“And if she sided with us instead of her father?”

“Has she?”

I resisted the urge to squirm. Therein lay the problem of my request. I couldn’t tell Maram that I was requesting an army on her behalf from rebels. Any ground I’d gained with her would be lost; despite saving her life, my connection with them had upset our delicate friendship and pushed her back into Nadine’s shadow. But the truth was if she was to have any hope of unifying the planet, she needed them as much as they needed her.

What I’d always believed about Maram remained true—that she would see, given time, that the path of least resistance was also the least just. That removing her father was the only way forward for the planet.

“I’m working on that part,” I said at last.

“Arinaas will not pledge the rebellion in support of her without either Maram herself or a powerful enough ally in her stead, Amani,” she said. “What about Idris?”

I shook my head. Maram might have feared the rebellion because it endangered her Vathek standing, but Idris’s fear was more acute. He’d lost his family to a doomed resistance. Even with ‘Adil’s abduction he was paralyzed by his fear.

“Perhaps before the wedding,” I said. “But since ‘Adil’s disappearance … he is more afraid of the regime than ever, though he will not say it.”

“You don’t trust him?” she said, dismayed.

“I don’t trust his fear,” I corrected. “I don’t think he would ever … report on any of us. But he would refuse to help.”

“That’s two-thirds of the main continent out—Maram is the last Ziyadi with any pull, and at this point she will not ally. And we cannot ally with you, Amani—it is not enough.”

“What about the Banu Ifran?” I said suddenly, my thoughts whirling. Wouldn’t it make sense to join Maram’s great alliance to the rebels—to pull the strongest of them into a confederation that would support her?

Furat scoffed. “The collaborators? They wouldn’t.”

“Rabi’a is new, and by all accounts has great love for her province and its prosperity,” I pointed out.

“Prosperity bought because of her mother’s collusion.”

“She cares, and she has been successful in caring for her province. No easy feat. Allow to me to try,” I said. “If I can secure her alliance—”

“If Rabi’a will ally with the rebels—if her house will ally with the rebels, then yes. She will have our fursa.” Knights. Dihya.

“I … I will need something too.”

“I see this was not done altruistically,” Furat said, laughing.

“I would not ask if my need was not dire,” I said.

“Peace, Amani. I do not judge. We live in difficult times.”

“My family … they are still on Cadiz. They are still surveilled. If I set a foot out of line—”

“They are always in danger.”