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

to help assault the city with Arjun. I suggested arriving by boat on the Zindhu, to avoid the city walls, especially since Karim’s zahhaks wouldn’t be there to attack any approaching ships on the water. I handed that letter to Sanghar and said, “I don’t know where exactly he is. He might be hard to find.”

“I know where he is, your highness,” Sanghar assured me, taking the letter and folding it up once he’d blown it dry. “I can promise you that he will be here, ready to fight. I just hope the rest of your allies are as reliable.”

“So do I,” I replied, my stomach churning as I wondered whether or not my childhood friendship with Haider and Tamara would be enough to bring them thousands of miles across deserts and mountains to fight a battle that wasn’t their own. It was a question that was impossible to answer, so I pushed it from my mind. There was one last arrangement left to make.

“You will attack the palace on the night after the full moon,” I informed Sanghar. “Get as many gunboats as you can. Approach the southern wall under cover of darkness. That’s where my chambers are. I’ll throw down ropes so that your men can climb up unseen.”

“And the guards on that side?” he asked.

“Just two,” I said. “One on each of the southern towers. I’ll kill them before you arrive. The way will be clear for you, you have my word.”

“Then we will be there, your highness,” he assured me. “And these letters will reach their destinations, I promise you that. Whether anything will come of them . . .”

I clapped him on the shoulder. “That is in God’s hands now.”

“It is,” he agreed. He nodded toward the doorway, where the captain was leaning against a carved sandstone pillar. “You should go now, your highness. If you’re caught, these plans will all come to nothing.”

I couldn’t argue with that, so I stood and hurried away, following the captain back through the palace. Now that I could see it, I realized that it straddled a canal, giving it a hidden set of docks on the bottom floor. That was why the men were able to bring weapons in and out of the lagoon without being spotted by Mahisagari patrols.

“I need a small weapon I can keep hidden on my person,” I informed the captain. “I was disarmed when I was brought here, but if I’m going to kill the guards for you, I’ll need something to fight with, preferably a katar.”

The captain led me to a crate, and when he popped open the lid, my eyes widened. Inside were dozens of talwars, neatly packed in straw, along with daggers of various kinds and several nice katars. He gestured for me to take my pick, and I settled on a pair of katars that fit tightly together in a single scabbard. They were shorter and narrower than the ones that had been taken from me, but that would make them easier to hide. I tucked them into the waistband of my shalwar, pleased that my kameez hid them completely.

We turned back to the boat then, and I noted that the small cannons were being offloaded. They had a kind of swiveling mount with a spike at the bottom, so they could be stuck onto the wooden gunwales of the boat and shot in any direction. Each gun was about as long as a man was tall, but from the way they were being carried, I didn’t think they were very heavy.

“How much do those weigh?” I asked the captain, my mind brimming with possibilities.

“Less than you do,” he replied. He called one of his men over and barked an order at him in Zindhi. I didn’t know what he said, but an instant later the man was pressing one of the cannons into my arms. I expected to drop it on my toes, but was surprised that I was able to bear the weight without too much difficulty. It weighed about the same that Lakshmi did these days, and just like with Lakshmi, my arms started to burn after a few moments.

I handed it back to the sailor and said, “Bring as many of these as you can when you attack the palace. We’ll haul them up with ropes and mount them from the windowsills and in the corridors. The palace guards will have us outnumbered, so we will have to use every advantage we can.”

The captain grinned. “Sounds like fun.”

I wasn’t sure that fighting a gun battle within the confines of an island palace qualified as fun, but it would be a relief to be free of Karim and his family. Twelve days and I would know whether or not Haider had answered my call. On the thirteenth, I would either be free or facing an impossible battle.

CHAPTER 17

Just a week left,” Hina remarked as I sat on the southwestern tower, in my favorite spot beneath the domed roof of a cobalt-tiled chhatri.

I grunted an acknowledgment, but made no reply, because thinking too much about the impending battle tied my stomach in knots and made it hard to pretend to be “finding my place here” as Karim had commanded. I couldn’t control whether or not Haider came for me, couldn’t control whether or not Karim would leave for Ahura as I’d planned. All I could do was sit and wait.

“It’s okay to be nervous, but it’s a good plan,” Hina said, sinking to the cushion beside mine and taking my hands in hers. “Fate will decide what responses your letters will bring, but the important thing is that you were brave enough to send them.”

I glanced over at her, keenly aware of how much strain she must have been under, how angry she must have been. She was still grieving the loss of her brother, and here she was, sitting in his conquered palace, living cheek