Nadine left and I remained motionless, still on my knees. Fury roiled inside me. At Nadine but at myself, as well. I had counted on every aspect of her personality, except her cruelty. She enjoyed toying with those beneath her as a cat toyed with a mouse. And she had relished my fear and despair as much as she had relished the new and heady power the names I’d given her had bought. She would never give me the recording, and therefore I would never secure the tablet.

Dihya.

I closed my eyes and breathed. I needed it. We needed it. There was no new world without it, no dawn for justice. I swore and slammed my fist against the ground. She had to give up the tablet. She had to—

My eyes widened. There was someone who could force her to give it up. Someone who didn’t need permission and would not be trapped by games or manipulations.

Maram.

She wouldn’t agree to taking the tablet unless I told her the truth. And if I told her the truth—what then? The last time she’d learned I was a rebel had destroyed our friendship. But this time, this Maram, was changed. She was at the precipice of understanding what was necessary.

She only needed a push.

27

We had crossed the Bay of Ghufran and come to its titular port city. Ghufran was a beauty and a wonder with its colorful buildings, and its bright-green-and-gold palace facing the bay. It was not only a seaport but a spaceport as well, and even after the sunset I could hear the whirr and hum of sky-cars and stellar transports landing in the airfields just beyond its walls. The sky was dark but the city itself looked like its own firmament, silver and gold, with lights flickering on the surface of the bay, reflecting the city back to itself.

The good will from the Mawlid celebrations still lingered, and so Maram took a chance and included more Vathek courtiers in her immediate party. In Ghufran they visited the ports, and she and Idris christened a new spacefaring vessel. As the tour progressed, invitations had begun rolling in from makhzen families that, in the past, had done their best to avoid the eyes of the crown. It exhausted Maram, and so for a day we switched. I’d encouraged her to take her place among the makhzen, for they loved her and now she could see it. But I took the opportunity—I didn’t know when I would be able to see Ghufran, or look upon its beautiful bay, or see its crystalline towers again.