Her mouth twisted as she struggled. “I cannot promise you anything,” she said. “I will take the meeting—but if I’m unconvinced of your possibilities for success—”

“That’s all I ask.”

She came to her feet at last and stood beside me before the opening of the balcony.

“I expect to be impressed, Amani,” she said.

“And I expect that you will be.”

17

Arinaas had at last arrived at M’Gaadir. She would meet Rabi’a herself, and her revelation would cement whether Rabi’a was with us or not.

The allies Idris, Maram, and I had arranged could not do what needed doing alone. They would need the rebels as much as the rebels needed them. They had been demilitarized and disinherited, but the planet remembered them and mourned and wanted them to rise. And so, in giving Rabi’a, the strongest among them, to the rebels, I would forge an unassailable alliance between those held by the empire and those that would break it.

A dangerous risk. But one I knew would pay off.

Tala joined me in the salon with a small lantern and a heavier cloak. The days and nights had turned colder as we’d progressed through autumn. Not so cold as it was this time of year in the mountains, but cold enough.

“Here,” she said, and pressed a hand against a wall panel. There was a soft click and it swung toward us, revealing a dark corridor.

“Why is this palace littered with secret passageways?” I asked.

Tala grinned. “You know stories so well—do you not know the story of Kansa’s second husband?”

“Are you saying our ancestor was a bigamist?”

She laughed. “No.”

I shook my head. “You will have to tell me this story when I get back.”

She handed me the lantern and the cloak. “Follow the corridor—it leads directly to Houwa’s cave. Good luck.”

“Thank you—I will need it.”

The corridor was long and cold, and I was glad for both the fur-lined cloak Tala had given me and the lantern to light the way. It dipped down further into the ground, and eventually the ground turned rocky and covered in gravel. I had passed out of the estate’s limits entirely and was at the back end of the cave. When at last it opened up into the cave proper, it revealed several Tazalghit women standing guard. A fire was lit just under the mural of Houwa, and standing around it were several women—the one who caught my eye was Arinaas.