Inna wiped her handkerchief across her moist forehead. It was early morning, the sun had not fully risen yet, but the streets of the Copper District had shed the night's cool veil already, coating her skin in a sheen of sweat. The spoiled noble inside her missed the colored fans made of palm leaves that the women in her father's harem used to cool themselves. Now, as a disgraced member of the royal family, she only had her hood and shawl to protect her from the glaring sun, yet it did not do much good against the heat.
After ten minutes, she finally spotted the domes of the Stone District's bathhouses and blew out a slow breath. She darted in and out of shadows to avoid the frequent patrols, which had been significantly fewer in number in the Copper District. Sometimes they were ordinary guards in the traditional black uniforms of the city watch, yet occasionally, they were accompanied by a sorcerer in a swirling, dark cloak which hid their face from view. The curfew was still in effect, so she would be arrested without question if they caught her. She'd have preferred to take the underground route through the tunnels to avoid recognition, but without Arran's assistance, she didn't know the way.
She wouldn't have risked this tricky operation if it hadn't been an emergency. One she had to deal with alone.
The only other person who knew about the tunnel leading to the palace was Arran, and she'd rather keep it that way. Under normal circumstances, she would have taken him with her, if only to cover her back with his light-bending magic. Yet, in the course of the night, he had developed a fever and she'd insisted he stay at Zohra's house and wait this out. Zazi had offered to stay behind and watch over him; the snake was too big not to draw unwanted attention, since she didn't fit beneath the maroon jacket Inna had borrowed from Adira as a disguise. It barely fit Inna herself, the sleeves too short and the fabric too tight, but her own blue jacket with embroidered golden flowers would have stood out in the streets of the Copper District.
As she descended into the secret chamber at the back of the Izmeni bathhouse and wriggled the heavy stone slab out of place, her mind drifted off to the previous night. A dull ache between her legs reminded her of what she and Arran had done. Inna had slept both with a man and a woman in the past, but neither of them had ever managed to evoke the same passionate feelings within her as Arran did by simply looking at her. And last night ... Last night had left her even more ravenous for his touch, his stares, his mischievous grin.
She shook her head. How had she let it come this far? When had it happened? She couldn't lose her heart to someone who, in spite of their best efforts, might be dead in a week. Her throat constricted at the thought of Arran's beautiful turquoise eyes staring up at the sky unseeing, his perfect brown skin ashen and cold. No, she had sworn to keep him alive. She would compel him to make that last wish if it came to that.
She banned the thought of Arran out of her head and focused on the task at hand. She welcomed the tunnel's coolness on her heated face. It was tempting to linger for a while longer, but she forced herself to keep up a steady pace. The sooner she had gotten this over with, the better.
The door at the end led into a corridor used exclusively by the royal staff. Since it bordered on the wine cellar, servants rarely ventured this deep into the palace at this hour, so the corridor was deserted. Instead of taking the shortcut that ended at a false wall panel in one of the regular corridors, she took a detour, creeping up several flights of stairs before the smell of cooked breakfast wafted toward her. Her stomach growled in response.
Whereas the palace's noble residents were still snoring in their beds, cooks and servants scampered around the kitchen in a lively bustle. They shoved dough for bread into the ovens, fried eggs in copper pans and sliced fruit into star-shaped pieces. Inna's mouth watered.
Caught up in their activities, the kitchen staff didn't notice her at first when she slipped inside the room. She leaned back against the wall, crossing her arms, a nostalgious smile on her face. A careless kitchen help bumped against her as he backed away from one of the stoves, and a silver tray with clean plates clattered onto the ground.
He gawked at her with wide, startled eyes. "Y-your Highness. My deepest apologies! I didn't see you there ..." His voice died while the strangeness of the situation dawned on him. The crown princess, who had been missing for weeks, stood in the kitchen among her staff, dressed in dusty clothes and with an air of secrecy around her.
The palace chef strode forward to greet her. He shooed the dumbfounded kitchen help out of the way with a few quick orders about cleaning up the mess. "Your Highness," he said in his low baritone. "You cannot be seen here."
"That is why I took the service corridors, Izban," she replied dryly. "I am glad to see nobody went off running to report my return to my father."
Izban scrunched his nose. "When we heard the Shah had you thrown into the dungeons, we all knew something was amiss. He has not been himself, Your Highness." A hint of disconcert flashed in his eyes.
Inna's gut clenched. Feeling slightly uneasy, she clasped the chef's shoulders. "What did he do?"
It was one of the other cooks who answered. "Last week, he had Usman strung up on the gallows for disobeying some of his more ... peculiar orders," she said. Usman had been the palace's chamberlain.
Inna's hand floundered up to her neck, trembling. "What orders?"
Some of the cooks shared uncertain looks, while others kept their gazes glued to the food that covered every inch of the counters. Izban cleared his throat. "He had Princess Nylah and Prince Kasmir banned from the palace."
He's trying to destabilize the court. "Why?"
He shrugged. "According to the official explanation, they defied his sovereign rule. But," he continued, his voice lowering to a whisper as his eyes flicked around the room, "rumor has it that Rasirian prince had something to do with it. He has been accompanying the Shah to all his council meetings, and three weeks ago, a delegation of foreigners arrived in the city. Mostly sorcerers and soldiers. There has been talk among the palace's servants, Your Highness. People are afraid of a siege."
"I think the siege has already begun, Izban." She straightened her back to face the entirety of the kitchen staff. "I would like to apologize for my absence in these uncertain times. I promise I will fix this."
"How?" the boy who had run into her asked from where he crouched near the fallen tray. Izban kicked him in the shin and snapped at him to show some respect.
Inna smiled at the flustered boy. "All I want you to do for now is to stay alive, keep quiet about my presence here and help me move around the palace unseen when I come for the prince of Rasir. He's a dangerous man with powerful magic and I don't want anyone else to get hurt, understand?" Everyone nodded. "Also, can anyone tell me where Tata is?"
"The maid?" Izban asked. "She fled the palace after you disappeared. I overheard the other maids gossip that she's holed up in her parental house."
"And my brother and sister?"
Her question was met by a sea of clueless faces. She bit back a frustrated grunt. "All right. I'll find Tata. Thank you for your help. All of you."
The servants and cooks bowed their heads.
Bringing her mouth to Izban's ear, she slipped a piece of parchment into his hands. "I need this message to get into the harem. Can you arrange for that?" Not every servant had access to the harem, but food certainly did.
He gave an almost invisible nod. "Of course, Your Highness."
"Good."
As she backed into the service corridor, Inna felt grateful for all the hours she had spent snacking in that kitchen as a child, for every genial smile given to a passing servant. It had earned her unswerving loyalty today. She trusted that no one in that room would betray her to her father; they knew she had memorized their faces and would discover whose tongue had slipped soon enough.
Tata had grown up in the Bronze District. Her father built musical instruments, from flutes to drums, and made a decent living of it. Inna had never met her maid's parents, but she had glimpsed their address on the letters Tata used to send to her family when she wasn't able to visit them for a longer period. They lived on Nokeda Midan, a small square at the heart of the district. A sparkling fountain adorned the square, inlaid with amethyst and aquamarine mosaic. Since there were few shops in this neighborhood, the streets weren't crowded, although Inna kept an eye out for attentive guards. The square left her much too exposed.
She located the music shop almost instantly; a wooden sign depicting an uda, a desert lute, swung above the door. A silver bell announced her presence, though the thick curtain at the back of the shop remained closed. Inna strolled past the instruments on display, unable to resist running her finger along the elegant copper neck of a harp. It had been several months since she last played one herself; her fingertips suddenly itched with a crave to lose herself in music.
Before she could be tempted to grab the harp and play, however, the curtain was shoved aside and a man with dark, neatly brushed hair stepped into the shop. His pants were white with wood shavings and splinters had crept under his nails. A sunny smile lit up his face. "Good morning, miss. How can I help you?"
Casting a brief glance over her shoulder, toward the nearly empty square on the other side of the large window, she pushed her shawl down a few inches so that he could glimpse at her face. His smile faded, his dark eyes wide with surprise. "Good morning, sir," she greeted him. "I'm looking for Tata. Is she here?"
"I ... Your Highness? Yes, she's here. If you would follow me?" He held aside the curtain for her. The twinkling dust motes floating around the dim shop tickled her nose as she followed him up a narrow set of stairs to the second floor. Through a hallway with flower-patterned walls, they entered a cozy living room. Tata sat on one of the purple velvet pillows spread around a circular coffee table. When she turned around to take a look at the visitor, she almost dropped her cup of tea.
"Inna!" She scrambled to her feet, and Inna approached her with open arms.
"It's so good to see you, Tata," she mumbled against her maid's neck.
"Have you any idea how many guards I bribed to free you and that boy from the palace dungeons?" Tata exclaimed, crushing Inna against her ample bosom. "Only to find out you had already escaped. Where have you been?"
Inna shook her head. "It's a long story, Tata, and I don't have much time." Only then did she notice the other two people sipping tea at the table. "Kasmir! Nylah! So this is where you've run off to."
Her younger brother and sister hugged her tightly. "We were worried about you, Inna," Kasmir said, pulling back to look her in the eyes. When he smiled, his left cheek showed the same dimple as their father had. "Baba's been a bit unhinged in your absence."
"That's putting it mildly," Nylah remarked, her dark brow furrowed.
"I heard he kicked you out of the palace," Inna said. "Why?"
Her sister heaved a sigh. "You attract a weird string of suitors, you know that? The last one's been whispering things in baba's ear. Our father spends his days staring into that strange sphere while the foreign prince stands behind him with one hand on his shoulder." She clucked her tongue. "Kasmir and I told him to back off. He had no business in Primsharah if you were not around to be courted by him. The next thing we knew we were dragged out of our beds in the middle of the night and dumped in the desert a few miles from the city."
"Habi Onshra," Inna muttered. "What does he hope to gain from this?"
Kasmir shrugged. "We've been talking to some merchants loyal to the palace. They aren't particularly fond of the curfew and increased inspections either. If we can get a large enough number of them to revolt against the new rules, we may be able to put a stop to the chaos before it's too late."
"I've been organizing a mob in the Copper District," Inna told them. She started pacing back and forth, scratching her chin in thought. "With the Bronze and Copper Districts united, other districts might follow as well. We need as many angry citizens as possible to create a distraction big enough to keep Rabyatt's lackeys busy so that we can take back the palace."
The three of them—Tata, Kasmir and Nylah—eyed her with thoughtful expressions on their faces. "What do you know about these people, Inna?" Tata asked, her gaze hard as stone. With any other person, Inna wouldn't have tolerated the demanding note in her voice.
Too restless to sink down on one of the pillows, Inna gave them the short version of the story she had told Arran's mother and sister. "Rabyatt belongs to a cult of sorcerers who believe their magic gives them the right to rule over others. They steal World Artifacts to attain this goal." Shocked gasps came from every corner of the room. "They were after the one in Onshra's temple, but I found the thief they hired for the job. We've managed to keep it safe from their grasp for now."
"But why stage a coup if they're only interested in the Amulet of Doom?" Nylah inquired.
"I don't know. Maybe they destroy everything in their path to build something new from the ashes. It's easier to implement a new ideology if people have lost faith in the existing institutions."
"Why does baba cooperate in this?"
"He doesn't." Inna's shoulders slumped. "He's under the influence of mind warping magic. I doubt he realizes what's happening."
Her siblings' faces drained of color in horror. Tata held a hand to her heart, breathing fast.
With a sigh, Inna reached into the pocket of her pants. "I don't think we're the first to suffer from the Cult's wickedness."
"What's that?" Kasmir's brows drew together as he took one end of the map between his fingers.
She smoothed out the creases in the parchment. "This is a map of the Orabi Desert. Do you see those burn marks? Kartún is among them."
Her brother's frown deepened. "Kartún? Didn't they cut off trade with us a couple of months ago?"
"I don't think that was a voluntary decision," she answered. "I found this map in Rabyatt's room in Rasir."
"You've been to Rasir?"
"Focus, Kasmir." She paused as a funny thought popped into her head. "Oh, by the way, if you or Nylah ever meet the Shah of Rasir and he acts a bit confused when he hears your names, don't worry too much about it. I may have used them as aliases during my stay there."
Nylah chuckled. "I reckon an engagement with his son is out of the question, then?"
Inna gave her a sour look. "Anyway, don't you think it's suspicious that Kartún breaks off a mutually beneficial trade relationship and our ambassadors are left standing before closed gates? This map may be evidence of the Cult's involvement."
"If that's true, then these people are even more dangerous than we thought," Kasmir observed, biting his lip.
She put a hand on his arm. "All the more reason to call our people to action," she said. "Especially the professors and students at the School of Sorcery and Magical Arts. We need every bit of magical talent we can get our hands on."
"And the gods' blessing," he added. "Onshra's priests were in a frenzy after the Amulet had been stolen. I'm sure they'll want this blasphemous Cult to be gone just as much as we do."
They won't see their Amulet again, though. But Inna didn't voice that thought. Instead, she clapped her hands and tucked the map back into her pocket. "I'll deal with the priests. Nylah, Kasmir, you two go to the School. Tata, do you still have free access to the palace?"
Tata dipped her chin. "Yes. I'm your personal servant, Inna; I doubt the Shah is aware of my comings and goings."
"Good. As soon as our final plan is set in motion, I'll need you to deliver a message to the palace staff."
"As you wish."
"All right." Inna started for the door. "If the recruitment goes well, I'll meet you all here tonight to work out a plan. Now, let's go protect our city."