I felt a small kernel of pride at that and a shy smile emerged. He smiled back—the sort of smile he’d given me before his marriage. I expected him to look away, but he didn’t, and the longer I stared the more flushed I felt. It was moments like these, where I remembered what we were, what we’d been not so long ago, that were dangerous. That sparked along my skin like flecks of ember ready to turn to flame.

A log in the fire popped, and we jumped, our stare broken.

“How was the game?” I asked, remembering I’timad had challenged him to a game of shatranj before I retired.

“Tch,” he said, and I grinned.

“Did she beat you?”

“She did not.” He paused. “It was a stalemate.”

“How injurious to your pride.”

“I just didn’t expect it,” he grumbled.

“It seemed too obvious to warn you,” I laughed.

“It wasn’t obvious at all! She has none of the patience required for the game.”

He seemed so put out by it—not even a loss, but a deadlock with a competent rival.

“You’ve gone too long unchallenged,” I said and drew the mantle closer around me. “You must play her again—maybe she will take the board.”

“She will absolutely not. My honor is at stake now—my wife thinks I will be beat by a Mas’udi.”

I grinned again. “Did you come here to protest your competence or for some other purpose?”

“Come for a ride with me?” he asked.

I hesitated. It was a bad idea to be alone with him, so early in his marriage.

“As friends,” he said, voice low. Insistent. I swallowed against the sudden rush of electricity over my skin.

“As friends,” I repeated, and took his outstretched hand.

Idris led our horses down to the beach and they picked their way easily along the coast. The roar of the ocean and the sound of it battering itself along the cliff made it easy to talk without worrying anyone would overhear. There were drones far in the water, bobbing with the waves, watching us, and more guardsmen on the cliffs.

“Where are we going?”

“We’re almost there.” The beach didn’t end, but the cliff seemed to fold in on itself. We had ridden down the hillside of the city and then all the way down to reach the beach. The cave seemed to be directly below the city itself.

Idris disembarked from his horse then came around to my side to help me down. It was colder so much closer to the water, so late in the year. That was what I told myself as I looked up at him and shivered. His hands lay against my ribs and seemed to burn through the layers of clothes I wore.