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Enjoy!
Christine
Chapter 60
The Spy
"He's the one who told me all about the plans for the Shah in the first place!" I said to Erik as we finished our lesson that day. "And now he thinks I'm backstabbing-"
"Nadir knows you're innocent." Erik was still at the piano. He was looking at the music he'd played - music he'd written. Every note was beautifully placed. In another life, he would have been a professional composer. "He's smarter than that. He just doesn't want to believe that something foul is brewing under his nose."
I brought my hand to the necklace he'd gifted me. As of late, touching it had become a sort of comfort - a piece of him I could bring with me and keep close to my heart. Since last night, I hadn't been able to stop thinking about the possibility of someone listening.
But nothing happened. Nothing came of it.
Not until two weeks later.
It was late enough into the night that I'd slept the hashish away.
And, as it had happened nearly every night I'd been under the influence, I awoke with the feeling of cotton in my mouth. Thirsty - extremely so.
Careful, so as not to wake Erik sleeping soundly beside me, I pulled the blanket off of me and left the bed. The chambers were dark, the only light coming from where the moonlight leaked through the window's curtains. I made my way to the bathing room, to fill a cup I kept there with water. That room was absolutely pitch black.
I used my hands outstretched to find the counter, and then felt around for a lantern. I switched it on.
Had the mirror not been covered, I would have likely seen the man standing behind me. I likely would have screamed.
But as it was, I felt a hand close over my mouth and saw a dagger appear right below my chin. A warning not to make a sound. The owner of the hand and the dagger didn't need to worry - I was too stunned to do anything but gasp through my nose and freeze where I stood.
The person behind me didn't say a word; he merely turned me toward the door and moved me forward. A numb, icy feeling of dread started in my belly and spread to the top of my head and the tips of my fingers and toes. This was it. This was what I'd been fearing all this time.
But who was it?
I dared not turn to look. I wasn't sure it would make a difference - it could have been someone I knew but it could have been no one familiar to me at all.
He pushed me into the parlor, and then into Erik's empty bedroom, its door cracked. My eyes, slightly adjusted to the dark, saw at the bookshelf door was ajar as well. The man made me enter Echo Hall.
I thought about screaming, despite the dagger. And in hindsight, I should have. But I was far too frightened of that sharp blade near my neck to think of a way out.
He didn't close the bookshelf door behind him. He simply walked, forcing me to keep moving, making turns and twists, both of us silent as the grave I rapidly saw myself ending up in.
And then, we turned toward yet another open door, and I was pushed into a bedroom. Stone walls with no window, no decoration on the walls. A bed. A table and a chair and a chamber pot in the corner. It looked like a prison cell.
The person brought me to the chair, currently pulled out from the table, and made me sit. He dropped the knife and forced my hands behind me, behind the chair's back. I felt a rope being tied around my wrists. Too tightly. Fear and a bit of pain forced a whimper from my mouth.
Something sharp was said in Persian, whispered. The man went around me and to the door, closing it. I saw he had black hair, his clothes the same color.
An Echo.
This was an Echo.
I remembered the dead man in the halls. I remembered how quickly Nadir closed the case of who did it.
"What do you want?" I whispered.
The man turned to look at me. I was struck by how young he looked. Perhaps Ibrahim's age - perhaps even Erik's. Or mine.
He pursed his lips, and then went to the table. I saw a sheet of paper on it. He held it out for me to read. The lettering was sloppy, reminiscent of a child's, but it was in French:
Angel take from me. I take from Angel.
I looked at him, panic like a thousand blooming flowers inside me. "What did he take from you?"
He didn't respond. He simply picked up the dagger again and held it to my throat. I wasn't sure that he understood my words at all.
I thought perhaps he was about to slit my throat, when his face contorted and he let out a noise of frustration. He brought the dagger to his side, gripping it tightly in his fist.
He stayed that way for, in my opinion, too long. Then he held the knife up again. He stared into my eyes, and perspiration started at his forehead. I could see a struggle - he wanted to kill me. He wanted badly to do so. But he couldn't.
He dropped the weapon to the floor. He went to the table and placed his palms flat there, staring down at his hands. He seemed to be shaking.
After some time, he left the table and began to pace. Back and forth. Moving his hands and talking, bringing his fingers into his hair and gripping the strands, or rubbing his eyes and grimacing as he walked. Chattering. Back and forth. Back and forth.
For what could have been five minutes or an hour.
But I was too terrified to speak. I merely looked down when his movements became too upsetting. I would die here, I realized. This was where I would leave this world and meet my mother. If misfortune should have it, my father too.
But then a knock arrived. The man spun and looked like an animal cornered in a cave, slightly hunched but seeming ready to pounce. The knock sounded again, and he picked up the blade once more, holding it quaveringly to my throat, and spoke softly.
The door opened.
My eyes widened when they found Nadir, looking with dizzying calm from the Echo to me to the Echo. He closed the door behind him.
I didn't understand any of the conversation at the time, but this is what would be later revealed to me:
Nadir took a breath in. "Rahim."
"Daroga," Rahim whispered. "Not who I was expecting."
"No, I suppose it's not." He nodded to me. "I was merely coming round to observe my Echoes...but what is this?"
The man didn't respond.
"You understand that when the Angel discovers his property is missing, he-"
"We both know," said Rahim lowly, "that the Angel does not see it that way."
The Daroga raised a brow. "What way?"
"His property. He is no cruel master." He held the knife a bit closer. "He loves her. Actually loves her."
My heart pounded in my chest. I stared at Nadir. Help me, I begged him in my mind. Please help me.
But Nadir smiled. "He does love her. But why does that concern you?"
"He took the woman I loved." The Echo's voice wavered. "He killed her."
"Who?"
"The servant girl who brought her the poisoned tea."
Nadir's eyes thinned. "You spoke with that girl? You know my Echoes are not to speak to anyone-"
"We never spoke." Rahim's hand shook as he brought the blade closer to my throat. "I loved her all the same. I'd...watch her as she moved from room to room. Listen to her hum or laugh to herself. She was the only good thing about my life, Daroga. The thing I looked forward to in my loneliness. And the Angel took her away. So now? I will take his love away, too."
"How do you know he loves her so much?"
Rahim fell silent.
"Took my book, didn't you? Stole from your master? But you mean me no harm - no, you did it to serve your own interests, not the Shah's. Am I right?"
"I had to know," rasped Rahim behind me. "I had to know if my suspicion was true. I had to know if he actually did love her. And he does."
"And what about the dead Echo a couple months back? Was that you, too?"
"He was onto me," he said. "He saw me spying where I wasn't supposed to. I could see in his eyes that he was going to tell you. I had to do something. I killed him. I panicked. So I framed it as a suicide - claimed that he loved that girl, too." He panted for a moment. "I'd do it again. All of it."
Nadir looked at his Echo for a while, and then tsked, walking further into the room. "Rahim...Rahim... You know what must be done, don't you?"
"If you must kill me, do it. But I will take her life first." He held the dagger against me. Alarm rung in my head at the contact. "That was the plan anyway. Lure the Angel here to collect her dead body - see his pain - and then kill myself, dying happily knowing I made him suffer. I even left him a note of where to find me. I want to die anyway, Daroga."
"Me? Kill you? Oh, no, dear boy."
Cold. I felt cold. Something was wrong. Nadir's jade eyes took in the Echo as he smiled again.
"Actually, I think you've solved a problem for me." Nadir went to the back of my chair, shooing Rahim away. The Echo, moved to stand in front of me, his back now to the door. "Hand me the dagger, please."
Rahim looked absolutely dumbfounded. He gave the dagger to Nadir.
"You see," said the Daroga, "Erik made a promise to me, and I think this Flower is getting in the way of what needs to be done." He switched to French. "You have been quite a thorn in my side; haven't you, Christine?"
Nadir held the dagger to my neck. I wanted to sob. I think I did.
"Oh, don't cry. Death is part of life. And you're a good girl. You'll surely end up in Paradise." He spoke once more in Persian, and I lost comprehension again. "Now, Rahim. Watch, please, as I show you what a thorough cut across the neck looks like."
The door opened, silent, slow. I noticed it. But Rahim didn't.
A lasso flew from the hall and landed itself around Rahim's throat. He choked against it as it was pulled tight, gripping his neck, the rope, as he sputtered and staggered back. Erik was on the other side. He came forward and tightened it further, maskless face full of rage.
I sobbed again, but this time it was in relief.
He nodded to Nadir then, who came around the chair, dagger still in his hand. Rahim continued to gasp in vain for air, clawing at the rope, stomping his feet. He watched with wide eyes as the Daroga adjusted his spectacles, lifted the dagger...
And sliced the Echo's throat clean through.
Rahim's eyes rolled back in his head as blood poured like a waterfall from his neck, painting his skin red, wetting his black clothes. He fell limp, and Erik let him drop to the floor.
"There," said Nadir softly in French. He crouched and wiped the blood on the dagger on Rahim's soaked shirt. He patted the Echo's cheek and stood. "That's how you do it."
