“Where have you been?” The words left my mouth before I could stop them, filled with the worry I’d been trying to suppress. I’d told Ranami and Phalue that I’d sent Jovis on an errand. Now they knew I couldn’t even keep track of my own Captain of the Imperial Guard. How could I claim to be a competent Emperor? And then his words filtered through my mind. “Wait. An attack? Where? In the north-east?” Had the constructs made their way closer to Gaelung?

“Here.” The cuff of his sleeve was stained with blood. “Your maidservants were attacked by a group of war constructs.” His lips pressed into a line. “One of them is badly injured.”

They were young girls, all pleased to have found employment with me, all of them well-read and accomplished. I’d chosen commoners instead of governors’ get as had been done in the past.

I’d thought I was doing them a favor.

“And the other two?” I asked, breathless. “Are they all right?”

By his grimace I could tell they were not. “One suffered a bite to the arm. It’s bad. The other has a few scratches but is otherwise physically unharmed.”

I looked at the governor and her wife. Both were on their feet. I’d risen without realizing it, my fingers clutching at my skirt. My handmaids had helped me dress just this morning, had braided and styled my hair. “I have to go,” I said.

The servants had begun to clear the dishes, the faint smell of curry lingering in the air.

Phalue frowned. “I want to assure you that we sent guards to hunt down any war constructs left on this island. There shouldn’t have been any more. Certainly not a group of them. We would have warned you if we’d known.”

War constructs were conspicuous and Nephilanu was not that large. I believed it. “Someone sent them,” I said. “Of all the citizens in your city, they attack my handmaidens? Someone is leading the constructs, and they are bearing down on the heart of the Empire.”

“Then you’d best go see to the heart of the Empire,” Ranami said.

“I’m seeing to my maidservant,” I shot back. “You think the constructs will be satisfied with just taking a few islands? You think they won’t eventually attack your people?”

Ranami lifted her chin. “We can manage on our own.”