Nyx stared hard at the page. It was everything she had wanted just a handful of years ago. To become an honorable bel dame again. But that was before she blew up a dozen bel dames in Tirhan. Before she let go of Rhys for the last time. Before Radeyah.

“My last day as a bel dame, you stripped my title and sent me to prison,” Nyx said. “Nobody puts bel dames in prison. You know what they do to us there? Not a great time. Then I ate dead bugs and dog shit for a year while I hauled in debtors and shoplifters. I slept in doorways and in trash heaps. Also not a great time. Everything I built since then, Fatima, I did without you and the bel dames. I’m not so sure I need you.”

Fatima’s mouth was hard. “If you knew what this job was, you would change your mind,” she said.

“There were a lot of other things you needed to take care of, Fatima. How about Alharazad? You ever take care of that, or did you fuck that up as well as you did the rest of the country?”

“You think I could get anybody to go after her? I know what I promised you, Nyx. But this is a delicate time. Have you heard some of the men talk? They make it out like we’re mindless monsters, and every lunatic that ever walked across the sand has it out for the Queen, or the diplomats, or the creepers, or the magicians, or the First Families. Now the Queen’s about to dissolve the entire monarchy—against all advice to the contrary. The people will elect a governing body, led by a minister elected by the body. It’s complicated. A bit like what the Mhorians do, only with less self-flagellation.

“Nyx, we’re so close to ending this war. But any little thing can fuck it up. Murdered Queen. Crazy bel dames. Mobs of unhappy boys… anything.”

“You really think Chenja’s going to abide by this ceasefire?”

“There’s a weapon on the table. Something we used against them that got them to talk.”

“Talk? Not retaliate?”

“They have the same weapon and blew up one of our northern outposts.”

“Let me guess. Is Yah Tayyib in the country?”

“He turned up in Mushtallah three years ago. Him and a bunch of the broederbond. It’s why I couldn’t touch him. Why?”

“Broederbond? Isn’t that the oath boys take to watch each other’s backs after they graduate from combat training?”

“Yes. They’ve… co-opted it as the name of their ridiculous men’s advocacy movement. They were just flies before, but they have numbers now. Don’t know what they find to natter on about. It’s not as if we treat them like animals the way Chenjans treat women.”

Nyx had her own opinions about that. “We’re done here, Fatima.”