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

be able to make out my black hair against the darkness of the water. At least I hoped they wouldn’t.

I stopped when the city of Kadiro came into view, its domed dargahs and tall havelis mere shadows illuminated by the orange glow of torches and bronze lanterns. I was separated from those pinpricks of light by a vast expanse of perfect, liquid blackness, like someone had spilled a pot of ink across the face of the world. It was now or never.

I took a deep breath and pulled myself beneath the surface of the lagoon, fumbling along the alga-covered surface of the wall with my palms until I was certain I was low enough that I couldn’t be seen from above. I aimed myself at the city, and I kicked off the wall, scrambling with arms and legs, praying that I could get myself to a safe distance from the tower before I surfaced.

My lungs burned like fire, creating an urgent pressure that demanded to be released. But I didn’t go up for air. I kept fighting for more distance, kept thrashing my feet behind me, keenly aware that the baggy shalwar I was wearing were slowing me down. I made long, powerful strokes with my arms. I fought for every last inch until there was no denying the need to breathe any longer.

My head broke the surface of the water and I tried not to gasp, tried not to sputter, tried not to make too much noise, but my breath sounded impossibly loud in my own ears, like the roar of some great beast. I twisted to look behind me, back in the direction of the fortress, and was horrified by how close it seemed. I thought I could reach out and touch its sandstone walls, but there were no shouts of alarm from the men atop the towers, and after one or two terrifying moments, I realized that it was farther away than it seemed.

I turned back around, intent on paddling for Kadiro’s distant harbor, but before I could move, something huge and black loomed out of the darkness and hit me like a giant fist. I felt pain first and then terror, as the only possible explanation surged to the forefront of my mind—crocodile.

CHAPTER 16

I twisted in the water, holding up my hands to ward off the beast’s jaws, when I realized that what I was facing was far worse than any mere crocodile. A riverboat bristling with small cannons and filled with armed men had plowed straight into me on its way toward the palace. Now I was looking up into the eyes of startled men who were rushing to bring their toradars to bear. I held up my hands helplessly as cannons swiveled on their mounts, orange match tips glowing brightly, poised to fall into touchholes primed with powder. I knew with a sick certainty that twisted my insides that I was going to be turned into so much mush by the volley that was surely coming.

The men hissed to one another in a language that was like Daryastani, but not Daryastani. Was it Mahisagari? I strained my ears to find familiar words, but they were speaking too quietly and too rapidly for me to follow. I knew that if I wanted to live I had to say something before they decided what to do for themselves. There was only one thing I really could say.

“I surrender. Please, you don’t have to kill me.”

My voice was quiet, because we were still near enough to the guard tower, and I didn’t want to draw their attention. Maybe the men in this boat were Karim’s, but even if they were, the last thing I needed was a commotion from the guards on the walls making them panic. And if they weren’t Karim’s men, if they were Zindhis, then maybe I’d be able to strike a deal with them that would keep me alive and enable me to deliver my messages.

A man barked an order, and this time I caught the words well enough—“Get her in the boat.” It wasn’t Mahisagari, it was Zindhi.

Strong arms reached down and snatched my wrists, pulling hard. I was lifted free of the water without too much noise, and thrown into the bottom of the boat, my shoulder slamming into the soggy wood with a dull thud. The boat started to move, but I couldn’t make much sense of where we were going, because one of the soldiers was pinning me down to keep me from sitting up, and a second had plastered his grimy hand across my mouth, pressing hard enough that I was sure I was leaving imprints of my teeth on the insides of my lips.

My eyes flickered in all directions, trying to get as much information as I could, but the only things I could see clearly were the men holding me down, and the legs of the men sitting on the benches all around me, poised with their fishtail-stocked rifles, like they meant to shoot. Had they been intending to attack the palace? To what end?

They kept silent as three men in the back of the boat worked a single, enormous sculling oar, propelling the vessel silently across the shadowy waters of the lagoon. Wherever we were going, I didn’t think it was toward the palace. My sudden arrival must have spooked the men and made them change course. That, or they thought I was a worthy enough prize to take back to their lair, wherever it was. I couldn’t imagine that these men kept an armed ship in Kadiro’s harbor right under Ahmed Shah’s nose. They must have had a hideout somewhere.

Wherever it was, I didn’t get to see it. The captain of the vessel, a man whose proud nose and high forehead gave him a strong silhouette even so far from any sources of light, knelt down beside me and tied