“Ah, yes,” he said, features shining. “Your famous Pinnacle. Tell me . . . how do you intend to make the nobles give up those resources without a fight?”

He leaned over the hedge even closer—but this time the movement seemed unconscious, as if his attraction was earnest. I moved back, stiffly.

“I have a better question,” I said, crossing my arms. “Why do the nobles in Djbanti hoard wealth? Your kingdom has some of the most abundant natural resources in the empire. Yet the majority of your people live in poverty.”

For the first time, King Zuri looked uncomfortable. His earnest expression dissipated, replaced by the vapid mask he usually wore. “You’ll have to ask my warlords,” he drawled, waving a dismissive hand. “They’re the ones who run my country. In fact,” he said, giving me a sidelong glance. “Why don’t you hold the Pinnacle in Djbanti? My family castle is located directly next to an imperial tannery. Game pelts are one of Djbanti’s greatest exports. My warlords punish all peasants who poach on crown land—even those who hunt to feed their families. Seems fitting to hold your Pinnacle at the heart of injustice.”

Suspicion narrowed my eyes . . . but I considered. Why not have the Pinnacle at Zuri’s castle? Djbanti was a more central continent location than coastal Oluwan, so the nobles could travel there more easily.

“Fine,” I said. “But don’t expect me to go easy on your warlords. I know they hate my edict. All the nobles do, and the empire’s too big for me to watch them all—I can’t be sure they’ll obey it. But I’m working on a strategy to make them cooperate. And if all goes well, I’ll announce it at the Pinnacle.” I smiled smugly. “Not bad for squandered time, I think.”

“No,” Zuri replied, his tone unnervingly soft. “Not bad at all.”

I shifted my feet in the grass. “Enough for you to finally show up when I invite you?”

He smiled strangely, looking at me with familiar fondness—as though recalling a memory. “Believe me, Lady Empress,” he said. “The moment you untap your full potential . . . your wish is my command.”

CHAPTER 18

“ODODO the hunter, UKPOPO, UKPOPO, more handsome than princes; aheh, no lie!”

Adukeh, the former quarry girl who now served as my akorin, trilled in a melodramatic soprano as morning light streamed into the Imperial Bedchamber. She had christened Kameron’s soot-black panther cub Ododo, and Dayo laughed as she danced with the animal, gyrating around the room.

“He’ll charm you to pieces, a-bembem, a-bembem,

Unless you’re a mouse; I tell you, no lie!”

Adukeh sashayed toward the sleeping dais, where Dayo and I sat cross-legged, awaiting this month’s Rising. The twelve-year-old girl was officially the most cheerful person of the Imperial Suite. That wasn’t saying much, of course, since only Dayo and I were left. Sanjeet, Kirah, and the rest of my council siblings had been gone for a month. Even Ai Ling had taken her leave to Moreyao, searching her home realm’s rivers and lakes for an alagbato threatening to flood the villages. Between my pain at their absence, my ongoing failure to anoint a council, and the pressure of planning a Pinnacle, few distractions cheered me up, even Adukeh’s enthusiasm.