Rohan sets his chin. “We want to stay and fight.”
“You look like you’ve had enough of that,” I remark of his injured face. “Please. I need your help.”
Rohan starts to protest, but Opal speaks right over him. “I’ll find your family. Rohan will stay with you. My wing flyer is on the other side of the civilian camp—”
She cuts off, and then both she and Rohan dunk into the ground cover.
“Captain?” Manas calls from beyond the tree line. I unbend and face him. The underbrush conceals Rohan and Opal near my feet. “Where did the prisoners go?”
“What prisoners?” I reply.
“The palace guards. I saw you exit the gate and come here with them.” Manas lowers his hand to his khanda and starts cautiously into the trees.
“Oh, those prisoners. They ran off that way.” I point at a bamboo thicket that would be nearly impossible to traverse through.
Manas stops a handful of steps out, near Rohan. “How did they escape?”
“They were Galers. They overpowered me.”
Manas pulls his sword. “They were Kalinda’s guards. You let them go.”
“How do you know Opal and Rohan were guarding Kali?”
“I . . . I heard about it,” Manas stammers.
He could only have heard about them from someone who was in and out of our compound. None of the prisoners were, so the messenger had to have been a guard or . . . The truth rattles me. “You’re Vizier Gyan’s informer.”
Guilt radiates from Manas, but he shuts it down with hardened pride. “Hastin let me live to serve as his informant. He sent me to tell the vizier what I knew about you and Kalinda.” I lock my jaw against a string of curses. Manas jabs his sword at the air between us. “Don’t look at me that way. You’re the traitor. You fell in love with a filthy bhuta.”
“This isn’t about bhutas. Vizier Gyan found the Zhaleh. That thing that came back to free us isn’t Rajah Tarek; it’s a demon.”
“All you do is lie!” Manas slashes at me. I block his khanda with my ornamental sword, but my dull blade bows. He strikes again, hacking my sword off in the middle.
I throw the useless stub away and step back from Rohan, closer to Opal. They both remain down. Neither of them can summon their winds without revealing our presence to the army beyond the trees.
“I am not lying,” I say to Manas. “You need to trust me.”
“No.” Hatred dispels all traces of the boy who was once my friend. “You were my captain. You didn’t just betray the rajah; you betrayed me too.”
Manas raises his khanda to stab at me. Opal lunges from the undergrowth and grabs his leg. He tries to kick her off, but Rohan rises from the ferns and punches Manas in the back. Manas whirls on Rohan and aims his blade at his chest.
As I move to intervene, Manas jerks and then goes still. Rohan scrambles away, and Manas drops his sword. He clutches at his throat, choking. Opal pulled up his pant leg and pressed her hand against his skin.
Manas’s eyes bulge, his lips bobbing for air. I remember the agony of having the sky squeezed from my lungs.
“Opal, stop,” I say. She continues to hold on. Manas falls beside her, bucking on the ground. I fortify my voice. “I said enough.”
She lets go and shrinks away from what she has done. Manas claws at the ground, panting. I pick up his sword. He rolls onto his back, too weak to run.
“I’m letting these Galers go,” I say.
Manas scrunches his face and spits at Opal. “Dirty demon.”
Tears shine in her eyes. She regrets winnowing him, but Manas would kill her without remorse.
I hit him in the head with the hilt of his sword, and he droops into the dirt, passed out.
Rohan crawls to his sister and holds her.
“I couldn’t let him hurt you,” Opal says.
The Voider yells in the distance. “Onward to Iresh!”
The army is moving out. I have to join them, or I could lose track of the prince.
“Does anyone else know we’re here?” I ask the Galers. Rohan listens to the wind and shakes his head. “Go, Opal. Find my family.”
“I’ll go too,” Rohan says, helping his sister up. “We’ll find them twice as fast with both our winds.”
Opal brushes away a piece of hair flopping in his face. “All right.”
“Be safe,” I say. “We’ll meet in Lestari.”
They run west through the trees. Although I want to go with them, my duty to the empire requires that I stay. I cannot leave until I have brought the prince to safety.
Great Anu, let Opal and Rohan find my family. Send them fair winds and the cloak of speed.
Manas has not moved. In a little while, he will wake up with an awful headache. I am not the least bit sorry.
I step out of the cover of the trees and jog toward the demon rajah’s army.
The late-day sun shines down on the soldiers’ gleaming machetes and khandas lifted to the sky. The demon rajah, visible by his glowing blue fire, leads the armed soldiers and civilians toward the city. Prince Ashwin marches near the front with him. I blend in with the amassed troops and fall in line with the ranks.
At the city gates, a line of elephant warriors, all bhutas, obstructs our way. A regiment of foot soldiers holds the line behind them.
“You cannot pass,” calls out a commander. He rides upon a large elephant with great tusks. He holds out his hand, and the ground trembles. A fissure opens up in the land, and a crack spreads, creating a gap between our army and his.
The demon rajah throws a stream of blue across the divide, striking the commander in the chest. He falls off his elephant, and the ground stops parting. The unnatural flame scares all the elephants, and they stampede away with their riders. The demon rajah jumps over the crevice to engage the rival regiment.
Our soldiers charge forward to defend their ruler, but he needs no aid. In one swipe, the demon rajah’s blue fire flattens the first line of men. Prince Ashwin leaps over the divide and joins his imposter father. I jump over the gap and rush after him. The opposing regiment breaks its line. Our troops barrel past them through the gate and into the city. I try to maintain sight of Prince Ashwin, but I lose him in the foray.
The demon rajah pushes into the roadways lined with huts, his blue fire burning homes and trees and markets. Crimson soldier uniforms fill the roads like streams of blood. Screaming women and children run everywhere. I spin around and spot the prince slipping between two huts. I run after him and seize him from behind.
Prince Ashwin points a dagger at my face, struggling against my hold, and then recognizes me from his peripheral view. I release him, and he lowers his blade. I identify the dagger’s turquoise handle as one of Kali’s.
“Did you rob that from the kindred before you abandoned her?” I growl.
The prince recoils from my rancor. “I only left her to draw away the Voider.”
“Don’t pretend you’re a hero. You unleashed this thing.”
A blast of blue flames illuminates the sunset sky.
“I had no other choice,” Prince Ashwin says, glowering.