Adare hesitated, face twisted with confusion. For the first time, Valyn smelled doubt on her, heavy as forest rot after a week of rain. “That wasn’t him,” she said finally. “He told me he didn’t go after the two of you.”

“Oh, he told you. It must be the truth. Somehow the First Shield of the Aedolian Guard and the Mizran Councillor crossed half of Vash with a contingent of soldiers, all with the express purpose of murdering the new emperor, and somehow the kenarang-regent, the man who already admitted to murdering the last emperor, had nothing to do with it?”

Adare took a deep breath, then straightened her spine. “Even if he did, it doesn’t matter.”

Valyn gaped. “It doesn’t matter? Tell me how it doesn’t fucking matter, Adare! When men come for you in the night, when people paid by the kenarang kill people you love to get at you, when they tear apart your entire world, why don’t you tell me then how it doesn’t matter.”

“I didn’t mean—”

He cut her off. “I know what you mean: it’s best for Annur; we need the kenarang; sacrifice for the greater good.” He spat into the packed dirt. “Fuck that. Fuck that. Il Tornja might be telling the truth and he might be lying. I don’t give a shit. He murdered our father. He murdered Ha Lin—indirectly, but he killed her all the same—”

“Ha Lin?” she asked.

“Never mind,” Valyn said grimly, reining in his rage. “He’s guilty. And I’m going to see him dead.”

Adare’s lips tightened. “You can’t.”

“Because of what?” Valyn demanded. “Because of this?” He waved a hand at the wide camp beyond the walls of the tent. “I spent ten years, Adare, ten years learning to get past this. Here I am, talking to you, right now. I can get to il Tornja. I can get to him, and I can put a knife into his heart.”

“I don’t mean the army,” she said. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe he deserves to die, but you can’t do it now. Maybe you haven’t been paying attention, but there is a battle coming, and whatever Long Fist tells you, it is not a fight Annur went looking for. He is not just another tribal chief, Valyn. For the first time ever the Urghul are united, united and right on our border. Long Fist did that. He systematically crushed everyone who opposed him, and a lot of Urghul opposed him, at least at first. He is coming, bringing with him his blood worship, his human sacrifice . . . he is coming with close to a million warriors, and someone needs to stop him.”

She stared at him, panting. Rain hammered at the roof of the tent.