“We shouldn’t have to prove our innocence,” Saifullah said. “The other zillas should accept our word.”

“I suppose,” Zarmina sighed. “I still don’t like it, nor do the people.”

“What do you mean?” Durkhanai asked. “Have you heard of unrest?”

This was new.

The twins nodded.

“When we were travelling here from Dirgara into here, along the way, many seemed disgruntled,” Zarmina explained. “They don’t understand why foreigners are being allowed entry into S’vat when for centuries they have been turned back. Marghazar does not need to prove anything to anyone.”

“If the Badshah was a strong leader, he would see that,” Saifullah said.

Durkhanai stilled.

“Mind your words, Saifullah,” she warned, voice deadly. She straightened to her full stature, which was broader than her cousins’ wirier builds.

The transition from cousin to princess was seamless.

“Pardon me,” Saifullah said. He met her eyes with a hint of anger and frustration, as if she couldn’t see what he saw. Regardless, while disapproval and discontentment were bearable, outright criticism was unforgivable.

“Acha, bas,” Zarmina said, breaking the silence. “How are the ambassadors, Durkhanai? Any we can possibly trust? That Palwasha-sahiba seemed awfully elusive.”

“Gulalai-sahiba of Kurra is nice,” Durkhanai said, steering the tension from her tone. She discussed her thoughts regarding the ambassadors with her cousins, the same way she had with Gululai yesterday. She was left with the same frustration at the end. Durkhanai groaned. “Nevertheless, this is a puzzle for which we don’t have all the pieces yet.”

But she had a sneaking suspicion Asfandyar knew more than he let on.

“Teerza is the worst, of course, because of their insistence in establishing a united nation,” Saifullah said “Especially because of their disapproval for the Badshah’s . . . semi-barbaric ways.”

“But they don’t understand him,” Durkhanai argued. She hated anyone to disapprove of her grandfather.

They didn’t appreciate what it meant that he had been a boy-king, given the throne at fourteen when his father and three elder brothers had been slaughtered by Luhgams. Of course he would be eccentric, a little bit overzealous—a little bit unhinged.

“I wouldn’t trust Jardum, either,” Saifullah added. “I haven’t heard good things about Asfandyar.”

He gave Durkhanai a pointed look.

“By the way, what were you two doing earlier?” Zarmina asked, eyebrows raised.

“Nothing!” she said, a little too sharply.

The siblings exchanged a glance.

“That was entirely unconvincing,” Saifullah said. “But we’ve more important matters to attend to. Just be careful around him.”

The twins were eighteen, only a year older than Durkhanai, but they sometimes spoke to her like she was a child.

“He isn’t so bad,” she replied curtly.

Zarmina raised a brow, giving her a look that said she saw through everything.

“Don’t worry! I’m only searching for weaknesses,” Durkhanai said, but it tasted acidic, like a half lie.

She wasn’t a fool. She could handle herself.