets were off where his sons, Tariq and Rashid, were concerned.

“Just so,” my father agreed, looking proud