“I killed a man at the exit from the kitchen,” Usha said, her voice very soft. “Go there now.”

“Come with me,” Lalita whispered.

Usha shook her head.

“They need a distraction,” murmured Usha. “And I need to make sure they let Farida go.”

In the flickering light Usha’s face was resolute, her jaw firm. There was a spatter of blood on her cheek.

There are too many men, Lalita thought. And only one of you.

Lalita thought absurdly of the way her grandmother had taken her face in her hands, a lifetime ago. She wanted to place her hand on Usha’s jaw and give a shape to a farewell that already felt wrenchingly, terribly final. She wanted to tell Usha to save her skin first, to leave Lalita to the fate she’d built for herself, and run. Her hands were trembling. She didn’t reach out.

“I can’t leave you here,” she said instead.

Usha smiled wanly.

“I’ll be fine,” she said.

There was a commotion below them; a scream, and then silence.

If the noblemen found Lalita, she would be the one screaming. She knew very well what Ambhan noblemen thought of the worth of Amrithi. She knew the cruelty they could inflict, before they forced her from the city and the life she had so carefully, laboriously constructed for herself. She thought of her grandmother’s scarred lip, her warning, and shivered.

Usha gestured with her free hand, the other one tight on her scimitar. Go.

Usha slipped away, toward the courtyard, and Lalita headed to the right. The exit from the kitchen was ideal. It led out to a poorer district of Jah Irinah, winding and crowded and likely to be unfamiliar to the noblemen who had come to punish Lalita for tainting their city with her heathen presence. They wanted to protect the people of Jah Irinah from her, but—thank the Gods—they knew very little about the lives of the ones who were not of their rank.

She reached the kitchens. Pushed open the door and stepped out into the street. The body of the man Usha had killed lay against the wall, in a pool of its own dark blood. She murmured a curse, averting her eyes, and finally let the panic she’d been holding at bay take her. She sucked in a breath and began to run.