“I need you to live.”
Hazan stopped moving.
“I sentenced you to death,” Kamran explained, “because I thought your alliance with the girl meant you were conspiring with the Tulanian empire. I thought you assisted in my grandfather’s murder, in the assassination of the Diviners. I assumed you were trying to overthrow the crown, and that you were working in tandem with the Tulanian king.”
“I suppose I should be flattered you thought me soenterprising,” Hazan said coldly.
“I see now,” Kamran went on, “that your entirely independent acts of stupidity managed to become entangled in this chaotic web, and I was only this morning able to discern the disparate role you played. I don’t have to condone your actions to understand them—and I still think you’re an unalloyed bastard for lying to me—but I can appreciate the instinct you felt to spare her; for I, too, felt the same instinct, as you well recall.”
“Then youareoffering me a deal.”
“I need your mind, Hazan. I need whatever knowledge you have about the girl. I know you feel immense loyalty to her—I realize you find yourself in this dungeon precisely because you pledged your life to her—but she’s deceived us both, and I fear we will only understand why when it is far too late.”
“You want to wage war against Tulan.”
“I do.”
“And you are asking me to assist you in murdering the young woman who is meant to be the salvation of my people.”
“I am.”
Hazan stepped closer to the door of his cage, wrapping his hands around the iron bars. His eyes flashed with fury. “I would sooner die.”
Kamran leveled Hazan with a glare of his own, rage simmering too close to the surface. With impressive control he managed to say, quietly: “She is working with the devil.”
Hazan froze. He fell back a step, his hands releasing theiron bars, his face going slack.
“What?” he breathed.
“You weren’t there. You didn’t hear them speak. She has a formidable ally in the Tulanian king, yes—but her biggest supporter is Iblees.”
“That’s impossible,” said Hazan. “Iblees is responsible for the ruin of our entire civilization— She would never—”
“Think of all that has happened since she entered our lives, Hazan. It is just as the prophecy foretold—the Diviners are dead; my grandfather is dead; Ardunia is unprotected—”
“And your face,” Hazan said, seeming to surprise himself as he spoke. “The magic has changed.”
“How is that connected to this?”
The former minister was silent too long. He was staring into the distance, his eyes vacant.
Lost.
“The distortion of the magic,” Hazan said finally. “It means your right to the crown is no longer absolute. It means there might live a worthier inheritor of the throne.”
Kamran felt his heart rate spike. It was with great equanimity that he managed to say: “So she intends to take my empire.”
“She will not need to,” Hazan said, dragging a hand down his face. “As if the nobles didn’t have enough reason to deem you unfit to rule—they are no doubt assembling a halo of Diviners from across the empire as we speak. They’ll want a validation of the magic, which you will not receive, and once you’re declared an uncertain heir, they will oust you from the palace. If you do not take swift action now—”
“Then you agree I have no choice—Imustkill her—”
“No,” Hazan said, cutting him off. “There are other ways. But if you’re going to accept my help, you will also accept my judgment on this matter.Iwill be the one to decide whether she has betrayed her people—which means you will not disturb a hair on her head unless I give you leave to do so.”
Hazan lifted his shackled hands, and in one swift movement, tore the iron manacles apart. He used his teeth to pry the cuffs off his wrists, after which he tossed the metal to the floor, where it landed with a heavy clatter.
And then he ripped the prison door off its hinges.
He set the iron gate against the wall before crossing the threshold, where he met the prince eye-to-eye.
