Ghrasia knew where the power was behind the boy. The same place the power had always been. “What’s he talking about?” she asked Nasaka.

“We’ll require your services,” Nasaka said. “He wishes to return the bodies of Tir’s kin to Garika personally.”

“Is that so?” Ghrasia regarded the boy again. Was he coldly calculating or a simpleton? Always hard to tell with young men. Even in Dhai, their passions often got the best of them. And this one had a reputation for losing his head.

“My mother thought very highly of you,” Ahkio said.

“Many others do as well,” Nasaka said.

Ghrasia wearied of Nasaka’s endless politics some days, but Nasaka was easily the smartest and most calculating woman in Dhai now that Javia was dead. It made Ghrasia’s heart ache, even now, many years later. Because for all Nasaka’s cunning, Javia had still died under Nasaka’s watch. On purpose? Ghrasia often wondered. It was no accident this boy had the title now. Ghrasia suspected Nasaka had maneuvered him into it from birth, though by all counts, he never wanted it.

“If the Kai wishes it,” Ghrasia said, “I will, of course, accompany him to Clan Garika. I expect you will require the Liona militia I brought with me as well?”

“It would be appreciated,” Nasaka said.

Ghrasia put thumb to forehead. “Tonight, or tomorrow morning?”

“The morning,” Nasaka said. “We have much still to sort here.”

“Thank you, Ghrasia Madah,” Ahkio said.

“Of course,” she said.

“Did you want to speak with Ora Dasai?” Nasaka asked Ahkio. “The scholars leave for Saiduan in the morning.”

“Yes, of course,” Ahkio said. “I’ll leave you to your business.”

He nodded to Ghrasia and walked into the corridor.

Ghrasia sighed and waited. She felt the familiar dread that came with being alone in Nasaka’s presence. Nasaka’s darker nature only manifested itself in private. Ghrasia stood a little taller. She could still beat Nasaka in a duel, and that was something.

“So you bumbled in here three hours late,” Nasaka said, “and we nearly lost everything.”

“I’m not some gifted Ora,” she said. “I can’t control the Line connecting the temple to Kuallina. There was some problem with the vine that links up to the chrysalis. They had four tirajistas out on that strand to repair it. I could have marched, I suppose, and shown up three days too late.”

“You could have sent word.”

“I’m a woman of action, not words. You’re the woman of words.”

“Let’s not do this. I’m overtired.”

“You know I would never stand for a Garika on that seat. What’s really happening here, Ora Nasaka?” In truth, she never thought Nasaka would dare to make Ahkio Kai. There were too many rumors about his parentage, mostly spread by Garikas, but the way Nasaka hovered over the boy only gave them greater strength.