Durkhanai pressed her teeth together. She wished she had all the answers, but she didn’t.

“Patience, my dear people. Listen to your Shehzadi, who cares for you and loves you,” Saifullah said, sensing her distress. “Believe in her; have faith in her. All will be settled, in the end.”

Durkhanai nodded at Saifullah, grateful to have her cousins by her side.

They did not say much, but Saifullah helped in coaxing the people to listen to her when they became angry, trying to soften their frustrations.

“I promise you all, proper actions will be taken,” Durkhanai told her people. “The Marghazari are just and strong. We will not allow blows against our people to go unpunished. But we cannot have another war, not now! You do not wish to send off your young boys, do you?”

The people mumbled in agreement.

“The Shehzadi is right,” a voice cried out. “We cannot have new wars on new fronts. We have no men left.”

They settled down for a moment, only to rise up again.

“When will the rest of these wars end?” another voice responded. “Decades have passed yet still we are stuck in the same place!”

Their concerns were valid. While the crisis of illness had been resolved, the wars still raged on. Too many men were dying at the Kebzu borders, even more so against the Luhgams. They couldn’t afford a war against Teerza, not then.

Even if Durkhanai wanted it to make Rukhsana-sahiba pay.

“Have the wars not gone on long enough, Shehzadi?” someone asked. “When will the Badshah relent?”

Durkhanai took a deep breath, turning to Saifullah. Yet he stayed silent when the people stated their anger at the Badshah—he almost seemed to agree with them. She furrowed her brow.

“You know as well as I that the wars will not be so easily won,” Durkhanai reminded her people, though now even she was beginning to doubt the validity of these wars. “If we relent now, we will be reduced to nothing more than a colony in the Lughum Empire!”

But was that the only reason they fought? Or was it for the Badshah’s vengeance?

Surely the Lughum Empire was tired of fighting, as well. Could a truce not lead them both to an advantageous era of peace?

She did not give voice to these thoughts. Instead, she said, “Yet we continue to fight for our freedom—to remain unconquered by the imperialists.”

The people continued their grievances, and Durkhanai continued to listen. She wanted to lash out at them, to tell them to stop their fussing because there were enough things on her mind, but she knew she had to be the dutiful Shehzadi, patient and poised.