Gifting Fire, Alina Boyden [books to read for self improvement .txt] 📗

“They’re waiting in the second courtyard, my lady,” Shiv told her, gesturing in that direction.

“See you soon, little sister.” Sakshi gave me a quick hug, and then skipped off to do her duty, her lehenga’s crimson silk skirts flouncing about her ankles as she went.

“Did you bring workmen?” I asked Shiv.

“I did, your highness,” he replied, though he was eyeing the stables dubiously, along with the scorch marks on the paving stones and the damage to the other buildings from my attack weeks earlier. “Though perhaps not as many as I should have.”

“Anything is better than what we have now,” I assured him, because my father had left me with soldiers, munitions, and money, but little else.

“Do you have any specific areas where you would like the workmen to begin, your highness?” Shiv asked me.

“The stables must be our first priority,” I said, because without them it would be hard to keep the zahhaks safe and happy. “Once that’s finished, I think I’d like the pools and fountains in the inner courtyard repaired. I don’t know why they’re not working, but they’re an eyesore. And it wouldn’t hurt to do something about the plants. I don’t suppose you brought a palace gardener?”

He shook his head. “No, your highness, but one can be hired from the locals. It would be better that way, as the climate here is somewhat different from Bikampur, and I’m sure the plants are as well.”

That seemed like sound reasoning to me. “Well, I’m sure you’ll do everything you can, but as a personal favor, if you could get Lakshmi’s bed set up first, I’d appreciate it. I think if she has to spend one more night on a soldier’s cot with Sakshi and me, she’s going to launch a rebellion.”

“And I would be quick to join her,” Arjun declared, striding across the courtyard to join us.

I rolled my eyes at that, though I couldn’t deny that I too was a little sick and tired of the lack of privacy. One glance at Arjun’s smoldering expression was enough to make me bite my lip with anticipation. Tonight. Finally. It had been nearly a week.

Arjun bowed to me like a courtier. “Is there anything I can do, your highness?”

“Oh, I have a great many things in mind,” I allowed, drawing a smile from his lips. “But for now, I think it’s best we focus on getting the servitors settled.”

“Leave that to me, your highness,” Shiv said. “I will make certain everyone knows his or her duty, that the servants’ quarters are neatly arranged, and that all of your belongings are in their proper places before nightfall.”

“You’re a treasure,” I said, embracing him again.

His deep brown cheeks darkened still further as blood rushed to them. “I’ll see to it at once.” He bowed to me, and to Arjun, and then hurried off to do his duty.

Arjun wasted no time in pulling me close to him, one hand snaring the curve of my hip, the other brushing my cheek. “Seems that we’re alone at long last.”

“The palace will be swarming with servitors any moment now,” I warned him, though I didn’t pull away for propriety’s sake.

“We could go in the zahhak stables,” he suggested, his lopsided grin telling me how much he would enjoy the whispers that would follow us if we were caught there rolling in the straw. “The servants wouldn’t dare set foot in there for fear of being eaten.”

“The workmen will start their repair work today,” I reminded him, but I didn’t resist as he tugged me closer to the stable doorway.

“They’ll be too busy gathering materials to look inside,” he replied, his face hovering so close to mine that our lips were already nearly touching.

“And what about Sultana? She might get confused and think you’re hurting me,” I teased.

He reached forward to tuck a loose tendril of black hair back behind my ear. “No, she knows me better than that.”

I opened my mouth to agree, but at just that moment there was a crack like thunder. Both our heads swiveled to the stables, worried that one of the zahhaks had decided to try to break free, but then there was a second pop and a third, and I realized it wasn’t thunder, but musket fire.

“There!” Arjun exclaimed, nodding toward the huge arched entryway that led to the main gate of the palace and the road beyond.

I rushed with him in that direction, my mind struggling to come up with some explanation for why my soldiers would be shooting. “Is someone attacking the household caravan?” I wondered, as I couldn’t imagine what else it might have been.

“Could be bandits,” Arjun allowed, though his tone told me that he didn’t think it likely, and neither did I. The road that led from the palace spiraled down a steep hill before entering the city of Shikarpur itself. For bandits to have reached us, they’d have had to pass through the city first. Why would the citizens let them pass? Why would the bandits attack a fortress instead of the outlying homes and shops, which would be much easier marks?

“You think it’s rebels . . .” I muttered, my mind summoning the likely answer to my own questions.

Arjun shrugged, I think because he didn’t want to worry me by saying it out loud, but I was plenty worried enough. His hand fell to the hilt of his khanda, the straight double-edged sword that had claimed more than one life in the short time I’d known him. My own hand fell to the handles of my katars, thrust through the sash around my waist. They too had claimed a life, though I wasn’t in any hurry to do it again. Not that they would do me much good against men armed with muskets if Jam Ali Talpur’s army of rebels really had arrived at my doorstep.

We ran into the palace’s outer courtyard, where a huge tumult was taking place. Camels were straining against their lead ropes, their backs burdened by heavy