‘So we need to get both you and this Djinni—’

‘Bahadur,’ I filled in, even though I wasn’t sure why it mattered. He was just another Djinni. He was a Djinni who had fathered me and whose name was half of mine. But he wasn’t my father. Izz screamed and dove low. Guns went off. We both ducked on instinct.

‘—both you and Bahadur out of the palace.’ She made it sound simple.

‘Freeing a Djinni isn’t like breaking Sayyida out of prison.’ Not that that had exactly ended well anyway. ‘He’s trapped here, just like I am.’

‘I’ll get some people to look into it.’ Shazad pushed her hair impatiently off her face. Somehow, even dressed up to look as harmless as a flower, there was no mistaking what she was capable of. ‘God knows, half of the Rebellion isn’t doing anything useful right now. Izman is its own kind of prison. And it’s swarming with soldiers since the ceasefire.’

‘Ceasefire?’ I interrupted.

Shazad looked at me, startled, like for a moment she’d forgotten I’d been absent. Her mouth pressed into a grim line as she broke the news. ‘The Sultan has called for a ceasefire. An end to the fighting with the invaders until their foreign rulers can come to Izman to negotiate a new alliance. That’s the news Jin was bringing us back from the Xichian camp before—’ she hesitated, ‘—everything.”

The mention of Jin made my heart clench. Something about the way she said his name was off. But I had more pride in myself than to ask about him when we were at war.

‘That’s why the palace is swarming with foreigners,’ I said instead, thinking of the crowd of uniforms and strange men we’d passed on our way here. ‘You think the foreigner rulers will come?’

‘Rumor has it one of the Princes of Xicha has already set sail. And the Gallan Emperor and Albish Queen have both sent their ambassadors ahead of them.’ I thought of the plain-clothed man whose eyes had chilled me. ‘They’ll come. If they don’t, there’s too great a chance the Sultan will make an alliance with one of their enemies. Meanwhile, soldiers from all sorts of places are flooding into the city from every border to pave the way.’ Shazad tapped her fingers to her thumb one after the other in quick sequence. It was a nervous gesture. It meant there was more. Problems she wasn’t telling me. Complications with the Rebellion that I wasn’t privy to.

‘What does that mean for us?’ I recognized this feeling of being helpless when there was so much to be done. I used to feel like this in Dustwalk.

‘Nothing good.’ She caught the nervous tic and stopped, balling her hand into a fist. ‘Especially now. But the Sultan can only ally with one country. As soon as an alliance is struck, war will spark again. The rumors say he’s planning to announce his new ally at Auranzeb. But until then …’ she trailed off. I knew what she meant. Until then we had trouble. And it could only get worse with the Sultan having an immortal being at his command.

My mind turned over. There might be another way to figure out how to free a Djinni. I’d just have to get out of the harem long enough to find out. But something kept me from mentioning that to Shazad. We were running out of time. Izz’s distraction could work only so long, and we couldn’t be caught conspiring.

But I couldn’t let her leave without asking: ‘Shazad, is everyone all right?’ I didn’t ask what I wanted to ask. It was stupid and selfish. But his name hammered against my teeth. Is Jin all right?

‘Not everyone.’ For not being a Demdji, Shazad had always been the honest sort. ‘Mahdi died in the escape from the camp and we couldn’t save Sayyida. A few others. But the death toll is as low as can be expected. Ahmed is alive, Delila, Hala, Imin, the twins. They’re all here in the city.’

‘And Jin?’ I couldn’t stop myself any more. She hadn’t mentioned him, which couldn’t mean anything good. Neither could the hesitation that followed my question.

‘No one is exactly sure where Jin is right now,’ Shazad said finally. ‘He …’ She shoved her loose hair up off the nape of her neck. ‘After you disappeared in the dead of night, he rode a horse half to death to get to the meeting point. When you weren’t there, he broke Ahmed’s nose and turned back around in the desert. To find you. Thank you for proving me right in my scepticism about the lack of detail in that plan, at least.’ I knew she was trying to lighten the mood, but worry had taken root in my chest. It hadn’t ever crossed my mind that Jin wasn’t with the rest of the rebels.

‘He’s still alive.’ I tested the words out loud. And then I realised what she’d said. ‘He broke Ahmed’s nose?’

Shazad scratched her ear, looking as sheepish as I’d ever seen her. ‘Ahmed might’ve implied that if Jin stopped treating you as casually as some girl he’d just met in a dockside bar, maybe you’d stop running away.’ A surge of indignation that Ahmed thought I’d leave the Rebellion over a lovers’ spat struck in my chest. ‘Jin hit Ahmed so fast even I couldn’t get between them. It was impressive, actually.’

Izz screamed again. Further away. The chaos was settling down.

‘I have to go,’ Shazad said. We were out of time. ‘I’m going to figure out a way to get you out of here. Until then, stay out of trouble.’ It came out halfway between an order from my general and a plea from my friend.