Obsidian: Retribution (Book 2)

Fifty-One: To Right a Wrong

"There're fifty guards stationed at the gate. I don't think we can force or sneak our way in." Saya drew a line and marked two other spots on the sand. "It's possible to climb these two lower parts of the mountain to get into the city, but he would have to be left here." She gestured at Rhykal. "Or he would have to come along untied to make the climb, and we can't do either."

The man would throw them off the mountain at the earliest opportunity, Lasura agreed, while he would have to take Djari to see Deo and she would never leave her sworn sword alone with Saya. The fastest way to locate Deo was to enter Samarra and find some information on his whereabouts, or to try and send him a message through one of his networks in the city. While the gate was open to merchants and travelers as the largest trading city in the Salasar, and sneaking in was usually not that great a task, he and the Sparrow happened to be fugitives with a prize on their heads large enough to feed an entire village, not to mention, as a Bharavi, Djari could be sold for twice that if captured. The risk was too high, any failure they might encounter would be fatal, and the possibility of success was minuscule if existed in the first place.

It was the dumbest, most dangerous thing to do given the circumstances, not to mention the fact that Deo might not be able to fix anything to begin with. But when Djari had that look on her face, his only two choices were to let her do this dumb, dangerous thing alone or to do it with her and pray that at least one of them would come out alive by some kind of divine intervention. It just so happened that surviving dumb, dangerous decisions had become his expertise, and he'd long decided that since life insisted on dealing him only shit, misfortunes, and tragedies, he might as well get some fun out of all three by calling it a thrilling adventure.

And so for the sake of fun and thrilling adventures, he'd asked Saya to check the border for a way in. To his surprise, she seemed equally eager to join this suicidal mission. Whether she was hoping that Amar izr Zaharran might return (women did like to fix things, after all), or to have her own adventure outside of Al-Sana, he wasn't sure. They did, however, need her for the task. Saya looked like a common blood, and therefore was the only one among them who could pass as someone not from the White Desert if she were to try and cross the border.

"Fifty is twice the usual number," he said. He knew Samarra and its borders from having accompanied his father there before and while he'd gone off doing his own things. "My guess is something big happened, and if that's true, there'd be guards all over the city watching for intruders everywhere, not just at the gates. The chances of climbing over without being discovered is low, and by Samarran law, anyone can kill you without trial if you're caught trying to enter that way. Sneaking our way in with a disguise might be safer."

"It can't be done." Saya shook her head. "They check every caravan. Word is they've been doing that since the change of Salar to tax merchants more thoroughly before entry now, not once inside like before. You can dye her hair." She glanced at Djari's silver braids. "But her eyes will draw attention. Both yours and hers."

She had a point. Yellow eyes did exist outside of the White Desert, but were considered rare. They might be able to get away with it in a large city where no one paid anybody that much attention until they started conversing at close range, but at the gates, the guards would look at every face, closely. It would take a secret way in, a bribe, or a connection of some kind, all of which they had no way to obtain.

He sighed and turned to Djari. "It's your call."

She kept her eyes on the drawing on the sand, thought about it for some time, then turned to Rhykal who had been tied up out of earshot. "Give me a moment to decide," she said.

Lasura nodded, ignoring the bad feeling he suddenly had about the way she'd said it, and the way she walked toward Rhykal after.

She looked like that that when she took off her fingers, when when she stabbed her own sworn sword, when she told them all she was going to see Deo.