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

quell my fears about what was going to happen to Lakshmi, because the real threat wasn’t from Safavia, it was from me. When my forces attacked Kadiro, her life would be forfeit.

“Is there nothing I can say to make you reconsider, your highness?” I asked, and I was surprised when tears burst from the corners of my eyes, but I couldn’t help it. I was panic-stricken at the thought of Lakshmi in Ahura in the hands of my enemies while my attack went forward here. There would be no saving her at all.

“Don’t be swayed by false tears, my son,” Asma warned. “She just doesn’t like being brought to heel.”

“Shut up, you spiteful old hag!” I exclaimed. I regretted the words as soon as they were out of my mouth, but I couldn’t help myself. This was Lakshmi’s life that was at stake.

“There, you see, Karim?” Asma asked. “She shows her true colors.”

“My true colors?” I growled. “You have not given me a chance here, though I have tried my best to abide by every rule.” I turned to Karim. “Your highness, I have been treated most unfairly in my time here, but I have accepted it. I will not accept this. I will not let you put my baby sister in danger for no reason except your parents’ hatred of me!”

“Guards,” Ahmed called, and a dozen men answered him, marching to surround the baradari on all sides.

“Father, that’s not necessary, I can handle this,” Karim told him.

“Then handle it, boy,” Ahmed replied.

Karim planted his hands on my shoulders. “Razia, I will keep Lakshmi safe. You need to calm down, and accept that this is the way things are. After the threat from Safavia is defeated, and we have returned, we can talk about the way you are treated here. But this wild behavior of yours is doing you no favors.”

My body slumped as my heart sank through my feet. There was nothing I could say. I saw that. They were going to take her, and the certainty of it was making me tremble with fear. I couldn’t think straight. I took one deep, gasping breath after another, fighting down the panic that was rising up from my chest to overwhelm me. I had to figure something out. I couldn’t let it end like this. I couldn’t let Lakshmi die because I wasn’t smart enough and brave enough to save her.

Maybe there was a way. They’d arrive in Ahura at night. I might be able to reach it before dawn if the battle in Kadiro went fast enough. Then, I’d have a chance of saving her. She had her climbing shoes. If I climbed the fortress, I might be able to get her out. But I’d need to know which room she was in. I’d need to be able to go straight to her and get her straight out. It was the only chance. There was no other way now.

But I couldn’t let Karim be in the room with her. God, for so many reasons I had to keep them separate now. And that meant she couldn’t go alone.

“Sikander, you will go with Lakshmi and you will protect her with your life,” I commanded.

“I will, your highness,” Sikander agreed, before anyone could say otherwise.

I looked at Karim. “You will need all the zahhaks you can get, so a thunder zahhak will be helpful, and will still leave me with four here in case Kadiro needs to be defended.”

He was quick to nod his approval. “If that makes you feel better, then of course Sikander can come along to protect her.”

I turned to my sisters and saw the tears streaming down Sakshi’s cheeks as she clung tightly to Lakshmi. She knew as well as I did just how badly stacked the odds were against our ever recovering her. But I had a plan, and I wasn’t going to let it fail. I couldn’t let it fail. I went to them, and I took my dupatta off and I handed it to Lakshmi, pressing it into her little hands. “This is for luck, okay?”

“I’ll be fine, Akka, I’m a good flier,” she told me, not seeing the reason for all the tears, because she didn’t know our plans, didn’t know how much danger she was in.

“I know you are, sweetheart,” I replied, squeezing her so tightly that she let out a little cry of protest, but I kissed her on top of her head for good measure, and then I went to Sikander, fighting against every instinct I had to yank my katars from their hiding place at the small of my back and start killing Mahisagaris until I was dead or all of them were. It wouldn’t work. I needed to stick to the plan.

I surprised Sikander by embracing him, but that was just an act to let me whisper where no one else could hear. “Tonight, hang the dupatta from her window so that it can be seen from the outside. Stay in the room with her. Do not let her leave, and above all, do not let Karim enter. Is all of that clear to you?”

“It is, your highness,” he whispered back. Louder, he said, “You have nothing to fear. I will let no harm come to her.”

He didn’t know how much danger he was in. Poor man. I wondered if he’d have been so quick to follow my orders if he’d known that I was essentially sending him into an enemy fortress at the outbreak of a war. Probably. The man had never lacked for courage of the military kind; I could grant him that at least.

When I was finished speaking to Sikander, Karim approached me, taking my hands in his. I wanted to slap him, but I held back. I couldn’t risk antagonizing him now. So I bit my lip and hung my head, and waited for him to make whatever pathetic promises he was going to make.

“We’ll be back in a matter of a couple of