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

Karim’s eyes widened as he realized for the first time just how much danger he was in. “If you do that, your majesty, my father and I will make an alliance with Virajendra, and I swear to you not a single ship will ever set sail from Kadiro’s harbor again. Our fleet will make sure of that.”

“So we don’t return Karim to his father,” I said. “If he doesn’t want peace, we kill him, and we take his zahhaks. We rally the Registani fire zahhaks to fight alongside us, we burn the Mahisagari fleet to ashes, we obliterate their army, and we retake Kadiro. With your thunder zahhaks and the fire zahhaks Arjun could supply us, it would be an easy matter, Father. And then we could conquer Mahisagar, and gift Ahura to Safavia in exchange for peace. Let Durrania and Khuzdar face Safavia’s armies for a time, while we build our strength.”

Karim could see the cogs turning behind my father’s eyes, and his hand fell to the hilt of his firangi. “Virajendra would join with us. They would rather fight a war of annihilation than let Nizam control Mahisagar, and my mother, she is a Yaruban princess, her brother is the emir of Jesera, and he is rich in fire zahhaks. If you murdered her son, then my uncle would join us against you.”

“You would have Registan’s support in this, your majesty,” Arjun said, cradling me protectively.

“I would, no doubt,” my father agreed, crossing his arms, looking at me rather than the rival princes. “If I agreed to this, I would have allies with which to fight a massive and costly war against Mahisagar and Virajendra and Yaruba, and perhaps Safavia too, though perhaps they might join us instead.” He shrugged. “Tens of thousands of men would die, perhaps hundreds of thousands. Trade would be interrupted across an entire continent. Zahhaks would fall from the skies by the dozens. It would be a war like none we have ever witnessed before.”

My heart sank. I knew what was coming next, even before he said it.

“But if I give you in marriage to Karim Shah, as I have promised, there will be no war. Virajendra will be too frightened of Mahisagar’s fleet and the might of my zahhaks. Registan will not march outside of its borders for a foreign princess. And Safavia, while they might retake Ahura, or even attempt an invasion of Zindh, will be checked by Mahisagar’s newfound power in the air, and by your own thunder zahhaks. There will be peace. Trade will flourish. Countless thousands of lives will be not only spared but enriched.”

“Not mine . . .” I whispered, my voice catching in my throat.

“No, not yours,” my father agreed, his voice tinged with something approximating regret.

“This is your final decision?” I asked him, hoping against hope that he would find it somewhere in his heart to change his mind.

“It is,” he replied.

I took a deep breath and let it out as a slow hiss, because that was the only thing keeping me from screaming in anguish. My mind was working furiously to come up with some way out of this mess, but if the plan I had spun for my father hadn’t worked to change his mind, then nothing would. He would force this marriage on me, even if it meant killing my sisters. They were nothing to him when set beside me, and he was willing to throw me to my rapist for a treaty, so I had no illusions about what would become of Sakshi and Lakshmi if I refused him. If only I had left them in Bikampur, I would have gone out shooting, I would have let myself die in a bloody battle rather than going meekly to Karim’s bed. But I couldn’t kill my sisters. God help me, I couldn’t let them suffer for my mistakes.

“I need some time to make arrangements with Arjun and with Hina,” I said. “In private.”

“Razia, you’re not going to surrender, are you?” Arjun asked, holding me close to him.

“We don’t have a choice, my prince,” I replied. “My father will kill my sisters if I refuse him. I can’t let him do that.”

“And you think we’re going to give you a chance to plot your way out of it?” Karim scoffed. The mask of affection had dropped—not that I could blame him; I had nearly convinced my father to murder him, after all.

“I need an hour, Father, to determine suitable terms and to present them to you,” I said, hoping that he would at least extend me that much courtesy.

“You have an hour,” my father said, and he held up a hand to forestall Karim’s objections. “You are getting what you want, and I have held fast to the terms of our arrangement. You will give my daughter the time she needs to see to the disposition of her household.”

Karim shrugged. “Fine. One hour.”

CHAPTER 9

One hour. Was that really all the time I had left with Arjun? God, it hurt so much I could hardly stand it. I was clinging to him like a baby, still standing in my bedchamber, while Karim and my father waited in the courtyard, giving us some semblance of privacy.

I was sobbing quietly in spite of myself, my shoulders shaking as Arjun held me tightly against his chest with one arm, the other stroking my hair gently.

“We could still fight . . .” he whispered.

I shook my head. “There’s no way to keep Sakshi and Lakshmi safe. The moment I tried to move them, Sikander would kill them. I know it.”

“Do you really think any of you will be safe with Karim after everything you said?” he asked.

Those words were exactly the last ones I wanted to hear. I felt my courage crumbling, and I choked back a thousand desperate pleas. I knew that if I asked Arjun to lay down his life for me, he would.