For long seconds she said nothing, and at last I looked up and went cold. I’d missed the soft whirring sound the imperial droids made. This one was a model I’d not yet encountered—the distinctive metallic fan spread out over its skull was in place, but it had four arms instead of the regular two. It was not a defense droid—its thin, sharp fingers ended in hooks on one hand, and I could see that one of its arms was denser, as if it hid yet more tools in its hollow tube.

An interrogation droid.

I stared at it, frozen.

“Did you imagine you could outsmart me?” Nadine said softly.

“Outsmart you, my lady?” I said, not bothering to steady my voice. I had to be surprised. I had to be frightened. She could not guess at what I did.

“Are you a mimic, now?” she said, coming closer.

My eyes didn’t move from the interrogation droid—the fear of that, at least, was real. I’d heard the stories of what they were capable of; sophisticated enough in their engineering that they could keep you alive even as you suffered excruciating pain.

“My lady … why…?” My eyes darted from the droid to Nadine and back again.

“Why?” she repeated. “Because Andalaans, and Kushaila in particular, are vipers. Don’t think I trust you.”

“I—” I paused and swallowed against a weight in my throat. “I have no desire to deceive you, my lady. I think only of my family.”

“Yes,” Nadine said thoughtfully, and the droid moved forward. “What would you do for your family, Amani? Is there a limit to it? Would you do anything?”

My eyes widened and I stumbled back. “Please—”

The droid lurched suddenly, the movement too fast for my eyes to follow. Its fingers wrapped around my throat and between one breath and the next I was suspended in midair. My vision filled with spots, my throat ached, my heart pounded. Nadine could not kill me—she couldn’t. And yet I hadn’t counted on her hatred of me and my race outweighing her sense.

It wasn’t until the droid released me and I collapsed on the ground that I realized I’d clawed at its fingers around my throat as a matter of survival. I kept my face down as I tried to drag in as much air as possible. If Nadine saw my eyes, she would see hatred instead of fear and all would be lost.

“What have I done,” I rasped, “to incur your wrath, my lady?”

“Yes,” she said archly. “What have you done? Tell me.”

“I have given you six men and women—two among them Andalaan—working against the crown,” I said, looking up at last. My hand was still around my throat. “Have I not shown deference?”

“Curious that you do not say loyalty.”