Rabi’a watched the stable hands walk some of the horses through their paces. I joined her and stood to her left, watching Idris’s stallion—which he’d named Al-Hays, the chase—eye his masters. I had the curious feeling he might bite one at any moment.

“Buchra seems to be settling in much better,” I said.

A part of me had worried that Rabi’a and her sister wouldn’t join us. Buchra was not so sullen anymore, but it was clear she was out of her element with the boisterous Mas’udi twins and rowdy Nasiris. The inroads I’d made with them so far, however, were not enough. The rebellion needed them and the resources their province would provide to the resistance, and if I didn’t secure that soon, I worried where we might stand.

“She dislikes being shut up in an estate—the excursions do her good. Besides—she’d never been away from Qarmutta before,” Rabi’a replied. “I commend you, by the way.”

“Oh?”

“It is no easy thing to force a raptor like Nadine from her perch. Though I do wonder why you did it. She’s a scion of your father’s power, after all.”

I looked out at the beach and tried to choose my words carefully. I’timad had won a race against her brother, and it sounded like he was accusing her of cheating. She remained astride her horse, her eyes narrowed at her brother as the horse beneath her pranced nervously.

I didn’t look away from the race as I answered. “The position of high stewardess affords her access to power. It gives her access to me, whom she hopes to control.”

Rabi’a frowned, thoughtful. “You don’t think she’ll throw you over for your half sister?”

I barked out a laugh. “Galene is a full-blooded High Vath. She wouldn’t tolerate Nadine’s interference,” I said. But Maram, a child of two worlds who feared being rejected by both, would bend to Nadine’s wisdom, would listen to the doubts and paranoia she fed her. Through Maram she could one day control the empire.

“And it seems neither will you.”

“To Nadine—to everyone, it seems—I’m a compromise. The only way to legitimate rule of this planet is through Najat’s heir.” I shook my head. “I am not a compromise—I am the rightful heir to this planet, and I will not be undermined by those who believe me to be.”

“Strong words,” Rabi’a said.

“Too strong for a collaborator’s daughter?”

A ghost of a smile passed over her face.

“You have been talking to Idris,” she said.

“Does that surprise you?”