“Yes, you are,” I whispered.

He finished washing his hands. “I hope my ummum still lives. I feel guilty being happy that it wasn’t her being killed on the platform.” He wiped his eyes on his arm, keeping his hands clean as he’d seen me do. “And angry. I feel so—angry for what Uruku has done.” He shook off the water and grabbed a cloth stitched with little red rosettes. Nanaea’s handiwork. He handed me one, too. “I am not a violent man, as you well know. But there’s nothing, outside of risking your life, I wouldn’t do to stop him, Kammani. Nothing.”

“I know. We just need to find a solution to do that.” Rubbing my fingers over the red rosettes that Nanaea had stitched at the bottom in beautifully neat little rows, I was suddenly struck by a thought.

Nanaea and her sewing could be the key.

She’d been so clever with her disguises that perhaps she could devise something else now to help us get into Uruku’s chamber or throne room. We’d need a diversion and a sneak attack. Perhaps Higal would help with some of the Koru since they were itching to fight anyway. And no one knew who they were and would underestimate the women, as Ummi had once told me they would do.

So if we played into that and disguised them as something helpless—

I racked my brain, thinking of what women’s position would be the least assuming in this city-state, as the warriors would never pass as servants. Iltani’s mournful face as she stood with the other women on the dais dressed like maidens to be wed floated into my memory.

“Brides!” I said to Dagan. “We can make them brides to be given to Uruku!”

“Make who brides?” Dagan looked around the tent. “What are you talking about?”

“He’d never suspect them if they were given from a group of traders. Once they got to his chamber, they could kill him, and we could restore Arwia to her rightful place. It can work, Dagan, it can.”

“Are you…talking to me? Or to yourself?” Dagan finished drying his hands, his face puzzled.

My heart beating madly, I set aside the cloth and picked up the bone saw to clean it in the basin.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry! I’m just thinking out loud. Dagan, what if we prevented war by turning the Palace’s own sick deeds against them?” I asked as I scrubbed. “We can pretend that a handful of the Koru are brides and give them to Uruku! Nanaea could dress them in finery!”

His eyes lit up with the prospect as the realization of what I was saying sank in. “Yes. Yes, that’s a very good idea. He wouldn’t turn a group of women away. He’ll underestimate them!”

My heart lifting momentarily, I pulled the saw from the water once it was clean and laid it on a linen next to my other supplies. “Yes! And we need to talk it all through with you and Nanaea and everyone else after our work here is done.”