Maks nodded. “Marsum can find me if I use my magic, yes. Which is why I don’t use it because the second I do, it puts the rest of you in danger.”
Shem snorted. “You could block him, you know.”
“That’s not possible.” Maks shook his head and his eyes sparked. “So, don’t speak about things you don’t understand, old man.”
There was more than a thread of heat in Maks’s response. Shem didn’t react but instead looked to me. “The Emperor knows I have the package, Zamira. I was able to keep him from seeing the memory where I gave it to you.”
The package . . . “You mean his daughter’s letters?”
He nodded. “Yes, he will try to kill me again. Something about your touch snapped me out of it, but . . . I think he will be back for me. I won’t be able to hold him at bay again.”
I sat beside him, thinking. “You are the seer for this pride. You gave my father advice on all manner of things from the running of the pride, to dealing with the Jinn until you took a ride on the crazy train and lost your marbles.”
Shem’s lips curled up. “Crazy train?”
“Kidnapping me. Remember?” I sat flat on my ass beside him.
“I was trying to protect you and . . . I thought you would be the one to stop the Emperor. I still do.” He put two fingers under my chin and tipped my face up. “Kitten, you have it in you. Don’t doubt it. This is only the opening gambit.”
“Don’t call me kitten.” I jerked my face from his fingers. “It’s fucking patronizing.”
Lila lifted a wing, drawing our eyes to her. “If you are a danger to Zam, if the Emperor can find her through you, then you can’t come with us. What will you do?”
Lila was right. And she was wrong. I opened my mouth to tell them the Emperor had found me already, that he’d gotten into my mind somehow.
“Ishtar was inside that storm too,” I said. Why the hell hadn’t I said the rest?
Shem pushed off the blankets and slowly stood. “She used it to hide herself, but that was the Emperor’s power pushing it. He was talented with the weather and she was always good at riding others’ coattails.”
He closed his eyes a moment and a low humming starting in the back of his throat. As a child, I’d seen him do this more than once, try to scry the future so as to warn my father.
Shem stopped humming and looked at me, his eyes dilated. “Do not scorn your enemy. They will be the key to your survival.”
I shook my head, confusion flickering through me. “You mean the Jinn?”
“All of them, not just Maks,” he said softly. He stumbled to where his horse stood dozing. “I’m leaving now. It’s the best thing I can do to help you survive. Lila is right about that. The Emperor will follow me.”
“Where?” I stood and followed him. “Shem, we need to stick together, not spread out across the fucking continent.” Still, I held my tongue about already knowing the Emperor could find me.
He grabbed his small pack of gear and led his horse past the fire. “Listen to me. I know what I’m talking about. I will head north and east, toward the far wall.”
I stared hard at him. “The far wall is over three thousand miles away.”
Shem quirked his lips into a smile. “Give or take. Be warned though, stopping the Emperor does not mean killing him. We cannot risk what would come from that.”
I put my hand out and pushed it into his chest. “I can’t let you just walk away now. Not when we just found you.”
He put a hand over mine. “You don’t really need me, other than the package I’ve already given you. And now that the Emperor knows I am alive, and the knowledge I have . . . he won’t stop looking for me.”
Lila flicked her tail back and forth. “How did he even know we were there? How did he know where to find you?”
Shem’s eyes locked on mine and a shiver of fear started deep in my belly. “Because I belonged to him once, many, many years ago. It was through his power I became a seer. And I was trained for one reason only, to kill his bastard daughter.”
Well, that was not the answer I expected.
Chapter Seven
Shem put a hand on my shoulder and it felt as though he’d put a literal weight on me, pushing me to the ground. Which was not what I wanted when he’d just admitted to being someone he’d hidden from all of us. I shoved away from him, stepping back far enough that the fire didn’t warm me any longer. “You were a hired killer?”
He shrugged. “I sought power when I was young and stupid, and the Emperor used it against me.”
“You killed the Emperor’s daughter and took her papers?” I didn’t know why that upset me so, but the idea that he’d killed a person who’d stood against a monster that had been a total tyrant bothered me greatly. Even if that monster looked like nothing more than a kind old grandfather.
He dropped his hand. “We all do stupid things when we are young, Zam. Save the others, but don’t take the last stone from the Jinn. Whatever happens, the only thing I will tell you is to not take the stone. That will remove the last of the power imbued in the wall which is tied to his cage. Take the stone and the Emperor will be free in this world once more. As it is now, he can touch the world, but cannot be free. At least one stone needs to stay where it is.” He tugged his horse forward. “And I will do what I can to draw his attention away from you, for as long as I can.”
This was not happening. None of it. The whole fucking shit story had to be just a bad dream, one I couldn’t wake from.
Shem stepped around me. “I’ll ride hard and fast. Ishtar won’t bother with me, I don’t think, so I will go through the Stockyards, that will speed my passage.”
“That’s stupid even for you,” I snapped. “She’ll see you and draw you to her! She’ll set her new pets on you.”
He shrugged. “If she does, I’ll chat with her and offer my services until she no longer sees me. I can play the chameleon if I must.”
Shem walked out of the cave and into the suddenly still night. I followed him, my feet bare on the hard, cold, rocky ground. The stars glittered like chips of cut glass in the sky. The storm had passed. We all needed to get moving.
“Shem. You are supposed to be helping me! Not fucking off!” I said.
He turned to face me. “I am helping you. I’m buying you time, Zamira. You have the papers. Use them to guide you. I think you would have liked his daughter. She . . . was special.” His eyes drifted shut and in a flash of insight I realized he’d cared for her. Maybe he hadn’t killed her then? Or he’d killed her even though he did care for her. That was worse.
I swallowed hard. “I will get the rest of the pride, and then we are crossing the wall and getting the fuck out of here.”
His smile was tired and sad. “I doubt that. Your life is here, Zamira. You are a protector of this world,” he pointed to the ground at our feet, “no matter what else you might think, you know that is true. If the Emperor is freed, chaos will reign. And then . . . well, I don’t want to think about what would have to happen then.” He reached out and tugged me into his arms for a brief hug before he tossed his horse’s saddle on and quickly cinched him up. I watched as he spun the leggy gelding and took off back the way we’d come.
There was no goodbye or good luck. Just gone with the night, not unlike the last time he’d left the pride. A hand circled around my waist. “You can’t make him see sense,” Maks said. “He believes in the stories of the Emperor.”
“You don’t?” I turned to him.
He shrugged. “Stories meant to keep us in line, meant to keep us from overthrowing those who have a hold on them. A falak is waiting if the Emperor is killed? The Emperor is free if we take the stones from those who make our lives miserable? It smacks of manipulating our fears as if we were children.”
“I know.” Except part of me believed Shem. Because I’d seen the Emperor. I’d felt his power against my skin, and he’d nearly killed Shem even though he was far from him.
And if he was right, then we were in more trouble than just dealing with a few Jinn. Not unlike Maks’s reasoning, if the Emperor was real and I faced him, then there might be something worse out there he was holding back.