“I don’t understand how you got inside,” Ankhu said, not privy to the workings of her mind. “This is the belly of the king’s palace! There are gates and guards and—”
“Tamerit the weaver and I posed as High Khetaran commoners and were chosen to join the king’s staff,” Rae explained. “Omari and two others from Sakesh have made camp by the riverside and are using pigeons to send messages to the rebels back home. They’re awaiting word on an escape plan.”
Suddenly, the idea of leaving her father in that wretched place, of walking out that door without him, became unbearable.
“Perhaps I can get you out tonight,” she said. “I could break the fetters on your ankles, knock out the guard at the door and run before anyone could stop us. We’d reach the river where the boat is waiting…” She trailed off as Ankhu shook his head, slowly, sadly.
“We cannot, Raetawy. You know this. What of Tamerit? Would you leave her alone in the palace to face interrogation? To face death? And what of the other prisoners? How could I live, knowing that I should have perished with them?”
Rae gritted her teeth. “Fine. Then I’ll find another way.”
“No.” Her father’s expression was resolute. He seized her shoulder. “There is no way out. You cannot keep me safe; you should never have made that promise. You need to leave while you still can. None of this is your fault, do you understand? I thank Ra that I got to see you one last time, but it is not your responsibility to save me.”
He leaned back against the wall, his energy draining beforeher eyes. “I may be hobbled like a donkey, but my ears work just fine. I have heard the guards speak of the king’s cursing ritual. I know we are not long for this world, and I have made peace with my fate. I was already given a second chance at life when I survived the war. It is enough to have lived as long as I have, and to have had the opportunity to raise a woman like you.”
His eyes shone in the lamplight. “I should never have forbade you from fighting for our freedom. That was wrong. But you must give up this madness. Leave now and return to Sakesh. Fight for our city, Rae. Fight the war that still has a chance of being won. Those of us here…we’re already lost.”
The heat of fury rose in Rae’s breast. “As long as there is breath in your lungs, you are not lost.”
Ankhu pressed his lips into a thin line. “Raetawy,please.”
“I left others to defend the city, Father. Good men and women who work for the Low Khetaran cause. Say what you will, I will not allow you and our kin to perish here undefended. We must make a stand, before Ra and the pharaoh and everyone. I would rather die fighting for your right to live than to live with the knowledge that I walked away. Say what you will, I am not leaving without you.”
Ankhu nodded, his lip trembling. He stroked her hair, as he had when she was a little girl. “I am so proud of you,” he said fiercely. “So proud.”
It took every ounce of Rae’s willpower to rise to her feet. To let go of his hand. But she’d already been gone too long. The guard would soon return to his post, and then Ra only knew how she would get back to her chambers.
“Tell the others to be ready at any moment,” she told her father. “I don’t yet know when or how, but we will come for you. Listen for the call of the nightjar. When you hear its song, know that freedom is at hand.”
Excited murmurs floated up from the shadows around them. The other prisoners had been listening, though she couldn’t see them. She only had eyes for her father, the brightest sun in her sky.
Ankhu studied Rae’s face as if it were the last time he’d see it. “We’ll be ready.”
***
Rae was quietly climbing the stairs to the main level when she heard a grunt from above, followed by the clatter of metal against the stone floor.
She paused. The guard had indeed returned to his post, and apparently someone else was fighting with him. But who? No one knew she was there besides Tamerit.
Rae’s heart began to race.No, she wouldn’t…
At the top of the stairs, Rae pressed herself against the wall and peeked out into the torchlit hall.
Two men were grappling outside the stairwell, both bent at the waist and locked in a battle for dominance, their arms gripping each other, turning around and around in a dangerous dance. One was the big guard. The other was a younger, leaner man Rae had never seen before. He wore only a bloodstained loincloth and was covered in nasty cuts, the wounds placed as if to cause the greatest suffering.
He’s been tortured.Rae remembered the room with the wooden post, the dried blood, the cut rope. She hadn’t checked every corner of that room.Had he been hiding there, waiting to escape?
The big guard bore down on the smaller man, forcing him to one knee. “Not so strong now, eh, Femi?” the guard grunted. “Did you really think you’d get out of here alive?”
The man called Femi didn’t reply. Instead, he drove hisshoulders into the big man’s hips while cinching his legs together. The guard toppled over sideways, his face hitting the ground with a crack.
That move looked familiar.Two!Rae thought with a smile.
But the fight wasn’t over. Femi kept the guard pinned and crawled up the big man’s body to a mounted position. As soon as he sat up, however, the guard thrust his fist straight into a fresh wound below Femi’s ribs. On impact, the smaller man’s eyes rolled up into his head, and he collapsed.
The guard shoved him off and stood, chuckling as he watched Femi’s feeble attempts to move. The big man wiped his bloody mouth with a knuckle and spat a gob of pink saliva onto Femi’s face.
Femi flinched, still struggling to rise.
