The main court room Maram had chosen to stage her control of the palace from was wholly Andalaan. Its floors were tiled in green, orange, and blue, its walls covered in beautiful mosaics. The council seating was a ring of low chairs, with engraved wooden backs depicting lions and tesleet alternately. Her throne, a backless divan covered in green-and-gold brocade, sat framed by a wide open window so that she was haloed by light and bracketed by the mesas. She made an impressive figure, regal and crowned.

An Andalaan queen.

Sitting in the council chairs was her court. Not just the makhzen we had recruited, but their own banner houses, the wizaraa’ who had joined us on the tour. Nadine was the only Vathek person in the room and she was on her knees, with two of Rabi’a’s men bracketing her.

Aghraas stood behind Maram’s throne and to the left, and I stood to her right. The makhzen, especially the makhzen I’d befriended on Maram’s behalf, continued to watch me closely, but said nothing. It seemed, at least, they knew to show a united front in front of all and any of the Vath. Even one in chains.

“You worked so hard to achieve control over me,” Maram said, looking at Nadine. Someone had bandaged the wound Idris inflicted on her. She was pale, with dark circles under her eyes. I imagined that the high stewardess had not conceived of a world within which Mathis lost and she was reduced to this. “Did you imagine I would welcome you back if I had failed? Or that my father would not give me the choice?”

She raised her eyes to look up at her. “I have always been loyal to you, Your Highness.”

“I am queen, Nadine,” Maram said softly. “You will address me as such.”

“Yes, Your Grace,” she said. “Please, Your Grace. None of these people can be relied on for advice. I am the only one—”

Maram tilted her head to the left, much as I had when speaking with her father. “How would you advise me? In this moment?” She turned to face me, and circled me slowly. “Should I kill my body double, as you wished to?” She moved to Idris and laid a hand on his arm. “Or should I threaten the scion of the largest tribe on the planet?”

“Your Grace—” Nadine stammered.

“Should I kneel at the feet of your ambition,” Maram asked, coming to stand before her, “while sacrificing my own safety and the prosperity of this planet?”

The room was silent.

“Or,” Maram continued sweetly. “Will you advise me to let you live so that you may continue to undermine me under the illusion of motherly love while turning my people against me?”