“I don’t – But it’s the only dress I have –” attempted Huda, who was blushing fiercely.
“Your Majesty, please –” Hazan tried again.
“Ithink you look real pretty, miss,” insisted Omid, inching closer to the girl as if he might protect her. “Don’t listen to her –”
“Dinner, of course,” Sarra said, baring her teeth at Kamran in an unnatural smile. “Needless to say, you will all stay at the palace for the duration of your visit. What a fine show you’ve put on just now, what a lavish gift it was for the royal household to glimpse the glorious Simorgh and her children! It was the viewing of a lifetime, one even the youngest members of our staff will cherish forever. I should like to thank you for this spectacular performance – and for this unmistakable overture of friendship. How thoughtless of my son to try to catch a ceremonial arrow in his hand! And to think, most of our visitors merely offer us jewels.”
“Oh, for the love of –” Hazan cut himself off with a foul oath.He shot a final, disgusted look at the Queen Mother, stomped over to Cyrus, gathered up the king’s body, and hoisted him over his shoulders.
Kamran watched this happen with no small amount of astonishment. Cyrus was taller and broader than even he was – the deadweight of such a man would be extraordinary. He knew Hazan possessed immense Jinn strength, but this was still a fairly new revelation, and Kamran marveled at the ease with which his old minister carried Cyrus now. Hazan pushed past their small crowd, circumventing Sarra to hurry toward the closest entrance. He tried the handle and, finding it was locked, bellowed a brief warning before kicking down the door.
It collapsed with an earsplitting crash.
Omid and Huda screamed. Deen muttered a faintdear Godunder his breath. Even Kamran was stunned. He glanced at Sarra for a reaction, and she revealed nothing more than irritation.
“Your king is injured!” Hazan cried as he stepped over the threshold, and he was swarmed at once by harried servants. “He needs medical attention immediately –”
“King Cyrus!” a snoda cried.
“I thought she said it was all a show –”
“Do you think –?”
“– been injured by accident –”
“But the king never gets injured –”
“Where is the surgeon?”
“Someone call for a Diviner!”
“– said to never call for the Diviners –”
“Hurry! Hurry!”
Kamran and the others hastened toward the scene, and the prince watched, transfixed, as Hazan was mobbed, many hands reaching up to relieve him of the king’s weight. They carefully transferred Cyrus’s body into their own arms before dashing off into the belly of the castle, a woman who was ostensibly the housekeeper trailing after them all, looking as if she might burst into tears.
Kamran couldn’t help but compare this moment to one of his own: the night his grandfather had been murdered, when he’d been bested by Cyrus and left broken and dying. When his mother had finally freed him from the binds of magical paralysis, she’d disappeared – and he’d fallen to the floor. Not even a servant had been willing to step out of the shadows to come to his aid. In the end, only Omid had come to him; somehow, miraculously, despite receiving nothing but unkindness from the prince, the former street child had saved his life. It had been an enormous gift – one Kamran still struggled to appreciate – but it was nothing like the reception Cyrus received now. The hated king’s servants appeared to truly care for him, which was so foreign a concept to Kamran it was difficult to accept as fact. It was also entirely at odds with the reaction the young man had received from Sarra, his own mother.
Kamran was studying the woman carefully now, sizing her up as he might an opponent on the battlefield. She was watching the scene unfold as if it were a great disappointment. Kamran’s mother, for all her faults, had at least tried to help him in her strange way; Cyrus’s parent, meanwhile, had done everything she could toavoidassisting her own child.
She shook her head, offered a fleeting smile to the prince, and said, “Well, there’s always tomorrow,” before stepping inside.
Kamran remained frozen in the doorway.
Indeed, he knew not what new horrors awaited him here.
THIRTEEN
IN A COORDINATED EXHALATION OFfabric, the six of them were seated. Chair legs shuddered over a plush rug as footmen nudged the breakfast guests closer to the table – and then there was stillness. An awkward silence descended over the lushly appointed room, curious snodas peeping through the open doorway, heads bobbing in and out like so many chickens pecking. Sarra was seated at the head of the table, from where she watched them all with that unsettling smile. She seemed about to speak when there came a sudden jangle of silver; Omid had gathered up his flatware in one hand, inspecting the bunch as if it were a bouquet of flowers.
“Put those down,” Deen hissed from across the table.
Huda, who was seated next to Omid, pressed nervously on the boy’s arm, and he dropped the utensils to the table with a clatter.
Kamran closed his eyes in irritation.
“Why are there so many spoons?” he heard the child say. “And where is the food?”
