Page 66 of The Omega Slave

Kamir threw away his caution and hugged Jael tight, vowing Jael would always stay with them. That he had a bright future. “You will always live with us,” he promised. He wanted them to become a family. “But you don’t have to bargain with this. Tsaria and I both need you here safe. I want to spend many evenings playingShyann.”

“So do I,” Jael mumbled into Kamir’s shirt. Kamir let him go but dropped his voice.

“I want to go myself,” he admitted, hoping if Jael understood he shared the same frustration, the boy would accept it when Kamir refused to allow him to go. “But I don’t know how to get into the sewers,” Kamir blurted out before he could let the subject go. His dragon was telling him they were needed. He was sure of it. And maybe if Kamir went himself, Jael would be appeased.

Jael glanced at the still-closed door, just as Kamir had done a moment ago. “But you’re the emir. You don’t belong there.”

And Kamir could have cried at Jael’s defeated tone. “We’ll get Tsaria back. I promise. Tam and Mansala are working on a plan now.”

Jael didn’t say anything, and Kamir studied his face in concern. “You don’t think their plan will work, do you?”

Jael shrugged, but he might as well have screamed his doubt.

“Tell me,” Kamir urged.

Jael sighed. “Me and Ma were in the cells for weeks before Tsaria came, and there was another boy, Mouse, there for a time. It was a joke ‘cos he was a sewer rat, but he was little. Had a bumfoot, and he walked kind of funny. Me and ma only ever worked above ground, but Mouse told us what the sewers were like. The exits change all the time. One day, one gang has control, then it changes. They each have their own secret entrances as well. They’ll send rats to the wrong entrances to fool people.” Jael paused. “Tam’s thinking Moxie will be there, but what if she ain’t? There’s a dozen places she could be in, and he wouldn’t know. By the time Eastside gets outside with Tsaria it could be too late.”

Kamir thought furiously. “You think we need to take him in the sewers before they get outside?”

“But Tam is half-right,” Jael said. “No one can get in there.”

Kamir felt the roar inside him, and he tensed. His dragon didn’t like the idea of defeat, or possibly being told he couldn’t do something. His dragon made it clear he had to be there to rescue their mate. “I have a better idea. I need to be caught.” He needed to be captured. It was the only way to guarantee he could get in there.

Jael looked at him like he was deranged. “You want to be caught? Why?”

Kamir smiled. “Because I have a surprise for them.” And Kamir let Jael look into his eyes and knew when the boy’s eyes widened that he had seen the flames reflected in them, and Kamir felt the strength inside him grow. Kamir blinked and let the fire damp down. “Which entrance?”

“Easy,” Jael whispered. “Back of the palace kitchens. There’s a small black door about a half-mile away for the scourers to get in.”

Kamir grimaced. Those were the slaves that cleaned the human waste from under the palace, and it had to stop. He’d seen the Cadmeeran system and wanted that for Rajpur. He wanted a lot for Rajpur, and it was going to start withorphanages, proper beds and good food. And getting the children out of the hell they lived in.

“I need to go ahead of you,” Jael said.

Kamir shook his head. Jael was a child. “Tsaria would never forgive me if I let you be hurt.” He would never forgive himself but thought that argument might sway Jael.

“I promise not to go near the Eastside. Just go find Pip or get a message to Moxie. I’m the only one that can as Tam is too big for the littlest spaces. You can be caught, but Moxie might not know if Eastside gets to you first.”

Kamir damned himself to hell for even considering allowing Jael to go.

“If you don’t let me I’ll just escape,” he said. “This is a palace. Secret passages. Not hard if you know what to look for. No one can keep me in here,” Jael said confidently, “and we know if you tell them, you won’t be going anywhere either.”

Kamir damned himself to seven hells some more. “You promise you’ll just get Moxie? Give her the message then come back here?”

Jael grinned. “Sure will. I’m going to beat you atShyann.”

Kamir didn’t doubt it. Now he just had to work out how to get rid of Mansala long enough to get out of the palace, which would probably be the hardest thing he’d ever done, and send a bird to his sister. He had a feeling he was going to need her skills.

Elainore ordered Tsaria to be gagged immediately, lest he cry out and wake the emir. The slave struggled but he was silenced before he got the chance to say a word. She watched dispassionately and tried to calm her fury at the addle-brainedwoman. Bex was simply a means to an end and would suffer a slit throat when Elainore became queen. Not that Bex knew her plans, of course. Her own people didn’t even know all her plans. They believed in the fight for justice. It was so much easier to sell than the thought of power, but then those fools wouldn’t live long either. Soon, Elainore would be able to buy her protection.

She wouldn’t need her for long though. Bex had simply provided a hiding place so the guards wouldn’t find them, and she had been paid very generously for it. Seemed Bex didn’t much like her chosen career and expected to buy her way out of it. She would be disappointed.

But what had she been thinking? She was simply meeting them to guide them out of the sewers not kidnap the emir. TakingTsariawas to ensure Kamir’s compliance. Kamir being gone was a boon to Gabar, and probably Damatrious. She hadn’t hung around to see what happened after Kamir had changed into his beast, leaving her men to secure Tsaria, but they told her Damatrious had sworn fealty to Kamir since he had survived the cleansing. Who knew for how long that fealty would last if Kamir disappeared?

And she had been so careless. How had she allowed Tsaria to get anywhere near Kamir?

She needed to come up with a different plan. They needed to get out of this goddess-forsaken place and back to the desert to regroup. Her illusions seemed harder work down here. As if the desperation of the sewers drained her. She could maintain her looks permanently in her sand-baked home aided by the secret mix of herbs she took, but here she might be called on to create a second illusion so they could escape. Not impossible, but hard when she was so drained. Controlling people cost her and her beast too much energy, and Elainore wasn’t stupid; she knew the day was soon approaching when all she could manage was her own appearance, but by then it wouldn’t matter.

In her mind she heard the hiss of temper and mentally soothed her creature, then focused on the immediate problem. Once they were free of Bex, she could easily blame the kidnapping on Gabar. Many had seen he was besotted with her, and she could claim she had rejected him. It would be easy for someone with Gabar’s resources to dress his agents up to blame it on her and her people as revenge. They could return to the palace with the emir and be lauded as rescuers. Save the kingdom. Of course, Tsaria would have to die now. But she’d known that the second Kamir had changed into his dragon.

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