Weeks after the attempt on my life, the number of courtiers attending my Rising had strangely doubled. Despite mocking me in the hallways less than a month ago, now ladies from the highest-ranking houses in Oluwan stumbled over one another to fetch my clothing, glaring at whoever reached me first. Until now, I had ignored this mysterious new attentiveness, chalking it up to some new noble game, a trend that would pass with the reason. But Adebimpe’s presence gave me pause.

What, in Am’s name, would possess the most fashionable blueblood in An-Ileyoba to attend my Rising without a gele?

“You’re in mourning,” I observed after a speechless few seconds. Red leather bands adorned Adebimpe’s arms. She touched them, nodding woodenly.

“Yes, Lady Empress. You may—have heard. My betrothed died yesterday. An accident. Unexpected.”

“Oh. I’m . . . so sorry. What a terrible loss.”

She continued to hold out the slippers. I nodded awkwardly, and pity knotted my stomach as she bent over my feet, humbly securing each shoe.

“Um . . . you don’t have to be here, you know,” I said. “During mourning, it’s customary to leave court. Why don’t you take a break? Get some rest?”

Adebimpe’s pupils dilated. For the first time, she fixed them on mine, and I saw that shadows pooled beneath her eyes. “Are you sending me away, Lady Empress?” she whispered.

“What? No. I just . . .” I noticed then that she was trembling from head to foot, a subtle, constant shiver.

Is she ill? Dayo Ray-spoke with alarm.

I’m not sure, I replied. It’s almost like she’s seen a ghost.

Adebimpe rose quickly to her feet and cleared her throat. “My father sent me here,” she stammered. “Not just for the Rising. To serve you, Lady Empress. Lord Oyega would be honored for you to accept me as one of your personal attendants.”

My eyebrows shot up to my hairline. The Oyegas had been one of the largest noble families to gain their wealth from the mine at Olojari. Why would they want to gift me anything, let alone a high-ranking lady?

“He makes this offer as an apology,” Adebimpe explained, twisting the bangles on her tapered dark arms. “For all of the . . . inconveniences you’ve faced as empress.”

I blinked, speechless.

“By inconvenience,” I said presently, “do you mean the attempt on my life?”

Adebimpe’s mouth opened, then closed, like a fish above water. “I only want to serve,” she rasped. “Please, Lady Empress. Consider my request.”

She could be trying to get closer to me. To snuff out my life in private, after the failed attempt at the Watching Wall.

But I wasn’t so sure. Because when I looked into Adebimpe’s eyes, all I saw was cold, primal fear.

“I don’t really need more attendants,” I told her, after a dazed pause. “And Adebimpe . . . you don’t look well.”

“I’m fine,” she snapped, shrill with desperation. “Truly. I may be thin, but I’m strong enough to serve you, Lady Empress. My family has connections in the garment district. I can fetch you new wrappers. Fold your geles in the latest fashions . . . the other court ladies will despair of your beauty; look—” She seized a starched square of gele cloth from one of my wardrobe baskets. But before she could begin to fold, another blueblood girl snatched the cloth, cradling it to her chest and dancing out of Adebimpe’s reach.