Chapter 7 Summary

Ilderim weeps, telling how Lakshmibai gets Skene to enlarge her personal bodyguard. The Star Fort is taken, the cantonment is burned, and sahibs are butchered. Ilderim is wounded in the defense but escapes. Kala Khan reneges on the surrender, massacring men, women, and children. Flashy doubts that Lakshmibai could kill children but Ilderim says that bedding her has ruined his perspective. Ilderim believes that Cawnpore is the safest destination, and Flashy feels safer with his rough band than alone. Shadman Khan rustles horses and they ride away, Ilderim vowing vengeance. Avoiding roads slows their progress and it grows clear that Cawnpore is under siege as parties of mutineers march toward it. Eight of Ilderim's eleven men desert.

When three horsemen race by, pursued by a motley gang of Sikh riders led by a white man, Flashy shoots the lead fugitive and another's horse...