Falling for the Sultan Who Ordered My Death novel · Chapter 23 of 32

Chapter 23: Tonight I Came

Laleh closed the book on her finger.

"He fell asleep in the chair," she said. "Tamir. He'd been awake three nights with Father."

"When he woke up, Father was dead, and the lamp was trimmed neat as a bride's nails."

"He's never forgiven himself for the sleep."

She held the red book out to me.

"You take it up to him."

"He's your father too."

"That's why." Her jaw was set like her brother's. "If I see his face when he reads it, I'll go down to that study with a pitchfork."

"And Sadeq hangs me by noon, and you've lost your witness."

Ruya spoke from the wall without turning round.

"Where do I go?"

"Under my bed for now," Laleh said. "Before dawn, to the oldest court lady."

"Nobody searches her rooms. The guards are frightened of her."

"So am I," said Sahar.

I took the book.

I didn't go back into the pipe.

I went out of Laleh's door and up the long stairs on my own two bare feet, with soot on my knees and the book against my ribs.

The stairwell lamps had burned down to beads.

I stood in front of it for a breath.

Then I knocked.

He opened it himself.

He was in the white robe, wide awake, with a clean lamp burning behind him.

His face went through three things at once when he saw mine.

"What's happened? Is it Laleh?"

"Laleh's fine."

"Sahar?"

"Eating apricots. Let me in, Tamir."

He stepped back.

I walked in through the door, and he shut it behind me.

The cord was gone from his chest.

"Where's your seal?"

"In the chamberlain's strongbox." His mouth twisted. "I emptied the palace cisterns into the lower city without a vote."

"So the council voted the seal into safekeeping until the water's settled. Sadeq's motion. Eleven to four."

"And you let them."

"I'd rather they had the wax than the children had nothing."

"I'll take it back at morning court."

I held out the book.

He looked at the red leather and the broken clasp.

"Is that his?"

"Read the last page under your father's name," I said. "Then read the rest."

He took it to the lamp.

I watched his face instead of the pages.

Halfway through, his lips started moving.

Then his thumb stopped on one line and pressed until the paper creased under it.

He didn't make any sound at all.

He put one hand flat on the wall.

Then he slid down it until he was sitting on the floor with the book open on his knees.

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