“They put me on a boat on the Herat River. I don’t know for how long we sailed upriver, but eventually we came to a safe house, where they patched me up. By the time I recovered my strength, we received reports that the lighthouse had fallen and that you were—” She sucked in a shaky breath instead of saying it. “I lost myself in grief for days. Weeks. I couldn’t bear to live in a world that would be cruel enough to take my sweet boy away from me.”

Hassan held his mother’s hand tighter, not knowing what to say.

“By this time,” she said, “your aunt’s soldiers had poured downriver. Securing key resources and towns. And I knew what I needed to do. So one morning I just woke up and decided—my time on this earth would not be finished until I had taken Herat back from Lethia and made every single one of her soldiers pay for what they had done.”

Hassan had forgotten how formidable his mother could be, how downright ruthless. She was not one to shy away from emotion—in contrast to Hassan’s more reserved father, his mother felt everything strongly and expressed herself vividly. That included her temper—once her anger was incurred, one simply had to let it run its course. It was something that she and Hassan shared, something his father had never truly understood.

“And so that is what I have been doing,” she said. “I have traveled all over the highlands, trying to win the support of the regional lords. Mustering an army to take back Nazirah. One month ago, we received information that there was a group of rebels operating within Nazirah. I, and a select group of my commanders and their fighters, snuck into the city. They told me that you had been with them, after the lighthouse. And I began to hope, once again, that you were still alive. That our paths might cross.”

“We’d heard that the regional lords had united,” Hassan said. “But I had no idea that you had done it. We had no idea that you had an army.”

“We plan to work with the rebels on a coordinated attack,” she said. “The lords will march on Nazirah while the rebels strike from within.”

“When?” Hassan asked.

“Soon,” she replied. “But we need something before we can launch the attack. I was able to persuade the lords to unite and back my claim to the throne, though it is far more tenuous than Lethia’s. But without a strong claim, there will be more bloodshed, and in the end, Lethia will keep her power or Herat will descend into chaos. We need a true heir to unite us. We need a king.”

Her gaze settled on his face.