Page 103 of Silver & Gold
Raider addressed Nasrin in a wry tone, “He’s lived a more … conventional life than some of us.”
She raised a dark eyebrow. Some of the tension broke.
Seth blinked again. “You’re …”
“Both,” she said, still with a hint of challenge. “Are you having trouble with this, Curator?”
“I … no.” Seth cleared his throat. “Not at all. Wait a second.” Seth pinned Raider with a glare. “How did you know?”
“Like I said, Seth, some of us have lived less conventional lives than you.”
“I’m not really that conventional. I just didn’t pick up on, well, the clues, I guess.”
“I’m sure every Curator misses a few,” Raider said, patting Seth’s arm as though to reassure him. But Seth seemed to have turned his attention to something else.
“That day we were sitting on the steps outside Atri’s temple. You mentioned stories in which she takes a dual form and you said you found that intrig—”
Raider cut in, “Can we focus on the problems at hand, now that you know that both the child’s parents are fully committed to protecting it?”
“Protecting him,” Nasrin interjected.
Zarina snorted. “You’re so sure it’s a boy.”
Nasrin shrugged. “I can tell.”
“Oh, please, you cannot.”
Nasrin leaned in and pecked her cheek. “You’ll see. Then you’ll look at me and laugh and say, ‘You were right.’”
“You do love to hear that.”
“I wasn’t right this time,” Nasrin said, her face falling as her brief joy at reuniting with Zarina faded in the face of their present troubles. “I was blind to treachery.”
Zarina sobered. “You have bad news. That much was clear from the manner of your return. I have bad news too. We should sit.”
Nasrin related all that had happened, mincing no words about Seth and Raider’s escape, nor any about her own failure to anticipate Fadesh’s treachery. She spoke of the djinn that had shown himself to them as the vast oasis appeared in the desert like a mirage made real. She reported that the djinn had spoken privately with Fadesh, that Fadesh had explained to her that some arcane matters could only be shared with an arcanist. Nasrin scrubbed at her face, frustrated to not have seen through that deception.
Seth offered only the most pertinent details about his and Raider’s time in Jannat before speaking of the Alchemist and the Stone and how Fadesh had vanished with it.
Pale and drawn, Zarina said, “When my father died, I almost overturned all of the Hand, but I feared rebellion. I was young. Everything was in chaos, and many of the Hand—Fadesh especially—offered support. I leaned on him in those early days. I thought him a true blessing. What a fool I am. And now, in my desperation to be safe, I’ve brought a greater danger upon us than existed before.”
Nasrin looked ready to spring up from the couch she shared with the empress. “We must find Fadesh. Has there been no sign of him? I expected to return to a city in chaos, but everything is quiet.”
“Only on the outside,” Zarina said.
“What does that mean?” Seth asked.
Raider said, sure of it, “Kahzir has escaped.”
Seth and Nasrin both made exclamations of dismay and looked to Zarina to deny this. But she nodded.
“He arrived in chains, in secret. At least, I tried to keep it secret. Many know, I’m sure. Clearly, there are even more traitors among us than I thought. But he was brought in without trouble. He refused to speak to me. He only raised his chin and look down his nose at me. Like he always did. Even shackled, he looked as though he would rule me.
“He was taken to the dungeon. I, a thousand times the fool, thought it the most secure place in the world. And yet, he was gone within hours.”
“Who helped him?” Nasrin asked through gritted teeth.
“I don’t know. Six men were killed. There was dirt all over the floor. Two of the men killed were in the throne room, so it seems he got out through the escape door there. And yet, there was no commotion outside. How he vanished into the city, I have no idea. I’ve kept the search through the city quiet because I don’t how many would flock to support him.”