Jin braced the rifle against his arm, taking aim even as I gathered the sand to me, guiding it together until it would arc like a blade against them.

Together we fought through the fray like a knife through water.

A dozen times a blade skimmed by my neck, close but not close enough. I saw a gun raised towards me even as I brought the force of the desert down on the head of the solider who wielded it. I should have been dead a hundred times over. I wasn’t. I felt like I was untouchable. Like no bullets could hit me. No swords could strike me as we cut through the fight, back to our own side.

Then I saw her in the middle of the fight, dark braid swinging as her sword caught a man in the throat before she dropped to her knees, slicing her blade along the back of another man’s leg, downing him before she executed the killing blow, a knife to his neck.

Shazad had always been a force to be reckoned with, but watching her now it was like she was barely human. She was a firestorm, and she would burn the Sultan’s armies to the ground before she fell to them.

When she spotted us in a lull in the fray, her face shifted. She grabbed me, pulling us towards her as we rounded a corner into a small impasse, temporary shelter. ‘You’re alive,’ she said, embracing me even as Jin took up a position watching the streets around us, rifle at the ready.

‘I’m alive,’ I agreed. ‘Shazad –’ I drew away from her – ‘Sam didn’t—’

Jin’s rifle went off suddenly, cutting me off with a bang. A cry came from the street near us as the threat fell.

‘We can grieve the dead later.’ Shazad shook her head quickly, guessing what I couldn’t say. But her voice still sounded tight. ‘For now, I need a barricade across the palace road and Golder’s Way to stop the soldiers retreating any further than the river. The streets start to climb up there; we’re lost if they gain higher ground. Can you get me that?’

‘Yeah.’ I nodded, glancing quickly up above us. ‘I think I can. But listen, Shazad, you might be able to get reinforcements out on the streets. The people of Izman – we got them to riot once. If you can get them out in the street in Ahmed’s name, then we outnumber the soldiers. I think we can end this.’

‘We don’t exactly have time to go door to door,’ Shazad said as something exploded nearby. None of us flinched.

‘The Zungvox,’ I said. ‘I reckon it’s still in the great prayer house.’ I remembered seeing it, the wiring of Leyla’s invention curled around the inside of the dome like a snake, designed to allow one man to speak to the whole city. For the Sultan to threaten and control us. But we could use it another way. We could get the fallen Abdals to speak for us.

Shazad’s eyes darted quickly in that way they did when she was working out a plan faster than any of us could. ‘All right, here’s what we’re going to do: Amani, you get me some barricades so we can keep fighting. And flag down the twins, get them to move as many of the Abdals away from the walls and into the city as we can.’

‘Yes, General.’ I saluted her. And for the first time, Shazad didn’t correct me on her title.

‘Jin,’ she called on him, ‘how about we get your brother to the great prayer house. It’s about time the city knew he was alive.’

‘We can manage that between the two of us.’ He drew back into the shelter of the alley, reloading his gun. ‘Any sign of the Sultan?’

‘He’s on the battlements.’ She squinted up at the walls. ‘But I haven’t been able to pin him down. The orders are that if anyone gets the shot with the Sultan in their crosshairs … take it.’

Jin and Shazad darted out of the shelter of the small street, back towards the fray, even as I turned to the nearest door. It took one burst of sand to shatter the locks, and then I pushed through. The ground floor of the house was empty, but as I pounded up the stairs I could hear voices and small whimpers and cries from behind doors. But I wasn’t here to hurt anyone; I just needed higher ground.

I burst on to their roof. From up here, I could see the end of Golder’s Way. Shazad had made us all memorise the map of Izman. I could already feel the desert rising below my hands. The sand roared to life, answering my call as it surged in a storm up from the ground and slithered over Izman like some great swarm.

I brought it crashing down at the place where Golder’s Way met the river, building an immense blockade that no soldier would get past, stopping their escape short.

I glanced eastwards. I couldn’t make out the palace road from here, the other point of retreat. I needed to move. I would lose precious time running back into the streets and fighting my way through. But it was too far to jump to the next roof.

A thought struck me, and quickly I gathered a handful of sand towards me. I tightened the grains into a bridge that I arched to the next building. I ran across it without hesitation or fear that it might give out below me. And sure enough, not a grain of sand faltered as I dashed to the next building and then the next after that.

Finally I could see my target, the end of the road where the ground sloped up. And sure enough, men in gold uniforms were moving towards it in something that looked like retreat. I cut them off, a wall of sand halting their escape.

A little way off, Izz soared above the city. My heart leaped as I grabbed at the sand, sending it up in a burst in his path, trying to get his attention. Izz veered violently to avoid it, but he saw me standing on the roof, waving my arms at him.