The Sabaoth's Arrow Read online

  They’d taken enough risks. If he had to, he’d change back into a human and carry his kicking and screaming sister through a portal and into Iram.

  24

  Roshan sensed her brother’s apprehension before she saw him. She pushed her hand through her dome of invisibility and silence to let him know where she was.

  ‘We were right,’ he said, after describing what he’d found. ‘They’re expecting us and it’s a trap. Unless you can come up with a way that won’t get us captured, I’m afraid we’re done here.’

  Behrouz arrived and collapsed his dome. Roshan tapped Behrouz’s booted foot and expanded her dome to accommodate the two of them.

  ‘I sent just five old daevas to Baka,’ Behrouz said.

  Roshan described what Navid had told her, then added her own news.

  ‘The high magus has Iram’s coordinates,’ she said. ‘He’s trying to raise portals to it. An invasion is happening sooner than later.’

  Behrouz rubbed the back of his neck. He gazed at Roshan as if he were sorry for something.

  ‘We have to return to Iram.’

  Roshan wanted to scream at herself. All it took was a thought to deliver every daeva in this camp to Baka. But she still couldn’t frame one in the unambiguous way Manah had taught her. Until she mastered that, she’d be a danger to others. For now, all she could do was remain committed and determined about helping the captured daevas.

  ‘You go back and warn them,’ she said to Behrouz. ‘I can’t leave those daevas behind.’

  Navid squeaked.

  ‘Is this about Daniyel?’ her brother said. ‘It’s too dangerous for you to go in there alone. Besides, we don’t know where the rest of the daevas are.’

  Behrouz shook his head.

  ‘Yesfir would kill me if I left you here. I know your mind’s set on helping the daevas, and I want to too. But we must warn Iram first.’

  Lightness filled Roshan’s chest.

  ‘You mean you’ll help me?’

  Behrouz stood and raised his hands, ready to weave a portal.

  ‘But only after I’ve warned the king,’ he said. ‘Wait here. I won’t be long.’

  A destination window appeared in front of Behrouz, the image at its centre a blur of mauve.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Navid said. ‘What’s wrong with his window?’

  Behrouz muttered an incantation. He nudged the window’s rim. The mauve blur persisted. He collapsed the window, touched his bracelet.

  ‘She’s safe,’ he muttered to himself with a nod.

  Roshan’s anxiousness matched her brother’s.

  ‘What is it, Behrouz? You look worried.’

  He rubbed the back of neck again.

  ‘Iram’s already being invaded,’ he said. ‘It’s impossible to penetrate a dome of protection with a portal, and the palace is surrounded by one.’

  Behrouz raised another destination window.

  Roshan gazed into it. The king and his brother stood to one side of a mauve dome capping the palace. She touched her bracelet.

  ‘He’s telling the djinn to evacuate Iram,’ she said. ‘How can we can help?’

  Behrouz shook his head.

  ‘Yesfir’s still watching us. While we can’t enter the palace, she can leave the dome of protection whenever she wants to. If we’re to rescue those daevas, we must do it now.’

  Roshan picked up Navid. With Baka being evacuated, the only difference she could make was to the daevas being held in those two tents. She tried not to think about the ones hidden elsewhere in the encampment.

  ‘I’ll show you where the tents are,’ Navid said.

  She accessed his memory of the open area of sand and the tents within it. Roshan wove a destination window. Behrouz stepped closer for a better look.

  Pairs of guardsmen, their swords unsheathed, knelt or squatted behind a half-dozen tents. With no signs of magi to sense the window, Roshan moved it forward, past the waiting guardsmen and into one of the two tents they watched.

  The bright torchlight from outside lit the tent’s interior, revealing seven manacled male daevas. Five slept and two were awake, sitting as if they were waiting for something—or someone.

  They found the second tent no different: seven male daevas, younger than those they’d already rescued, manacled, and one of them awake.

  ‘Now I know their location,’ Roshan said, ‘I can raise a portal into each tent and then a dome of invisibility and silence inside it. The guardsmen outside won’t see my portal to Baka.’

  Behrouz pointed at the wakeful daeva.

  ‘That one,’ he said. ‘I’d wager he cries out the instant you arrive.’

  She wanted to ask why he would do such a thing. And then Roshan remembered the high magus had Solomon’s seal. He might have used it to compel the daeva into doing such a thing.

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ Behrouz continued. ‘You raise the portal to Baka, and I’ll raise a dome of invisibility and silence.’

  Navid squirmed in her hand.

  ‘The daeva might cry out before Behrouz has raised his dome,’ her brother said. ‘Can he raise a dome from here?’

  She shared Navid’s idea with Behrouz.

  Behrouz stared at the sand. He shook his head.

  ‘It’s a good idea, Navid, but risky. Without first being inside, it’ll be difficult to raise a dome the right size. Too big and some or all of the tent will disappear. Too small and the dome might not cover one or more of the daevas. If we’re unlucky, one of them might cry out.’

  Navid rested in the crook of her arm. He sat on his hind legs and said, ‘Use a sleep incantation to make sure they’re all asleep.’

  Navid’s idea made Roshan smile.

  ‘Navid mentioned using a sleep incantation.’ She took up a position in front of the window and pointed at the watchful daeva. ‘Let’s see if it works.’

  Djinn and human magic lost their potency over distance. With the prisoners nearby, it was worth a try.

  Roshan stared at the daeva as she recited the incantation.

  The daeva closed and then opened his eyes.

  Roshan repeated the incantation.

  The daeva opened his mouth and yawned.

  ‘It’s working,’ Navid said.

  She repeated the incantation a third time. The daeva’s eyes grew heavy, drooped and closed.

  She faced Behrouz. Although his face was grim, he nodded his approval.

  ‘Looks like we have a plan,’ he said. ‘As soon as those daevas are safe, you and Navid go to Baka.’

  Concern lined Behrouz’s face. He’d put her needs before Yesfir’s safety.

  ‘We will, Behrouz,’ she said, and nodded. ‘Thank you.’

  25

  Emad drew his brother’s attention to the waterfall.

  ‘Place a destination window close to the soldiers and their dome of invisibility,’ he told Fiqitush. ‘I’ll send the water through the boarding window. If we can injure the magus, the dome will collapse, and then we’ll see what we’re dealing with.’

  Emad summoned Core power and began his incantation, but he held off the final words until his brother had woven and fused the windows. While he waited, Emad glanced over at the main road.

  The golem had closed the distance between it and the palace at a pace that made Emad wipe sweat from his brow. A dot of emerald burned from the centre of its chest—the symbol of power a magus had drawn onto it. The symbol linked the golem to the magi who drew Core power to animate it and provide it with sufficient intelligence to complete its task.

  Emad turned back to his brother. He still hadn’t raised a destination window.

  ‘What’s taking so long?’

  Fiqitush shook his head.

  ‘I don’t know. Every time I try to weave the window, it fades. There’s something pushing against it.’

  Emad saw sweat on his brother’s brow. Fiqitush stiffened when he tried to weave another window.

  ‘It could be their dome,’ Emad said. ‘Mayb
e it’s protective and invisible. Weave a window farther back from it and closer to us. I’ll increase the water flow to cover the added distance.’

  The next destination window held. Fiqitush’s grin reminded him of Aeshma’s snarl. Emad made a slight adjustment to the incantation and then recited its final words.

  He looked up and over at the top of the waterfall. Water coiled on itself to form a vortex, the end of which disappeared into the portal beneath it. Emad heard the gush before he had time to turn.

  A jet of water collided with the dome, sending plumes upwards and sideways.

  ‘It’s not working,’ Fiqitush said.

  Emad added an amendment to the incantation. Behind him the twist of water constricted.

  The jet struck the dome so hard, it bubbled and frothed, spume rising into the air and sliding down its sides.

  ‘The magus inside should be feeling it now,’ Emad said, and hoped he was right.

  Dents pockmarked the dome’s surface.

  ‘It’s working,’ Fiqitush said, and grinned.

  One moment the dome was there, the next a cluster of soldiers collapsed into a heap. The water sent most of them rolling backwards and deeper into the unoccupied half of the city.

  Emad uttered the three words to end the incantation and cut off the water. The portal beneath the waterfall collapsed with a snap.

  To their credit, and except for one fallen comrade, the dripping soldiers regrouped. Each soldier carried a round shield the size of a man’s torso and strapped to their forearm. Emad counted eleven soldiers, excluding the one who still hadn’t moved. A soldier carried someone draped over his shoulder as if they were a waterskin. Unlike the soldiers dressed in black, the unconscious waterskin wore all white.

  ‘That’s the magus,’ Emad said. ‘He won’t be causing us any more trouble.’

  Arrows rained upon the intruders. The soldiers put their shields to good use and only one of them went down. Emad’s legs trembled at the ringing sound of the arrowheads striking the shields. Their dark grey colour confirmed his suspicion.

  ‘Those shields aren’t wooden, and they don’t look like bronze,’ he said.

  The soldiers had formed a tight circle, their shields covering the immediate space above them and along their sides.

  If he weren’t scared, what looked like a giant metal beetle lurching towards them would have impressed him.

  Fiqitush recited a wind incantation.

  The air wailed and shook against the soldiers, flinging clouds of water droplets into the air.

  ‘It’s having no effect on them,’ his brother said. He lowered his arms, and the wind died. The soldiers pressed on, water rippling beneath their feet. ‘You’re right; they’re carrying iron shields. They’re repelling our magic.’

  A djinni stepped through a portal and to the side of the shields that formed an iron dome of protection. He tried to approach, his scimitar aflame. The iron repelled him and the djinni had to raise another portal to withdraw.

  Emad shifted his attention to the approaching golem. The burning symbol on its chest wasn’t clear yet, but it was close enough now for Emad to see how its wide neck tapered into a wedge instead of a head.

  It’s a battering ram with arms and legs.

  ‘I have to go,’ he said. ‘The golem’s getting closer. I have to get to those magi before that creature reaches the palace. I don’t know if the dome will hold it back for long.’

  His brother touched his bracelet. Emad felt more than heard the command. The handful of djinn who remained in Iram were to retreat to the ziggurat in the occupied half.

  ‘What are you doing, Fiqitush?’

  His brother stared at the iron dome’s approach. He grimaced.

  ‘Magic won’t stop them,’ he said, his voice toneless. ‘Water worked. Let’s see what happens when I collapse some of Iram on them.’

  26

  Roshan lifted Navid from the crook of her arm and placed him in her satchel. With the daevas asleep in both tents, she and Behrouz had to work fast before the incantation wore off. Surrounded by her own dome of invisibility and silence, she raised a portal into one of the two tents. Behrouz stepped through first. Roshan followed, hoping the dome collapsed only after the portal had. If that didn’t happen, a passer-by might glimpse the portal’s azure light.

  Inside the tent, Behrouz had woven a new dome of invisibility and silence. He nodded for Roshan to collapse her portal.

  The intensity of the torchlight outside made it possible for Roshan to check on how deeply the daevas slept. They’d arranged themselves head to foot along the tent’s length, two to each side. The tent was only wide enough to accommodate a daeva at either end, which left the seventh daeva to lie in the middle. All of them were shackled. Roshan set to work removing the pins and heaping the manacles as far from Behrouz as the confined space allowed.

  Behrouz raised a portal to Baka. On the other side of the destination window, daevas waited to receive the remaining prisoners at a prearranged location.

  Behrouz began a levitation incantation, then stopped.

  ‘There’s too much iron in here,’ he said. ‘I can’t maintain this portal. You’ll have to send them through.’

  Roshan began her own incantation and then, one by one, raised each daeva—starting with the one in the middle—and directed them through the portal. The daevas in Baka positioned themselves to grab the prisoners the instant they exited the portal.

  Several of the daevas stirred as they rose off the ground. Roshan didn’t want to repeat the sleep incantation and risk dropping a floating daeva.

  The tension along her back relaxed after the seventh daeva disappeared into the Baka. She collapsed the portal. If not for Behrouz’s stoic expression, she might have grinned her relief. A second tent filled with daeva prisoners and Behrouz’s eagerness to return to Iram meant they had no time to celebrate.

  Roshan raised a portal to the adjacent tent. Again, Behrouz went first so he could raise a new dome of invisibility and silence.

  Inside the second tent, Roshan tensed after collapsing the portal next door. She strained her ears for the sound of approaching guardsmen. After a count of five, she started to remove the daevas’ manacles. They had arranged themselves similarly to those in the first tent.

  ‘Who are you? You’re not a djinni. What are you doing?’

  The daeva lying in the centre of the tent had woken. Her sleep incantation must have worn off. His arms shook, making the chain between his wrists clink. Roshan leaned across to remove the manacles from his wrists. The daeva hugged himself, making it difficult for her to reach the pins.

  ‘Don’t,’ he said. ‘I promised the high magus we wouldn’t try to escape.’

  About to ask why he’d do such a thing, Roshan realised the answer.

  ‘He used the seal on you.’

  The daeva nodded, his eyes roving from Roshan to the daevas lying each side of him.

  ‘Some of us have families. The high magus made us promise. Otherwise, he’d execute our wives and children.’

  We should have located the missing daevas first, Roshan thought.

  ‘We need to get you to Baka. Then we’ll look for your families,’ she said.

  ‘Luqa, who’s that you’re talking to?’

  The question came from the back of the tent.

  ‘It’s all right,’ Luqa said. He looked at Roshan with round, pleading eyes. ‘They’re going. There’s nothing to worry about.’

  Roshan heard the clink of chains. The daeva behind Luqa sat up.

  ‘Wait,’ the daeva at the back of the tent said. ‘I’ve seen you before.’ The daeva paused, bent his head and massaged his temples.

  Roshan swallowed.

  ‘This iron makes it hard to think,’ he continued. ‘I saw you…in Arshak.’

  An ache blossomed in Roshan’s chest, and she only just stopped herself from wishing she could disappear.

  The air inside the tent suddenly felt as if she were out in the noonday des
ert. It dried her tongue and the sweat on her forehead.

  ‘We’re here to help,’ her brother said from behind her. His voice filled her ears rather than her head. She looked back and saw Navid. He must have climbed out of her satchel and shape-shifted. Beyond him, another daeva had woken. This one reached with both manacled hands for Behrouz’s ankle.

  ‘Behrouz,’ she said, pointing.

  Behrouz sidestepped the grasping hands, only to have the daeva lying on the opposite side of the tent reach for him and yell. The touch of iron against his foot buckled Behrouz’s knees. He fell forward, knocking Navid against the tent’s side. Behrouz landed on the daeva called Luqa and then struggled to rise.

  Blades punctured the tent’s canvas and slashed downward.

  Navid cried out as the tip of a blade cut into his side.

  Guardsmen pushed through the tears.

  All the muscles in Roshan’s body stiffened until she no longer moved. Roshan remembered Daniyel’s body lying in the alleyway, his neck broken. The image made it hard to think, to know what to do to help her brother and Behrouz.

  With a loud pop the tent—canvas, poles and guy ropes—flew up and into the night.

  Yesfir stood next to the tent they’d emptied earlier. For a moment, no one moved. Roshan’s muscles uncoiled, but the ache in her chest remained. A guardsman stepped towards Yesfir. Roshan recognised the first words of the djinni’s incantation and ducked.

  The force behind the pulse of hot air threw Roshan onto her side and knocked the wind from her. Her ears rang as she righted herself. Navid appeared above her, his face resembling a skull. His skeletal hands held hers. She noticed prominent ribs, the ligaments of his elbows and kneecaps that looked too large for his legs. He must have recognised her concern.

  ‘I was injured, so I transformed. I’ve done it three times without drinking water.’ His words were just audible about the ringing in her ears. ‘Don’t worry.’ He pointed with his chin at Behrouz. ‘We should help him.’