After a few moments, Higal nodded, her mouth hardened into sandstone. She broke away from the greater regiment and stood next to Ummi. Assata took Higal’s spot in line, her face twisted with ache.

Higal raised her hands to the warriors in the Linaza salute, and nearly half of them snapped to attention. The other half looked confused.

“Warriors! This is your call to arms!”

Next to Higal, Ummi gritted her teeth. “Stand down, Higal!”

Higal ignored her. “Our sarratum has commanded us to war against Alu! We march tonight!”

The warriors raised their weapons in the sky, roaring in response to Higal, and my spine tingled with the memory of the vision of the Boatman. The hallucination. Whatever it was I’d experienced. The warriors in my vision held tinctures, though. Not weapons. Fighting the innocent was not the way forward.

“Higal!” I yelled. My heart was screaming that harming the innocent to get what you wanted was foul. Indecent. Unforgivable. I may go into Alani’s claws for attempting to kill Uruku, but I’d accept that fate. Killing the innocent was not the same. My hands up, pleading, I strode over to her.

“No, Higal, no war. Send in some of your Koru to go in dressed as brides, as we’ve explained. They can sneak in and remove the threat.”

Coiled like a snake, Assata broke rank and ran up to me, unsheathing her sicklesword. She grabbed my shoulder and flung me down to the ground while the warriors behind her yelled. Dagan rushed up behind Assata, his daggers already out of his belt, but Ummi launched herself between Assata and me, her eyes hard.

“Step back,” Ummi told Assata.

Assata’s eyes grew cold. “I’m helping you remember your sarratum’s bidding, Commander.”

Ummi leveled her battle-ax at Assata’s throat. “We owe the A-zu the delay, and I will not back down on that promise. We do not act until I give the command.” She stared hard at Higal. “In case you have forgotten your rank.”

“No, Manzazu will have WAR!” Assata cried, the warrior she once was still present in her mother’s hands and belly, sloped shoulders and threads of gray at her temples. Maybe more present because of those things. “This army with their warrior hearts will follow Higal because she is following their sarratum’s orders!”

“Not if they want to please Linaza.” Ummi stepped up to Assata and drew the other battle-ax from her belt. The blade flashed in the sun as she rotated her wrist. “We do not have to come to blows, but we will. The A-zu saved our lives. We owe her our debt.”

Assata’s lip curled. “Your allegiance should be to your queen. And my allegiance is to my son! My husband! The warrior who lives inside me! She has consecrated us for bloodshed, and I will have it on the morrow. This girl does not control me!” She pointed her sicklesword at my chest. “Everyone who stood there and watched my son die deserves to meet the Boatman.” Her eyes were hard with rage. “Everyone.”