this matter. We Shagara heal anyone who comes to us. We have never denied the dawaâan sheymma to anyone, not even the Geysh Dushann. If you declare the whole of the Ammarad enemy, my son, and not just the Geysh Dushann, you will tear the desert apart.â
âBut Ammarad beget Geysh Dushann!â
âYes, and train them to come and work their evil and then drift away like the smoke they are named for. If it becomes known that we refuse an entire tribe our healing, one of two things will happen: either the Zaâaba Izim will accept the Ammarad as their enemies and make war upon them, or they will fear that one day we will deny them , so they will make war upon us.â
âNever,â Kabir stated. âWe are their protection.â
âAnd if they do battle with us wearing our protections around their necks and on their arms and beaten into the grips of their swords?â
The old man shrugged. âAyia, other tribes will come to our defense.â
âAnd thus, as I have said, tear the desert apart.â Meryem folded her arms. âNow, should this happen, and I believe it could, think of this Sheyqa who is a sister to the Ammarad. There is a whole nation behind her, not just a tribe. She ordered the butchery of an entire family, and it was done. How many al-Maâaliq died, Azzad? Hundreds? Thousands? And yet there was no outcry from the people?â
âNone.â
âAyia,â Meryem said heavily, âthey did not protest the injustice. They do as they are told. My son, could we withstand a whole nation? Could any of the Zaâaba Izim?â
âThe Geysh Dushann are our enemies,â Abb Shagara said stubbornly.
âThey are everyoneâs enemies. Restrict your rejection to them. No one will question it. They are too much hated by all decent people. After word of this night is spreadâ without reference to Azzad al-Maâaliqâall will call the decision righteous.â
Azzad breathed a sigh of relief. To attach his name to this would confirm his continued existence. Better to keep Nizzira guessing a little while longer.
If, after this, it was at all in doubt that he lived. It was clear to him now that the hunterâs corpse in The Steeps had not convinced them. Ayia, and heâd thought himself so clever, giving up the armband and the pearls and the key! It was the ring that had done it, he told himself with a sigh, the ring he could not bear to give up. And it would be a lesson to him, he vowed, a warning that he must be prepared to do anything, give anything, in seeking his just vengeance.
Nizzira would never sleep soundly until Azzad was proven deadâbut neither would Azzad sleep in peace until he had his revenge upon Nizzira. And he didnât know what form this could take that would not bring the armies of Rimmal Madar down onto this desert country. It must be something subtle, a mortal wound to the Sheyqa and yet containing a warning that retaliation was useless. He owed the Shagara his life. Nizzira could not be allowed to exterminate them as she had the al-Maâaliq. By accepting Azzadâs enemies as their own, the Shagara wereâas Meryem pointed outâreceiving much the worst end of the bargain.
Abb Shagara regarded his mother narrowly for a time. Then: âVery well. The Geysh Dushann only. But I shall accept Azzad as our kin.â
âWhen did you hear me object? You do not listen, my son. Azzad alMaâaliq is indeed kin-worthy. He is civilized and honorableâfor a barbarian.â
âAnd therefore,â Abb Shagara said, âhe will be treated as Shagara. In all things.â
There was some significance to this that Azzad didnât understand, but by now bruises and welts and exhaustion were making his head reel. It must have shown in his face or his eyes, for Leyliah was instantly at his side, helping him to lie down.
âNo more drugged wine, I beg of you,â he
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley