City of Daevas: Book 3 of the Baka Djinn Chronicles by J F Mehentee

Author:J F Mehentee [Mehentee, J F]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781912402236
Publisher: P in C Publishing
Published: 2019-08-25T16:00:00+00:00

14

Roshan ran a finger down the sleeping djinni’s shoulder. The incantation knitted the deep muscle first before it sealed the skin to leave a red scar behind. She rose from the bed and looked across the hall in Baka’s municipal building—now a makeshift hospital. Roshan took in the dozen djinn who lay injured by iron arrowheads. There’d been no deaths, but the arrows and the sight of the advancing golems had done far more damage to morale than twelve wounded djinn. She’d felt the fear of those weaving magic on the ramparts.

‘You look tired. You shouldn’t be here.’

Too busy reliving the chill those djinn had experienced, the will and courage required to stay put and not take cover after the second rain of arrows, she hadn’t noticed her brother’s approach.

She walked towards him. She felt tired.

‘I couldn’t lie in a bed while the city was being attacked. I decided to come here and use the healing incantations Yesfir taught me.’

Navid waited while she told the head healer she was leaving.

The municipal building sat behind the ziggurat, so the walk back to their room was a short one.

‘Have you thought about what Emad told us?’ Navid said.

After their first and disastrous meeting in Derbicca, Roshan had considered the change in the prince’s behaviour towards her as strange.

‘He didn’t know about us that first time we met. It explains why, suddenly, he was so protective towards us.’

They climbed the steps up to the balcony. She cast a sideways glance at the ziggurat. Emad and the war council were up there discussing the next steps for Baka’s defence.

Inside the room, Roshan lay down and Navid started a fire in the hearth to boil some water.

‘It still hasn’t sunk in,’ Navid said. ‘I mean, the prince being our father is the reason why the king watched over us. But I don’t understand why Emad would suddenly care when he admitted he was too selfish to have raised us. If you ask me, he’s as shocked and as uncomfortable about the whole thing as we are.’

Navid was right. All three of them still struggled with the news.

‘What’s difficult is knowing the king was our uncle and Yesfir’s our cousin,’ she said. ‘We’ve gained a family, and now we’re losing them.’

Navid stopped tearing off mint leaves from their stalks.

‘I never thought of it that way. Do you think Yesfir found it hard not telling us?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said, with a sigh. ‘I hope we get the chance to ask her.’

Their talking about Yesfir had reminded Roshan of her frustration with wanting to fight the high magus and channel energy to the djinn. Her constant tiredness annoyed her. What she really wanted to do was fight, strike a swift, hard blow that would kill the high magus and end this madness.

Roshan remained lost in her thoughts, until she heard a knock on the door.

‘Can I come in?’ came a voice.

It belonged to Behrouz.

Navid opened the door and ushered him in.

‘You’re just in time,’ he said. ‘I’m making tea.

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