Traitor to the Throne by Alwyn Hamilton

Author:Alwyn Hamilton [Alwyn Hamilton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571325429
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2017-09-08T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

It was closer to dawn than dusk when I returned to the harem. I hated the quiet. I could hear my fears that much louder for it.

Back in the rebel camp there was no such thing as silence, even in the darkest hours of night. There was the clink of weapons on those keeping watch. Conversations whispered in the night. The riffling of paper from Ahmed’s tent as he worried long after the rest of us had stopped. Here, any night sound was covered by the gentle running of water or the patter of birds.

My fingers were slick with fat from the skin of the duck and sticky with the sweetness of the orange. I wiped my hands across the hem of my kurti as I stepped into my rooms, starting to pull the clothes over my head.

‘What kind of time do you call this, young lady?’ The voice made me jump violently. Dropping the hem of my shirt, I reached for a weapon I didn’t have. Exhaustion and confusion blurred my vision for a moment. There was a figure sitting on my bed in a khalat. A khalat I recognised … because it belonged to Shazad, I realised after a moment. Only the person wearing it was a head taller than Shazad, at least, and had wider shoulders that pulled at the fabric enough to make some of the stitching pop. The face was hidden by a sheema, one blond curl escaping underneath to drop lazily over pale blue eyes.

Sam.

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ I hissed, glancing around nervously as I dropped down on the mat across from him. ‘Someone might see you.’

‘Oh, plenty of folk have.’ Sam lowered his voice to a whisper to match me. He loosened the sheema around his face. It was tied correctly this time; I could only guess his way of knotting it haphazardly like an infant had bugged Shazad as much as it did me. ‘But who’s going to notice another woman in here?’ He had a point. Women seemed to appear and disappear in the harem without anyone batting an eye. ‘Shazad’s idea. She didn’t think it was a good idea for you to get caught with a man in your bed. Although I don’t know if I have the figure to pull off this khalat.’ He cinched it around his waist with his hands, like he was trying to make it fit him properly.

‘Don’t worry, none of us can fill out a khalat the way Shazad can,’ I said. But there was something nagging at me. ‘Jin’s not back yet.’ It wasn’t a question. I didn’t even have to test the truth out on my tongue before saying it. Because if Jin were back, Sam wouldn’t be here alone.

Sam kicked back, lacing his hands behind his head. ‘This is the Rebel Prince’s missing brother I keep hearing about? He’s the one you wish was waiting for you in your bed right now, I gather.’ He winked at me.

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