The ministers exchanged a glance and gave the barest nod. They couldn’t very well deny her, but they didn’t intend to be won over.

“Gentle friends,” the princess began, using the formal address, “my story is a sad one, but I hope you will hear me.”

Ehri didn’t speak like a politician. She told her tale in the cadence of the great poets. It was like listening to someone play music, as if she had her hands on the khatuur at this very moment and was plucking out a melancholy song, each verse revealing a new tragedy: a cunning plot to kill a king, a failed assassination, a sister’s betrayal. No, Ehri didn’t have Makhi’s fire. There was a sweetness in her, a softness that Mayu had never liked. But now she couldn’t help but think of the legendary generals who feigned a weakened flank to lure their enemy closer. Mayu watched as the ministers’ expressions shifted from rigid suspicion to stunned disbelief to outrage and then to fear. Because if Ehri’s story was true, they had no choice but to challenge Makhi.

Mayu felt an ache in her throat. Her own story was woven in with Ehri’s words, a silent counterpoint, a harmony that would go unheard. What it had meant to wear another woman’s clothes, another woman’s crown, to believe she had fallen in love with a king, to be forced to choose between the funny, gentle boy she’d known she could never have and the brother Queen Makhi had stolen away from her.

It was Isaak’s story too. A boy who had given up his heart to an impostor, who had given up his life for his king. Mayu had no right to grieve for him. She’d chosen Reyem. She’d driven a knife into Isaak’s heart. Sometimes she wished her aim had been better and she’d died that day too. But then who would remain to fight for Reyem? She had to find her brother, or it was all for nothing.

Mayu gave her testimony when Ehri called upon her to do so. Her words felt shapeless in her mouth, blunt soldier’s talk after Ehri’s eloquence. Still, it was no small thing for a Tavgharad guard to speak against her queen. Then Tamar showed them the note Makhi had sent, and Mayu told them of the coded message within it.

The ministers stepped aside to consult with each other as Mayu and Tamar and the princess waited. What the ministers did next would tell them everything they needed to know.

Minister Nagh and Minister Zihun turned slowly. They bowed their heads and knelt before the princess. “We have failed you. We should have protected you from your sister’s deceptions.”

“But I must beg your forgiveness,” said Ehri. “I have put you at risk by sharing this information with you. We are all in danger now.”