Page 102 of Heir

But Sufiyan had already seen, and he crawled toward Loli. When he found Quil’s gaze, Sirsha felt her heart clench.

“This is how Ruh died, isn’t it?” he whispered. “You never said. He must have—he must have been so scared—”

Arelia knelt beside Sufiyan, speaking quietly to him as Quil turned to Sirsha.

“We need to leave. If she comes back—”

Sirsha nodded. She didn’t know why the killer had disappeared, but there was something terrifying in the way she looked at Sirsha—at her friends.

Yes, friends, she realized. She’d stood in front of them, ready to defend them with her life against thatthing. They weren’t fellow travelers or chance acquaintances anymore.

“Take her shoulders.” Sirsha deadened any sentiment she might feel about Loli’s body. “We’ll drop her into the falls. The Karkauns burn their dead, and she hated them more than anything. She loved the river, though. The jungle. She’d—she’d want to be returned to it.”

Quil lifted Loli’s shoulders, Sirsha her feet, and they cast her into the falls, watching as her body disappeared into the darkness of the pool below.

“I’m sorry, Sirsha.” Quil took her hand in his and squeezed. “I know you loved her.”

“It’s my fault,” Sirsha said. “She told me years ago never to come back, but I didn’t take it seriously because—”

She heard R’zwana’s voice in her head, chiding her when they werechildren.Everything is a joke to you, but one day, you’ll stop laughing long enough to find you’re a failure to your Kin!

“Is the killer some Karkaun monstrosity?” Sufiyan stood now, hands fisted tight around his bow. His voice was flat. “Is that why she killed Loli?”

“No.” Sirsha understood now why the killer had been in Navium, raining down destruction, and again, in Jibaut. “She’s not Karkaun,” she said. “She’s not working on her own. That thing that killed Ruh and Ilar and Loli Temba—she’s being controlled by the Kegari, by the man you want to kill. She answers to the Tel Ilessi.”

28

Aiz

After the assassination attempt, Quil grew easier around Aiz, telling her of his aunt and the cities of the Empire. The massive, multi-masted ships in the port of Navium and the fortified walls of Antium. He told her of the webs of Gens politics, the beauty of Serric architecture, the drums that thundered out messages across the Empire.

Each story was an opportunity to know him—and his weaknesses—better. To embed herself deeper into his consciousness as the girl who understood his heart.

As the Tribe ventured west, toward a distant jag of mountains, Quil and Aiz often scouted ahead, the desert unrolling blue ahead of them.

“I talk too much, Ilo.” Quil used a nickname Aiz had grown fond of. “You must be sick of me.”

“Never,” Aiz said, and to her surprise, it wasn’t a lie. Hedidtalk—but only with her. The rest of Tribe Saif took up their fair share of space and sound, whether it was Tas telling bawdy tales or Karinna cursing as she trained.

Quil, Aiz observed, didn’t feel as if he had a right to that space. Tribe Saif was not his family, no matter how much they might love him. He kept his opinions to himself and, much like Aiz, always strived to be helpful.

With Aiz, Quil was more relaxed. Honest. It was useful, of course—he answered everything she asked about himself, the Empire, the Tribes. But deep in the night, when she hoped Mother Div couldn’t see into her mind, Aiz also admitted to herself that his trust felt like a gift.

As did his attraction to her. Their glances became touches. Theirtouches lingered—his hand on her waist as he lifted her into her saddle. Hers on his shoulders when she passed behind him.

The Kegari girl often thought of what Laia had said. Your heart knows, even if your mind doesn’t.Aiz wasn’t sure about her heart. But her body was aware of the heat of his gaze, the thrum of his voice, the flow of his movements. It was easy to make him want her, she realized, because she wanted him in return.

Take, Aiz, Mother Div whispered in these moments of weakness.Do not give. Not to him. Not to anyone.

Ruh, meanwhile, pilfered a few of his ama’s scrolls almost daily, secreting away with Aiz whenever he could escape from lessons and chores to translate them for her.

“I found one that’s promising!” he said when they were only five weeks out from Nur. They were on horse duty—which was mostly Ruh giving the beasts treats while Aiz curried them. It was a good time to talk, as everyone was preoccupied with getting Tribe Saif’s tonics and poultices and teas ready for trading.

Ruh glanced around them surreptitiously before speaking.

“The scroll had notes on a story about two people who fall in love,” Ruh said. “They get married, but something goes wrong—a Durani emerges from her haunted castle, shrouded in dust—one of the strongest of her order.”

“A chaos storyteller.” Aiz finished up with an ornery gelding and moved on to Tregan. “Teller of lies, spreader of untruths. They have an order? And how is that related to Mother Div?”

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