The quiet tension fell away as work was taken up and cities began to check in. I watched as a wall was overtaken by screens, and each screen in turn focused on a city. One by one across the planet, the Vathek flag was cast down and the Andalaan flag raised. There were places, I knew, where the rebels had found more resistance than they’d counted on. And there was the Vathek aristocracy to contend with besides. But Maram was not heir only to Andalaa, but the Vathek empire, and control of the armada was in her hands.

The new world had begun.

It was long into the night before we retired. Rabi’a caught me as my escort of guards prepared to take me to new quarters. She hugged me without warning, startling a laugh out of me.

“This is because of you,” she said into my ear. “We are free because of you.”

My eyes filled with tears. The exhaustion and emotional roller coaster of the day had finally caught up with me.

“No,” I said, hugging her back. “A rebellion is the work of many.”

She kissed my cheek. “Go rest. I will see you tomorrow.”

Maram had assigned guards to me in the uproar as well as Tala and a coterie of handmaidens. They all followed me as I made my way through the palace and to a new set of quarters. I was no longer a body double in secret. I was, by Maram’s royal decree, a Ziyadi. My mind whirled. Did she plan on making that official? Did I want her to?

I entered the private sitting room of my new quarters and from there went through the main courtyard. Everywhere serving girls and boys, handmaidens and valets, stepped out of my path and bowed their heads in respect. Dihya. Was this my new reality?

A pair of attendants pulled open the door to the main sitting room.

It was a wide-open area, with high ceilings, and an open vista of the hills beyond the mesa. There was a raised platform before the balcony, and it was there that Idris stood. Our eyes met and an electric shock went through me. There was no one in the room save the two of us, and I forgot sense and decorum and rushed to him. He pulled me into his arms and I felt as if a key turned in its lock and all my fear and terror spilled out. I pressed my face against his shoulder and wept. The euphoria of the day followed by the horror after swept through me and wrung me dry. To be so close to victory and then so close to death and then back to victory again—I could not make sense of it.

“You’re alright,” he whispered into my hair. “You’re here with me.”