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The Black Khan
The Black Khan
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The Black Khan

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The Black Khan
Ausma Zehanat Khan

Book two of Ausma Zehanat Khan’s powerful, unforgettable new series, The Khorasan Archives.Sides must be chosen.Truths must be told.Freedoms will be fought for.To battle the cruel and controlling patriarchal force named the Talisman, members of a resistance group, the Companions of Hira, risked their lives to procure the Bloodprint – a sacred text that holds the power to overthrow this terrifying regime. Though they harnessed the magic known as the Claim, their plans now lie in ashes and their number scattered – with the two women at the centre of the plot – Arian and Sinnia – left facing the most harrowing tortures.Yet hope flickers in the darkness.The Bloodprint survived, secreted to Ashfall, seat of the Black Khan. But the Khan’s court is built upon shifting layers of intrigue and lethal conspiracy, with enemies whose motives are steeped in the shadows. Can the Khan guard the Bloodprint when treachery lurks in the wings and the Talisman gather at his door?The Companions of Hira must reunite, break through Talisman lines, and infiltrate Ashfall to join their ally, The Black Khan. But can his word be trusted?

Copyright (#u110d2d8a-5131-57f2-8ba5-3a5159d504c3)

HarperVoyager

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2018

Copyright © Ausma Zehanat Khan 2018

Cover illustration © Shutterstock.com (http://Shutterstock.com)

Cover design Micaela Alcaino © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018

Maps created by Ashley P. Halsey, inspired by Alesha Shaikh

Ausma Zehanat Khan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008171629

Ebook Edition © October 2018 ISBN: 9780008171643

Version: 2018-09-17

Dedication (#u110d2d8a-5131-57f2-8ba5-3a5159d504c3)

For Hema,

whose friendship, love, and decency

have saved me all these years

Contents

Cover (#u76db5dad-08db-5793-a029-f038a6a177e3)

Title Page (#ufdca0a22-5b69-54dd-9dda-07ca6ef861fc)

Copyright

Dedication

Maps

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Acknowledgments

Cast of Characters

Glossary of the Khorasan Archives

About the Author

Also by Ausma Zehanat Khan

About the Publisher

Maps (#u110d2d8a-5131-57f2-8ba5-3a5159d504c3)

1 (#u110d2d8a-5131-57f2-8ba5-3a5159d504c3)

IN THE DESERTED COURTYARD OF THE CLAY MINAR, THE BODIES OF BASMACHI fighters were gathered in a pile beneath a stunted tree in the shelter of a square stone base. White ribbons streamed down from the tree’s slender limbs, tied to its branches and twigs. The ribbons were bare of script: the people of Black Aura could not write. The ribbons were meant as a reminder of their sacred traditions; they were desperate, desolate prayers. The bodies piled beneath the tree formed the Authoritan’s answer to those prayers.

No wind stirred the ribbons or the dying branches. Sunlight blunted the edges of Arian’s vision, and she found her way around the tree more by instinct than anything else. She knew she was about to be taken inside the house of worship, just as she knew the Authoritan expected a demonstration of her power, a compulsion she had resisted with all the force and determination she was capable of as a Companion of Hira.