Page 73 of The Shrouded Queen
Jasim’s brow creased. He pecked my lips before gently guiding me off his lap and yanking up his pants. Unsheathing his scimitar, he parted the tent flaps and peered outside.
Flames of irritation melted down my skin, begging my nails to scratch, and King Zaid’s voice surged back into focus. A cacophonyof beratement, of laughter, of blame. A sob crawled up my throat.
Jasim’s face went bone white.
“What is it?” I ignored all my discomforts as I pulled my dress back on, grabbed my undergarments, and hurried to his side. Then my heart dropped into my stomach.
Small circles of light bobbed against the black night sky. Torches. So many of them. And they were growing larger with every second, moving too fast.
Rolling toward us in the darkness was the rapid pounding of hooves.
“Horses,” I said. Not camels, not merchants.Horses. Running full sprint at our camp.
TWENTY-NINEAMUNET
The torches were far—but not far enough. They must have lit them when they knew they were too close for us to flee.
A battle cry rang out among the thundering hoofbeats, dispelling any hope that they could be additional soldiers from Reeda or wayward travelers. No, they were coming here to kill us. We had fifteen minutes at best.
Nasir, Sara, and a handful of soldiers raced up to Jasim’s tent. The prince held a scimitar in one hand and a khopesh in the other, and his gold-flecked eyes gleamed. Whether with fear or focus, I wasn’t sure. “Get the Gods-Chosen out of here,” Nasir ordered Jasim and Sara without preamble. “Take the camels. There’s a small village not too far away. Go there and wait. Do not leave until you hear from me.”
“Look at the flags,” I said. The horde was closing in, moonlight illuminating gold and blue. Like an ocean at sunset. “Those are Haisab’s colors.”Prince Anwar. Who had sent the assassin after me.
Nasir’s eyes narrowed as he sought the masts with the flapping banners. When he spotted them, his face became ashen. “Impossible. You’ve only been with us a week. It would take Anwar longer than that to travel from Haisab to Reeda—”
“Not if Prince Anwar was already on his way here.”
He met my stare with wide eyes.
Perhaps that was why the assassin at the trading post hadn’t made another attempt on my life. The little minion had run off to tell the prince where I was. That far east of Ketopolis, it would have taken no real puzzling out to realize I was headed to Reeda.
“We’re running out of time,” Jasim said roughly.
Nasir grabbed Sara by the bicep. “I don’t care what you think of her,” he said. “You protect her with your life. Do you understand?”
Her chest rose and fell with harried breaths before she said, “I’m sorry, my prince.”
“Wh—”
He didn’t even get the whole word out before she smashed her scimitar hilt into his temple. Nasir dropped like a pile of rocks.
I stared, shocked into stillness as I struggled to process what just happened.
But Jasim wasn’t. His blade was already in his hand, and he swung it at Sara.
Before he could make contact, a soldier locked his arm around Jasim’s windpipe and jerked him back, squeezing until Jasim’s eyes bulged and his face turned red.
That shook me out of my stupor. Ten years’ worth of training with the Khada Guard rose up as I snatched a dagger from the soldier’s belt and plunged it into his side, right between the ribs, before wrenching it back out with a wet squelch and doing it again. The man’s eyes flew wide, crimson spreading like a plague across his armor.
With a cry, I shoved him off Jasim. The man fell to the sand with a dull thud, writhing and gurgling uselessly, blood trickling from his lips.
Jasim gasped and coughed, staggering.
I rushed to him. “Jasim—”
Sara blocked my path, scimitar aimed right at my chest. I drew up short, mere inches from being impaled.
“Amunet!”Jasim roared behind her, slicing his scimitar at thesoldiers surrounding him. Several fell to his blade, but there were too many, and the number was growing as soldiers boasting Haisab gold and blue joined Reeda orange.
