Absolution by Anna Tan

Author:Anna Tan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: southeast asia, keris, magic, faith, female protagonist
Publisher: Teaspoon Publishing
Published: 2022-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING here?” the guard asks.

Beside me, Sultan Mikal tenses.

“Tuan sent me back,” Magda stammers.

There’s a short silence, the guard wondering if this is some kind of trick. I try to Nudge him to accept her words.

“Please, don’t let me get in trouble with Tuan. I’ll...I can make it worth your while,” she whimpers.

A grunt. Accepting.

Magda stumbles through the flap. She catches herself. She waits a moment, looking over her shoulder. The guard settles back in his spot, soon slipping back into a dull half-slumber. Magda approaches us with a relieved grin on her face and a small knife in her hand.

“Thank Kudus he didn’t search me,” she says, bending to saw at the ropes tying Sultan Mikal’s hands.

Then she starts working on mine, letting him dig at the knots binding his feet together. She’s still cutting away when the blast of a thought hits me.

“Che Azett,” I gasp. “He’s awake! He’s noticed you’re gone!”

Magda’s face pales. She jerks her hand and finally the ropes around my wrists break apart. My arms fill with pins and needles as I try to bring them forward. It’s hopeless. I can’t move them; the pain is blinding. How did Sultan Mikal manage to untie his legs so quickly when I can’t even feel my fingers?

Magda bends over my feet, desperately sawing at the ropes and pulling at them at the same time. It’s a tangle of frayed edges and knots, loosening too slowly.

Che Azett is stirring up the camp. Through my panic, I can feel as each soldier jerks awake. It’s an overwhelming flood of shock, tension, and awareness. I don’t know how the Justices do it. There must be some way to block them out that I haven’t learnt. It didn’t use to be this bad, but the more I’ve been using this Curse, the more awareness I have of the minds of people around me, their thoughts intruding at awkward times. Like now.

I can’t think through their voices in my head, let alone my own panic.

“Tuanku! What do we do?” Magda hisses.

The ropes are almost gone, I’m almost free. I can feel my fingers again. But it’s too late, it’s going to be too late. Che Azett is almost here, shouting at the guard as he approaches.

“She said you told her to come back!” the guard protests.

Che Azett growls. “Since when do you accept what slaves say without verifying with their masters? Didn’t you think she could be lying to you? Even if it were true, why didn’t you go in and secure her?”

Sultan Mikal is half-crouched in front of us, hands held up in fists. He’s rolling on the balls of his feet, muttering to himself.

I strain to hear what he’s saying.

“Kudus Maha Esa, berkatilah hamba-Mu dengan kuasa ajaib-Mu,” he repeats over and over again.

The guard is still defending himself. “You were asleep! I didn’t want to wake you.”

“How would you know that? Did she tell you that? Did you check?”

The ropes finally snap and I scramble to my feet.

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