Nevertheless.

“The assassins came for me.”

“What do you mean?” Dagan breathed. “Are you all right? Is that your blood?”

Nanaea’s ladle paused over the bowls. “Did they hurt you, Sister?”

“No. I—”

The back door creaked open, and Dagan shoved me behind him, his emerald dagger out of his belt and in his hand, poised to throw as Nasu emerged.

“Easy, Dagan.” Nasu closed the door quietly behind him, his warm brown eyes wary, his hands up in surrender. “It’s me.”

“Well, announce yourself, then!” Dagan sheathed his dagger forcibly. “I could’ve killed you!”

He’d erected a set of targets in the back of our home for sport, and I’d seen him throw hundreds of times, so I knew Dagan’s aim was true and straight, his dagger rarely missing the heart of the target.

Warily, Nasu started to remove his weaponry belt but seemed to think better of it as he stared at me, and kept it on. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“The assassins came for me, Nasu. Mudi and Mirrum were…dead when we arrived in the sickroom.” My throat closed, the edge of a sob trying to elbow its way out. I lowered my voice, glancing up the stairs where my little brother slept. “They were murdered. Their throats slit.”

“Come. Sit down.” Dagan led me to our low wooden table, made roughly by Nasu’s hands, and Arwia scooted over so everyone could fit.

Nanaea plunked bowls of steaming porridge in front of us. “It isn’t flavorful, since the Libbu has been out of nutmeg and cloves, but it’s warm and filling.”

We murmured our thanks, and she joined us.

Tearfully, I described the grisly scene. Finding Mudi and Mirrum. Deciding to stay put and fix Arwia’s ear while Humusi ran to alert the queen. The families coming to collect the bodies. As I talked, we all made a show of eating, though we mostly shoved the food around in our bowls, the gore pickpocketing our appetites.

At last, Nasu gave up and pushed his food away. “Well, you can rest assured that Sarratum Tabni has fortified the city. Ilu’s mother is friends with the queen, and she heard that the warriors in the larger regiment have been dispatched to the wall, with troops combing the city in twos and threes to find any threats.”

He folded his hands in front of him. “She also said that the bastard Uruku has been causing trouble in the entire river region down by the sea. Some of his men attacked a group of our traders headed down to the ports. Slit their throats. Left them for the birds. And that Uruku is sending out raids, terrorizing people in other cities in the south. There’s even talk he’s sent a band of mercenaries to places closer to us. Up north.”

Arwia bit her lip, thinking. Then she turned to me. “I need to go to Sarratum Tabni and beg her to house us in the Palace, which is the safest place for now. Though I am not sitting on Alu’s throne, you are all my subjects and I plan to keep you safe. Kammani, will you come with me? She respects you and maybe she’ll listen if you’re there. She still thinks of me as a child.”