Page 108 of The Endless War

Keris knew even before Zarrah spoke what she’d say, so it was no surprise when she stood up. “I’m not running while others are tortured for information on my whereabouts. We need to take action.”

“We don’t have the soldiers,” the man said.

Daria added, “It’s true. The rebel camp isn’t in Arakis. The commander isn’t here, only my tribe. We were tasked with securing you because you know us from the island.” Daria dragged her hands over her hair, face tight with anxiety. “I don’t know where the latest camp location is, but I’d hazard that help is hours away, and we have no way to contact them. We were told to bring you here and that they’d come to us.”

Given what Saam had told him, Keris knew there was no chance at all that the commander didn’t have his best and most trusted soldiers watching them, and from the way Zarrah’s mouth gave an annoyed twist, she was thinking the same.

“The commander will have eyes on the city.” Zarrah’s voice was steady. “When they see us take action, they’ll contact him. He’ll have no choice but to come with force, and the rebellion has enough fighters to drive Welran and his imperial guard out of Arakis.”

“He won’t risk it,” Daria argued. “It would be an act of provocation the Usurper couldn’t ignore. She’ll move against us. Defeat us. Burn Arakis as punishment.”

“You think that’s not already on the horizon?” Zarrah gave herhead a sharp shake. “You think my aunt doesn’t already have plans to attack us? Destroy us? Allowing her to kill our allies isn’t going to change that! It only means fewer to stand against her when she comes. We must stay, and we must act!”

Zarrah was right, but Keris could see the fear in Daria’s eyes. Her tribe had endured horror on Devil’s Island, and part of what had kept them going was the dream of challenging Petra. Making her pay for all that she’d done. The moment to act was upon them, but the looming shadow of the woman who’d hurt them so deeply now seemed an impossible adversary to face. “Zarrah is right.”

Zarrah’s gaze shot to him, eyes filled with surprise.

“Welran either knows or strongly suspects that Zarrah has joined forces with the rebels,” he said. “If we do nothing to help those who have supported your cause for so long, if we leave them to be tortured while their homes are burned, he will ensure that the survivors know that Zarrah had the opportunity to act but instead abandoned them. At best, it will be seen as cowardice, at worst, as betrayal, and even though it is the Usurper’s soldiers who have done the harm, it will be Zarrah they blame. We cannot run.”

The rebels shifted on uneasy feet, but Keris saw Saam mouth, “Great things,” to himself before lifting his head. “We faced far worse odds on the island. Now we’re fed. We’re armed. And we do not abandon our comrades.”

All eyes turned to Daria, who gave a slow nod. “All right. We hold our ground and try to come up with a plan that won’t get us all killed.”

“Send our spies to gather what information they can about where Welran is keeping the prisoners and for a count on how many soldiers he has. Then gather our fighters here,” Zarrah said.

The men’s faces disappeared back into the cellar, a draft flooding into the room as they exited into the rear alley, leaving the four of them alone again. Daria and Saam bent their heads together, muttering about who was where within the city, but to Keris’s surprise, Zarrah didn’t join them. Instead she crossed the floor to stand before him.

“If Welran knows I’m here, then this isn’t just a gambit to learn the commander’s location,” she said. “It’s a plan to lure me out, for heknows me well. Knows that I won’t run.”

“Agreed.” Every inhalation filled Keris’s nose with the scent of her, lavender soap from her time in the baths still clinging to her hair. His eyes went to her bottom lip, caught between her front teeth as she strategized, and it made his heart pound. Swallowing hard, Keris said under his breath, “But he also expects you to be predictable and is unlikely to plan outside of the scope of what he expects you to do. That puts the power back in your hands.”

A face appeared in the cellar, a girl who couldn’t have been more than sixteen. “Welran’s got them in the harbor market square. His soldiers are putting hot irons to their feet to get them to talk.”

A torture that Serin had favored, and Keris’s stomach curled with disgust to see it deployed on civilians by their own ruler’s right hand. It was no wonder that the Magpie had admired Petra—she was the sort of ruler creatures like him thrived beneath.

“How many soldiers?” Zarrah asked.

“I counted sixty,” the girl answered. “Most are holding back the crowd of onlookers. Ain’t going to be long before someone breaks and talks.”

Zarrah’s eyes narrowed. “There is no chance that Welran came into Arakis with so few soldiers—there are more. They’ll be in the surrounding buildings and on the rooftops. He doesn’t know I was separated from the commander during the escape, so he’ll speculate that at least some of the rebel fighters are here with me and that I’ll come in force. He knows I like to fight from the high ground and will assume I’ll begin my attack from the rooftops.” Her eyes locked on the girl. “Is Welran addressing the crowd?”

“Seemed like. I didn’t stick around.”

“Go back and get close enough to listen.”

The girl disappeared, and Zarrah pressed her fingers to her temples. Keris could see her coming up with strategies, only to cast them aside as more information filtered in about what they faced, but he said nothing. Only stood at her side, waiting. Waiting for a moment that he prayed would come.

“Welran helped train me,” Zarrah finally said, lifting her face to look Keris in the eye. “Half of what I know came from him, and theother half fromher, which means he knows it just as well. If it comes down to battle, we won’t win. But we can’t wait for the commander to learn what is happening and bring reinforcements, if he’ll even choose to do so.”

Keris was very confident, given the risks the commander had taken to free Zarrah from Devil’s Island, that he wouldn’t abandon her now, but he also suspected that securing enough soldiers for an outright attack against Welran wasn’t the solution she was looking for. Suspected that she wasn’t looking for a solution at all, but rather for confidence in the one she’d already come up with. “I once heard a wise woman say to a little girl thatnot all battles are won with fists and swords. Some are won with words and a clever head.”

Zarrah smiled, and it was like seeing the woman he’d fallen in love with rising from the ashes, scarred but stronger for it. “I have a plan.”

“THIS IS Amad plan,” Daria hissed in her ear as they wove through the streets toward the sound of the crowd. “It has Keris’s influence written all over it, and please keep in mind that his last plan did not go at all as he intended.”

“It’s my plan,” Zarrah answered, pulling the hood of her cloak more firmly in place. What Keris had influenced washer.Thoughinfluencedwas a loaded word, for it implied a level of control. A form of manipulation. What Keris had really done was remind Zarrah not just of who she was, but of who she wanted to be. And who she wanted to be was a woman who had more tools at her disposal than just the weapon in her hand and the violence in her heart. “I’d say blame me if it all goes to shit, but I expect that will mean all of us are dead.”

“Oh, that’s comforting,” Daria said. “Motivational speaking at its finest.”

---