But I drowned them out as I clung to my rational thought. It was the only thing keeping me from tearing the room apart in sorrow. In panic. Because why they’d been targeted was only a mystery if it wasn’t coupled with Arwia’s attack at the wedding.
An assassin had been sent to kill a healer, and a healer he’d killed.
The problem was, he’d murdered the wrong one.
I WAVED A cautious goodbye to Ummi and Humusi, who’d walked Arwia and me home in the dead of night. After giving me their salute, elbows pressed into their hips, arms open like the goddess Linaza, they jogged away, and two other Koru warriors stationed themselves outside our home. Arwia and I pushed open the door, and I tapped the dust from my sandals before entering the house. Carpets covered the packed floor, and Arwia was constantly fussing about us dragging dirt in, so even in the midst of chaos, I wanted to please her.
At a time like this, kindness was more important than ever.
Nanaea and Dagan were standing, shoulders tense, in the center of the common room.
“Oh, thank Selu you’re home.” Nanaea flung herself into my arms, nearly knocking me off my feet. The heady scent of her rose oil enveloped me, and I was grateful for it. It smothered the sick stench of blood, of death and gore and violence, from my mind. It wouldn’t last, but it was all I had at the moment. I hugged her, worry and sorrow chewing at my guts like worms, and she eased away.
“Arwia, how is your ear? I heard about what happened! Are you all right?” Nanaea took my healing satchel from me and hung it on a hook near a basket of her colorful fabrics, where I always kept it.
“Your wonder of a sister has managed to save it.” Arwia bent to remove her sandals, easing down at our low wooden table, the dazzling moonlight shining over the top of bowls and flagons from an earlier meal, casting long shadows. She eyed me warily. We had to tell them what had happened. Neither of us wanted to do it, though.
“ ‘Wonder’ is a strong word. Especially since your hearing may be impacted for a while, and there’s little I can do about that while it heals.”
Nanaea crouched by the fireplace, stirring a pot of steaming wheat porridge. “I’m sure it will get better and everything will be fine after a while.”
Her ear might heal, but nothing would be fine for a long time. Not until we were all safe. Dagan engulfed me in his arms, burying his face in my hair.
“You’re back,” he murmured. “I knew the Koru could protect you both, but I was still afraid. Kasha is upstairs asleep. Iltani is in a drunken stupor in her room, snoring loud enough to call the Boatman from the river.” He pulled me back and kissed my forehead. “Are you all right? You’re—” He stepped away from me. “You’re covered in blood.” He looked from me to Arwia. “Is that all hers?”
“No,” I sighed, running a hand down my face. “It isn’t.”
Alarmed, Nanaea looked up at me swiftly from the fire. I took Dagan’s hands in mine and kissed them. The last thing I wanted to do was introduce more violence into their lives. We’d left all that. Manzazu was supposed to be a safe haven for us.
Nevertheless.
“The assassins came for me.”
“What do you mean?” Dagan breathed. “Are you all right? Is that your blood?”
Nanaea’s ladle paused over the bowls. “Did they hurt you, Sister?”
“No. I—”
The back door creaked open, and Dagan shoved me behind him, his emerald dagger out of his belt and in his hand, poised to throw as Nasu emerged.
“Easy, Dagan.” Nasu closed the door quietly behind him, his warm brown eyes wary, his hands up in surrender. “It’s me.”
“Well, announce yourself, then!” Dagan sheathed his dagger forcibly. “I could’ve killed you!”
He’d erected a set of targets in the back of our home for sport, and I’d seen him throw hundreds of times, so I knew Dagan’s aim was true and straight, his dagger rarely missing the heart of the target.
Warily, Nasu started to remove his weaponry belt but seemed to think better of it as he stared at me, and kept it on. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
“The assassins came for me, Nasu. Mudi and Mirrum were…dead when we arrived in the sickroom.” My throat closed, the edge of a sob trying to elbow its way out. I lowered my voice, glancing up the stairs where my little brother slept. “They were murdered. Their throats slit.”
“Come. Sit down.” Dagan led me to our low wooden table, made roughly by Nasu’s hands, and Arwia scooted over so everyone could fit.
Nanaea plunked bowls of steaming porridge in front of us. “It isn’t flavorful, since the Libbu has been out of nutmeg and cloves, but it’s warm and filling.”
We murmured our thanks, and she joined us.
Tearfully, I described the grisly scene. Finding Mudi and Mirrum. Deciding to stay put and fix Arwia’s ear while Humusi ran to alert the queen. The families coming to collect the bodies. As I talked, we all made a show of eating, though we mostly shoved the food around in our bowls, the gore pickpocketing our appetites.
At last, Nasu gave up and pushed his food away. “Well, you can rest assured that Sarratum Tabni has fortified the city. Ilu’s mother is friends with the queen, and she heard that the warriors in the larger regiment have been dispatched to the wall, with troops combing the city in twos and threes to find any threats.”
He folded his hands in front of him. “She also said that the bastard Uruku has been causing trouble in the entire river region down by the sea. Some of his men attacked a group of our traders headed down to the ports. Slit their throats. Left them for the birds. And that Uruku is sending out raids, terrorizing people in other cities in the south. There’s even talk he’s sent a band of mercenaries to places closer to us. Up north.”
Arwia bit her lip, thinking. Then she turned to me. “I need to go to Sarratum Tabni and beg her to house us in the Palace, which is the safest place for now. Though I am not sitting on Alu’s throne, you are all my subjects and I plan to keep you safe. Kammani, will you come with me? She respects you and maybe she’ll listen if you’re there. She still thinks of me as a child.”
“We will never be safe.” I shook my head and shoved my bowl of porridge away. “Not here in Manzazu or anywhere else we go. You know that, don’t you? We cannot stay locked up in the Palace forever. Uruku will not stop sending assassins or putting a price on our heads until he’s murdered each and every one of us. He values that throne far too much to be dissuaded so easily.”
“You’d think if he valued it, he wouldn’t have attacked on Manzazu soil.” Nasu played with his spoon. “The queen is fortifying our city, but she will answer Alu’s threat, and soon.”