“Please wait with Jovis. I have things I need to explain. To everyone.” I knelt and dug my fingers into Thrana’s fur, trying to calm the quick beating of my heart. Her skin was hot to the touch, her breathing labored. I frowned. “Thrana?” She didn’t respond, didn’t even flick an ear in my direction. I pressed my hand to her throat and felt the calm, steady beat of her heart. Had she caught an illness somewhere on Hualin Or? Something she ate?

The soft and steady thrumming I’d felt in my bones since we’d bonded was gone. I reached for it, trying to build the vibration. Nothing. Something was very wrong. I choked back tears. Riya and Nephilanu were against me. If I didn’t play things here exactly right, I’d lose Hualin Or too. But none of that mattered next to Thrana. I’d give it all up just to keep her safe. “She’s sick.”

“Eminence,” Jovis said from the doorway. He looked me in the eye for the first time since we’d kissed and his face was calm. “A little rest and she’ll be fine. Mephi went through the same thing. Trust me.”

I found, to my surprise, that I did. The swell of panic diminished until I could breathe again. I stroked Thrana’s ears, hoping she somehow knew I was there.

At last, when light began to filter in through the shutters, a servant appeared in the doorway. “Chala wants to see her now,” she said. “In the entrance hall please.”

I rose to my feet, tucked a loose piece of hair behind my ear and waited for the guards to escort me. They should have taken me by the arms; instead, they let me walk freely. But I supposed there was nowhere for me to go. I’d come back here of my own volition.

The entrance hall lamps were lit this time, casting the walls in warm hues. Chala stood near the door to the dining hall, his family arrayed around him, each and every gaze settling on me. He’d taken the time to clean himself and to dress, and I made a poor contrast in my simpler clothes and the pants that were still a little damp at the hem from my climb.

“I suspect,” Chala said, his voice bouncing from the pillars, “that if I executed you, I would have enough support from other governors to forestall a civil war.”

I inclined my head as I approached. “That might be true, but would you then be able to forestall both the construct army and the Shardless Few? Both would gladly see you dead and deposed. We need one another, Sai. All the islands do. I have an explanation for my actions, though I warn you that you will not like it.”