The old man sighed. “Zev is right,” he said. “All it would take is one slip of the tongue, and you could bring destruction upon our heads. I am responsible for the lives of these people, and I cannot allow that to happen.”
The crowd drew back, seeming to not want to be a part of what was coming.
Karim couldn’t believe his ears. “You wouldn’t kill us in cold blood. You wouldn’t!”
Elyas gazed at Karim with regret. “You should never have come.”
The brute with the mace approached him, and another man came up behind Karim, tied his wrists behind his back, and forced him to his knees.
“Please, sen,” Karim begged. “Don’t do this. Can’t you see that we are all brothers?”
Elyas looked away.
Behkai began to bark, straining at the rope around his neck, and the shadow of the mace fell over Karim’s face as it was lifted high in the air.
“Wait!”
A small figure pushed through the crowd and appeared at Elyas’s side. “Wait,” she said again. “Sabba, tell Zev to stop!”
Karim squinted at the girl. “Aya?”
Elyas wrapped a protective arm around the girl’s shoulders. “How do you know my granddaughter’s name?”
Zev, the brute with the mace, hesitated. Elyas gestured for him to stand down while he waited for Karim to answer.
“We came across the girl in the desert,” Karim said hurriedly. “She was alone. She wouldn’t say what she was doing, but we guessed that she’d run away from home. Not long after we found her, we were caught in a powerful sandstorm, and if it wasn’t for her”—he nodded at Sita—“your granddaughter would havebeen lost.”
Elyas’s brow furrowed. “Is this true, Aya?” he asked the girl.
Aya dropped her head and nodded.
“You told me you were out exploring. Why would you run away?”
The girl didn’t reply.
Elyas grumbled into his beard, clearly disconcerted by this new development.
“Elyas?” Zev said impatiently. “What say you?”
All eyes turned to the old man. After a long moment, he shook his head. “I cannot condemn those who have delivered my beloved from the jaws of death. The mark on my soul—on all our souls—would never be erased. We shall not be defined by such an act. They will be spared.”
The crowd seemed to exhale with relief. While his wrists were unbound, Karim sent thanks to whatever gods happened to be listening. Sita tore the gag from her mouth the moment she was released and ran to him. For an instant, Karim thought she might embrace him—but she stopped short, awkwardly patting him on the shoulder.
“I’m…glad to see you’re all right,” she said.
Karim regarded her—filthy, windblown, breathless. She was so different from the prim woman cloaked in black whom he’d met at the Thonis market not so long ago. He felt a burning desire to touch her, to wrap his arms around her waist and pull her close. “You too, sena,” he said instead.
“But what will we do if they return west and tell everyone about us?” Zev shouted over the chatter. “What if they come for us with an army? What then? Are their lives so much worthier than ours?”
Elyas held up a hand for quiet. “I said their lives were spared.I did not say they were free.”
Sita turned to the old man. “What do you mean, not free?”
“I mean, dear girl, whomsoever comes to this city stays here. You’re one of us now. Today and for the rest of your days.”
7Rae
“What’s going on up there?” Tam asked, craning her neck to view the front of the crowd.
