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

“Is it safe to come closer?” Sakshi asked, standing a few paces away, looking nervous.

“She won’t hurt you!” Lakshmi promised, and she made sure of it by being the one to go to Sakshi and embrace her, rather than the other way around. “Isn’t my Mohini the prettiest zahhak in the whole world?”

“She is,” Sakshi agreed, though for my part I didn’t think I would ever view an acid zahhak in the same way I viewed my Sultana. I reached up and ran my fingers across the paler blue scales on the underside of Sultana’s neck, my thunder zahhak still hovering protectively over me, just in case the shorter acid zahhak got any ideas about eating me.

Now the math made sense at least. My father had known about this gift, and had accounted for it. I would have three thunder zahhaks flown by Sikander and two of his men, plus Ragini, Mohini, and my Sultana. Six animals: five thunder, one acid. It wasn’t enough to defeat all of Mahisagar in battle, though it was more than enough to defeat Karim’s four acid zahhak riders, I thought. If I attacked en route, would Sikander’s men join me, oppose me, or sit back and watch?

“If you’re finished getting reacquainted with Mohini, Lakshmi, dear,” Karim said, “we should mount up and get moving. You and your akka will be flying with me back to Kadiro now. Sakshi and Sikander have to stay here to finish making preparations, but they will join us in a couple of hours.”

He was smirking at me, letting me know that he’d already considered the possibility that I might attack him on the way to Kadiro. But with Lakshmi and me flying alone, the odds were too badly stacked against us to risk a fight. And my father and Sikander would kill Sakshi if I rebelled. It was clever. The bastard had thought of everything.

“And what about me?” Hina asked. She was already mounted on her zahhak, Sakina, along with all fifteen of her celas on theirs.

“You and half your fliers will come with Razia and Lakshmi,” Karim told her. “The other half will follow with Sikander.”

“As you wish, your highness,” Hina said, and she even managed to keep the hate and the rage out of her voice, though God only knew how. The tension in her shoulders betrayed her anger, though her face was a carefully composed mask of neutrality.

“I’ll see you in a little while,” Sakshi told Lakshmi, hugging her tightly. Then she turned to me and said, “I’ll be all right here with Sikander, Razia, don’t worry about me.”

“See you soon, then,” I replied, because when I was already leaving Arjun, and this new home in Shikarpur, I didn’t have it in me to say any more long good-byes. I swung into Sultana’s saddle instead, and steeled myself for the flight to Kadiro, wondering what horrors awaited me there.

CHAPTER 11

Karim and his three fellow acid zahhak riders kept about two hundred yards above us and fifty yards behind us the whole flight south to Kadiro. It was an aggressive posture, designed to give them a clear shot if I tried anything, though I didn’t see why it was necessary when I only had Lakshmi flying my wing.

Hina’s eight river zahhaks floated in and out of the formation, but Karim’s men ignored them, as they lacked breath. If only they’d had thunder or fire, we could have flown up to meet Karim in battle, and defeated him. But I supposed if river zahhaks had breath, Zindh would be one of the great powers of the world, and not a backwater province of Nizam.

Still, in spite of all my disadvantages in numbers and position, I was tempted to simply wheel Sultana around and send a bolt of lightning straight into Karim’s face. But I knew that biding my time was the smarter move. When I struck, I wanted it to be a completely devastating blow that destroyed Mahisagar, and secured Zindh. I wanted to give myself an unassailable position that would force my father to acknowledge my supremacy over Zindh, and dissuade him from ever dreaming of marrying me off to any man against my will again. The trouble was, I didn’t have the slightest idea how I was going to do that now that Shiv was back in Shikarpur, unable to deliver messages, and Karim seemed wise to all my tricks.

“It’ll be all right, your highness,” Hina said.

I looked up, having been staring at the waters of the Zindhu below me, completely lost in thought, and found that I was flying alone with Hina—the rest of the formation having floated off to our right, out of earshot.

“I know it looks grim now, but we’ll get through this together,” she said.

I shook my head, marveling at the generosity of her words. She’d just lost everything and she could still spare a thought for my feelings? I wasn’t sure I’d have been able to be so gracious in her position.

“Thank you for supporting me,” I said. “If you’d left . . .” I trailed off, not sure what I would have done had she withdrawn her allegiance. I couldn’t have blamed her if she had. I’d surrendered to Karim after I’d promised I wouldn’t.

“It’s not the return to Kadiro that I’d imagined,” she confessed, looking over her shoulder at the Mahisagari acid zahhaks hovering above us and behind us, their peacock-like plumage blending in surprisingly well with the bright blue sky. “But I couldn’t just leave you, not after everything that happened. Nobody deserves to be forced into a marriage with that monster.”

“Do you think Sunil will be able to recruit enough men to really challenge Mahisagar’s army?” I asked, because if he couldn’t, then I wouldn’t have a prayer of avoiding this marriage.

Hina shrugged. “I think a lot will depend on Prince Arjun and the Registanis.”

Arjun. My heart hurt just