The Patron wore a single piece of jewelry – a gold ring on his little finger with a pale blue stone the size of a robin’s egg. For a man so often shielded by the flesh of others, he dressed remarkably practically, a fact she had always respected. Unlike more established Saiduan families, he had fought for his seat, murdering eight of his brothers for it. Or, rather, Maralah had killed them for him. She had joined the Patron because he had an eye for economics and infrastructure, something she felt the country sorely needed. She and her brother provided the teeth. It was a cruel irony that the man she chose for peace now led them in the bloodiest assault the country had seen in two thousand years.

As he turned, she saw another sanisi on the other side of the garden, one of the younger men she had trained four years before. The Patron went nowhere without one of her people, preferably at least two of them. She had seen to that.

“Do you have any new reports for me?” the Patron asked. “Perhaps some good news, like the northern half of the country sinking into the sea and taking these blighted people with it?” He had a warm, soothing voice, the sort of voice that could lull a man to sleep, making it easier to slit his throat. But this Patron was more likely to use his voice to sway a man to his side of an argument.

“I do not, Patron,” Maralah said.

“Nothing from Taigan?”

“No, Patron.”

“We’ve finalized our treaty with the Dhai,” he said. “They should arrive in a few weeks if all goes well. I’d like your counsel on who to send with them, if we’re all still alive by then.”

“Wraisau and Driaa,” she said. “Wraisau is already in Alorjan, and Driaa is on the way there for a reconnaissance mission. I need Kadaan here to oversee the patrols.”

“We’re spread very thin.”

“Yes.”

“How many dead on the coast?”

“The last skirmish? A dozen, as well as General Araalia.”

“Araalia, too? Who’s taking his place?”

“I’m promoting his son.”

“His son isn’t even eighteen.”

“There were only two hundred men left under Araalia’s command. I thought to combine them with what’s left of Aaraduan’s forces, but two hundred men with a boy to lead them will move more quickly, and I needed someone to begin shoring up our defenses in the south. Should it come to that.”

“I am sorry about your brother,” the Patron said.

“I had reason to send him there instead of Araalia,” Maralah said. “He would have been the smarter strategist on that field. We grew up there. But I understand your decision.”

“With your children dead, it benefits–”