And failing.

I played with the clasp of my healing satchel, flipping it up and down and up and down. Fought the urge to bite my thumbnail. I had one more person to save, and her illness was nearly impossible to overcome. Mirrum was the last Koru still struggling to recover.

But I’d heal her, too. I had to.

In front of the sycamore trees, a small band of musicians rapummed their drums and clacked beaded shakers. My heart banged as Sarratum Tabni appeared at the edge of the circle and the Koru parted, chanting my name in their soft, round Manzazu accent.

“Kammani! Kammani!”

“Rise.”

The queen nodded at me, a spiked gold crown on her dark hair, earrings skimming her shoulders. Behind the queen, a towering statue of their goddess Linaza was bathed in firelight. Her mighty wings were spread to the east and west, her scorpion’s tail hovering in warning.

As I stood, something white flickered in my peripheral vision near the grove.

I turned, and a cold, dank breeze brushed my cheek. The sound of water slapping against a wooden boat filled my ears. It almost felt as though my feet were in the prow, the river Garadun rocking beneath.

Stop it, Kammani. None of that Boatman nonsense. Not now.

I’d seen his skeletal face in the tomb back in Alu, and he’d been haunting me ever since we’d fled. Nine long moons of his face hovering over my pallet at night. Nine long moons of his bony fingers grazing my cheek.

Shoving away all thoughts of him, I stared at Dagan standing tall and proud beyond the circle of warriors, and tried to calm down. He hadn’t wanted me to come alone to the ceremony so late at night, so Sarratum Tabni had granted him access as my escort, though no one else was allowed to attend. He smiled at me encouragingly and placed one hand over his heart.

“It’s okay,” he mouthed. “Just breathe.”

Grateful for his encouragement, I offered him a wobbly smile of my own as the queen approached. She unclasped a necklace from around her neck, a scorpion amulet dangling from a thick leather strap. She held it up. Its sapphire eyes glittered in the firelight, and I took a deep breath to calm my fluttering heart. For what she was about to fasten around my neck wasn’t just a gift.

It was a promise.

She was saying the Koru owed me a favor, and I could call upon them to answer it at any time, even with their lives if necessary.

“Kammani, Healer from Alu, this evening, we grant you our highest honor.”

She held the necklace up in front of the Koru. They leaned in to see it, some reaching out to touch the dazzling pendant.

“We grant you the symbol of Linaza, our goddess of love and war.” She glanced at one of the Koru standing nearby. “Commander Ummi? Your assistance.”

Ummi, black hair cut bluntly at her jaw, stepped forward and held my ratty curls so the queen could fasten the strap around my throat. The scorpion was cold, heavy, as it settled between my collarbones. My fingers slid across the slick metal.