I fixated on the honey-gold mosaic tiling, smooth beneath my broken clogs otherwise accustomed to uneven mountain terrain. Two courtly-looking men flanked a circular dais, dressed in extravagant robes the colour of dried clay, with intricate teal threads and brocade waist-sashes. I’d never seen clothes like this. At the centre of the dais, a man sat cross-legged atop crimson floor cushions with gold tassels. Incense puffed smoke from the corners.
I stumbled back at seeing the man. He looked... like me. His back rested against an odd throne, as if the ivory was a living, breathing creature – vines and flora sprouted from between the niches and carvings, a creation from nature. A marble slab, dahlia flowers decorating the borders, connected the low throne to the ceiling, carved with stelae commemorating Nuh’s ark. Blue domes formed a great circumference, gleaming in gold calligraphy. A carved crane’s head bowed from the middle; the rest of the circle was etched in motifs of humans riding horned karkadann.
‘Look at me, child,’ the man’s low voice ordered.
You are... between two worlds. Perhaps one day your difference will be of great worth to us all.The khan’s words returned at once. Tears finally pattered down my cheeks.
Slowly, I shifted my eyes to his.Dada, I mouthed, but dared not say.
The emperor was a tall slender man with a cold face, neither kind nor cruel. His deep onyx eyes studied me alike. My head tilted. I had assumed I was Uma’s mirror but I saw little pieces of myself in him – the tall slope of our eyes, the curliness of our hair, the angular face, the hunger in our gazes.
The emperor rested his chin atop his palm, elbow balanced on his knee. He wore a long honey qaftan and felted waist-sash with floral embroidery, its scented oil wafting through the room. The ceremonial khanjar strapped to his side was bejewelled in sapphire, while a blue outer robe pooled around his folded ankles. Crane feathers were stitched across his drooping sleeves. Covering his temple was a low indigo turban, his short black-blue curls blending into the shadows of the throne room, escaping the headwrap. His sleeves were rolled up, arms decorated with dyes in blue-threading depicting Nuh’s ark and the crane upon a lotus.
Beside his dais, flurrying in a wide brass cage upon a cushioned divan, were all kinds of birds – black kites, hawks and, finally, four cranes.
The emperor sighed loudly. ‘Aysenör, let us settle this pragmatically.’ Uma stiffened at the mention of her name but did not lift her head. ‘Though you’ve petitioned my court, asking to be sheltered in my palaces, I have decided it’s best to send you to my garrison near Tezmi’a. Your people were my vassals, so it’s better you return to the mountains. The garrison will be better for your...’ He pursed his lips. ‘Your lifestyle, your ways. Worry not, my estate is well kept, the warlordess under my thumb. If you remain here, your daughter won’t survive my courts.’
My head snapped to him.Your daughter. Dada did not claim me as his own.
‘If you wish for anything else, speak now.’
I nudged Uma but she merely stared at the mosaic tiles. ‘Your Blessed, I have not returned to your capital for myself. I return for my daughter. Our enemies at the border grow stronger. The Sajamistan Empire sends their frontier clans on melees. There is nothing in the lands of the Camel Road for us anymore. Here, we can be of help.’
‘Help?’ He perched forward, uncrossing his legs and standing. ‘I wish for your safety, but I will not tolerate foolish suggestions. My servants will escort you to the women’s inner palace. Tomorrow, you depart for my garrison.’
Uma did not move. ‘Look at your daughter.’
His eyes grew impossibly dark. ‘You dare order me?’ He stepped down but I moved in front of Uma, provoking his gaze. Visibly, he reeled back his anger, swallowing hard. ‘Who are you, child, to stand before me? You shouldn’t even be alive after your soul—’ He paused and shook his head. ‘Leave. The days your uma lived here, she nearly died. It’s for your own good.’
‘But—’
He turned away and swept a hand. A guard tugged at Uma.
‘Don’t touch her!’ I cried out.
‘And what will you do?’ The guard appraised me.
As I did the day of the raid, I reached into the well of pain inside my heart; I begged the Divine to bestow the affinity once more. My chest unclenched. A gold line sprung out from my palm, and white light expanded through it. It shone around me, making the guard stumble away from us.
The guard lifted her mask. The nur’s light was reflected in the black of her gaze. She turned to the equally stunned emperor.
‘The girl is an Eajiz,’ the emperor murmured. It was not a question.
I clenched my fist and, with difficulty, the light sputtered and dispersed. Uma’s gaze found the emperor, finally pinning him in place on the dais.
‘You see?’ she said quietly. ‘I returned for her.’
Oh. Uma had bided her time, for this.
Only at her side, could I feel her trembling body.
The emperor’s keen gaze tracked the remnants of light. ‘No, you’ve both returned forme. Come forward, child. Show the nur.’
Sweat beaded down my face. With difficulty, I churned the light but it sparked listlessly and disappeared, my weak control evident.
He cupped his chin once more and glanced at the second guard, who I realised was not a guard at all but a courtly adviser. He swept forward. He was young, hair shorn close to his scalp. He leant toward the emperor and glanced at me, and then, oddly, gestured toward the cage of birds beside the dais. At last, the adviser stepped back and the emperor bent a stern gaze upon me.
‘I have three wives who I’ve treated equally, bearing me a dozen heirs. I have seven children much older than you, formidable warriors, with my eldest daughter at twenty years old preparing to progress my clan. But you wandering thing... you are not raised in our ways. You do notunderstand my people. And you speak the court’s dialect with difficulty, I hear in your rough accent. You are merely thirteen years old. What doyouoffer me?’
