She patted his arm blindly. “That must mean you’re not so bad.”
Cyrus took this like a shot of poison; he couldn’t bear to respond.
The idiot Jinn is going to jump, said Kaveh.You must go, sire. You’ll receive word as soon as she’s safe.
It was true; Hazan had a determined gleam in his eye. He was shaking off the child, whose futile efforts to pull the young man away from the ledge were almost endearing.
I’m entrusting her to your care, said Cyrus.Please. Protect her at all costs.
As you wish. I’d only like my disapproval noted.
He sighed.
With a last look at Alizeh, the king dismounted carefully; Kaveh had extended a wing toward the cliff, a veritable bridge to uncertainty. Cyrus cleared this distance as quickly as his dense head and injured leg allowed, and once across was rewarded for his agony with the dramatic excoriations of his unwanted guests.
“You sick fiend, what have you done with her?”
“– bad was the injury? How deep did it –”
“Carry her off the dragon, you demented ass!”
“Is she dead? Please tell me if she’s dead? It wasn’t clear –”
Cyrus glanced back just as Kaveh roared, he and his rider setting off into the morning light against a backdrop too beautiful to suit. He knew she’d be all right. He knew the Diviners would easily mend her. It wasn’t fear for her life that gripped him now;it was fear for his own. He shouldn’t care for her so. Hecouldnot. It would kill him before he was ready to die, and then – And then all this torture would have been for nothing.
With a heavy head, he faced his visitors.
Of the five who stood before him, it was Kamran whose gaze was impossible to ignore. Anger and hatred were so alive in the prince’s eyes they nearly forged a separate soul.
It was the last thing he saw before he collapsed.
TWELVE
“GOOD GOD,” DEEN BREATHED.
“Is he dead?” asked Miss Huda, peering at the king out of the corner of her eye, as if she were afraid to look at him.
Omid ventured a bit closer, leaning down to inspect the cretin’s face. “I don’t know,” he said softly.
“And what of Alizeh?” Miss Huda said with a cry. At the sound of her name, Kamran experienced a familiar shock of pain.
“What’s happened to her?” the girl went on. “Where do you think she’s gone? That madman probably shipped her off to a dungeon somewhere –”
“That seems unlikely.” Hazan was stone-faced. “The dragon was heading west.”
“A-And?” Miss Huda faltered. “Are there no dungeons in the west?”
“Don’t worry, miss,” said Omid reassuringly. “It’ll be all right. I’m sure we’ll find her. I’m not sure how, exactly” – he dimmed – “if the king is dead. He’s probably the only one who knows where she went.”
Deen dragged both hands down his face. “Do you really think he’s dead? I feel terrible for the poor girl, but perhaps we should we run for our lives? Surely we’ll be executed for this?”
“Executed?” Omid turned to the prince, his eyes wide with fear. “Sire?”
They all turned to face him, and finally, Kamran spoke.
“It won’t come to that,” he said irritably.
“Can you be sure, sire?” Deen again. “Because historically –”
