On Fire's Wings - Christie Golden [112]
Tahmu had taken to sitting and staring into the fire, as if he could see the same things Kevla could. She knew he simply wanted some time to think. One night as he did so, she locked gazes with him. She and Jashemi had been able to speak through the fire; she wondered if, should she will it, she and Tahmu could.
Just as she was thinking this, she saw something move behind Tahmu.
Someone was approaching him, raising an arm—
“Behind you!” Kevla shrieked.
Startled, Tahmu leaped to his feet and whirled around. The shape behind him was now revealed to Kevla. Firelight glinted off the blade Halid carried, the blade that now slashed down—
Kevla moved forward, as if she was there with Tahmu, leaning into the fire. Suddenly, his face took on more natural tones. She saw stars and sand and realized that somehow she had stepped into her own fire many leagues away and was now standing in the center of Tahmu’s. The fire had transported her.
She gasped, shocked. The two men struggling in deathly silence were startled by her abrupt manifestation as well. Halid gaped openly at her, and Tahmu took that precious second of inattention and twisted Halid’s wrist. As his Second arched in pain, Tahmu seized the blade from Halid’s nerveless hands, flipped it so he grasped the leather-wrapped hilt, and shoved it deep into his adversary’s midsection.
Halid grunted. Gritting his teeth, Tahmu jerked the knife upward, piercing Halid’s heart. Blood fountained onto the khashim’s hand. Halid’s face displayed an expression of shock, and when Tahmu pulled out the knife, he fell to the earth.
For a long moment, neither Kevla nor Tahmu moved or spoke. She stood, still in the center of a burning fire, her hands to her mouth. She wondered how long it would take for Tahmu’s men to rush out and seize her, but apparently, the confrontation had awakened no one. The men had fought in silence, and she had to assume that no one but Tahmu had heard her warning cry.
Tahmu stared at his trusted Second, lying dead by the fire, then slowly looked up at the woman whose warning had saved his life.
Kevla stepped out of the flames. This was not how she had willed it, but the moment had arrived. She stood tall and straight, then bent her long, slender neck back, exposing her throat. Her hair fell like a dark cloud almost to her knees.
“Kill me,” she said.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Tahmu stared at his daughter standing before him, her long neck stretched back to receive the blade.
He was still panting from the deadly fight. The knife that Halid would have used to kill him was red with the traitor’s own blood, and the night was so still and his senses so heightened he could hear the scarlet fluid dripping into the sand.
Tahmu had been the one to take the watch; he would have stood, stretched, and awakened the next man in a few moments, had Halid not come. None of his men had yet roused. His thoughts were jumbled and confused. There was only one thing that was clear to him: Kevla had been right. Halid had indeed planned to kill him.
When no blow was immediately forthcoming, Kevla lowered her head and looked at him questioningly. He motioned to her and they walked away from the encampment, where their voices would not be heard.
“You saved my life,” he said.
Uncertainly, she nodded.
“Did you also speak the truth about Yeshi? That she was trying to poison me when you…attacked her?”
“Yes,” Kevla said. “I would not lie to you now. Not when I have come to you to be killed.”
Tahmu looked at her. The moon’s light permitted him to see her face clearly, even though they were away from the fire’s light.
The fire….
“No,” he said. He flung the bloody knife onto the ground. “You have saved my life. I will not take yours.”
They were silent for a moment. “You do not think I am a kuli?” Kevla asked.
Suddenly feeling very