Rhys spent most of his days trapped inside cold, moist rooms, longing for a window. Hanife had two brothers, and they enjoyed piling translation work onto Rhys’s desk. Once they found out he had a fine hand, he began learning the written version of Yazdani as well.

It was several weeks before Hanife finally asked him to come downstairs to do some “interrogation work.”

Rhys didn’t particularly like the sound of it. When he went down into the cells, he liked it even less.

A man was strung out on a stone slab. He seemed to be Ras Tiegan, or perhaps a mix of Ras Tiegan and Heidian.

“Tell him I want to know who else attacked my caravan,” Hanife said.

Rhys translated.

The man pressed his lips firmly together.

Hanife waved another man over. A man wielding some very sharp knives.

Rhys found himself staring at the ground while the man screamed. It was a very long day.

After, Rhys went down to sit with Jahrin and Tarik for supper.

“You look like you have seen a bloody djinn,” Tarik said.

“I think I have,” Rhys said.

Jahrin sighed. He reached out and squeezed Rhys’s hand. “This is what happens when you run away, as we did. You try to find a free life, but instead you find you are just a weapon in someone else’s war.”

Tarik grumbled into his fried meal worms.

But Jahrin’s words touched something in Rhys that had lain dormant for some time. How often had he run from a bad situation into something even more terrible because he could not face the consequences of his actions? Because he was too scared to fix what was broken?

Rhys thought most often of escape when he counted out the money Hanife paid him. It all meant nothing out here. Just sorting bits of useless paper. But in his mind, every note was a way to ease Elahyiah’s burdens, and school his children, and build some future from the ashes of the present. Somehow. If he ever found them. If she ever forgave him. Was there forgiveness to be had, after all he’d done?

Three weeks after he arrived at Hanife’s hold, Hanife called him down again to the interrogation room. Rhys expected more horror, but instead, there were three Ras Tiegan men there, standing free and easy.

“Tell them I appreciate our friendship,” Hanife said, “and I will do all I can to ensure their man’s safety.”

Rhys translated.

“We are pleased to do business with such an honorable man. We look forward to sharing our discoveries with him as they progress,” said one of the Ras Tiegans.