Page 62 of Heir

Kade glanced down at his hands, as if considering. But Quil saw his gaze flick over Sirsha’s shoulder to the building beside the tavern. It was so swift that if Quil hadn’t been staring right at the man, he’d have missed it.

“He’s stalling,” Quil realized aloud. “Distracting her.”

“Bleeding hells.” Sufiyan looked to their left, where a shadow detached from a darkened building and moved swiftly toward the tavern. Another figure cut through the crowded veranda with the patience of a shark on the hunt. A third silently crossed the lane not three yards from Quil and Sufiyan.

Sirsha was so busy trying to persuade Kade to help her that she didn’t see the shadows closing in on her. Sufiyan reached back for his bow, but Quil grabbed his arm.

“Those are Jaduna surrounding her,” he said. “Her own people. They won’t hurt her.”

“Don’t you remember what she said about her family?”

When my family finds me and subjects me to a brutal death…

Quil caught a flash of gold—a Jaduna headdress. The hooded woman wearing it looked forbidding. Not like a family member welcoming home a lost daughter.

Moments later, the shadows—who’d moved slowly until now—descended on the tavern with sudden, near inhuman swiftness. The patrons on the veranda sensed a fight and began to jeer, but someone called out “Jaduna!” and in seconds, the crowd was tripping over itself to get away.

“Come on.” Quil tried to pull Sufiyan away. “It’s not safe, Suf.”

“She’s hunting my brother’s killer.” Suf shook Quil off. “We can’t leave her to them.”

“She’s smart. She’ll figure it out—” But even Quil froze as he watched Sirsha stand. Watched her realize that she was surrounded. The look she cast Kade could have melted stone.

“I’m sorry, Sirsha.” Kade sounded genuinely aggrieved. “I didn’t want to—for whatever that’s worth.”

Sirsha snarled at him. “Less than a moldering rat carcass, you traitorous—”

“Traitorous,” the Jaduna in the headdress said, pushing back her hood as she sauntered forward. She was older than Sirsha, with the same straight blue-black hair and brown skin. But her countenance was cold, her lips thin. Her voice was low and melodious, like Sirsha’s, but something unpleasant seethed beneath.

The woman’s headdress had a central, dandelion-sized coin danglingfrom the part in her hair. The coin was linked to a half dozen chains on either side, each adorned with thin gold triangles that looked like teeth.

Quil’s stomach sank at the sight. She was a Raan-Ruku.Strong in magic. Never to be crossed.

She stopped in front of Sirsha, and Quil held his breath as the woman looked Sirsha up and down, her lip curled.

“Traitorous,” the Jaduna said again, drawing the word out, almost savoring it. She smiled, all teeth. “You’d know about that, wouldn’t you, little sister?”

18

Sirsha

The Jaduna had ambushed her. Of course they had—they weren’t stupid and they knew Sirsha wasn’t either. But if they were here in Jibaut in force, they could have killed her already. Which meant that her sister either wished to make a spectacle of her death, or she wanted something.

Sirsha hoped it was the latter. But with R’zwana, you never could tell.

“Bind her up,” R’zwana ordered whoever was behind Sirsha. “Quickly.”

Sirsha groaned. “R’z—”

“Do not speak to me, traitor,” R’zwana said, voice flat. “Everything out of your bitch mouth is poison.”

Sirsha took a step back, face hot, as if R’zwana had slapped her. She’d almost forgotten the unpleasantly specific sting of an insult from an older sibling. Particularly one you used to worship.

With dawning horror, Sirsha felt tears welling as the Jaduna surrounded her. After the ignominy of first getting caught unawares, crying would be too humiliating. Sirsha forced herself to grin and offer her hands up mockingly to D’rudo, her old teacher and cousin, who refused to meet Sirsha’s eyes.

“Didn’t realize you missed me so badly, R’z,” Sirsha said. “You could have just written.”

“Gag her too,” R’zwana said. “I don’t want to listen to her drivel.”

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