“We will never be safe.” I shook my head and shoved my bowl of porridge away. “Not here in Manzazu or anywhere else we go. You know that, don’t you? We cannot stay locked up in the Palace forever. Uruku will not stop sending assassins or putting a price on our heads until he’s murdered each and every one of us. He values that throne far too much to be dissuaded so easily.”

“You’d think if he valued it, he wouldn’t have attacked on Manzazu soil.” Nasu played with his spoon. “The queen is fortifying our city, but she will answer Alu’s threat, and soon.”

Arwia nodded. “You’re right. She can’t let this go unpunished, which is why it’s even more important for us to go to her and beg her to house us until this is all over. War brings chaos.”

Not only chaos, but death and disease, too.

“What she should do is take out Uruku with a band of her Koru warriors instead of launching a full-blown attack,” Dagan said. “Slide into the city in the dead of night and assassinate him. It would save countless lives.”

“Murder to prevent murder?” I asked him. “That’s what you believe in?”

“Even your abum would agree with that, my love. There’s no shame in saving your own life and in rescuing others.”

“What you’re suggesting is different. It means planning to kill a man, not simply defending yourself.” My insides twisted at the thought.

“Is it so different?” Dagan asked.

“The queen would never agree to that. An attack is more powerful,” Nasu said. “It would show Manzazu’s might. Then she could reinstate you on the throne, Arwia.”

“But I don’t want the throne.” Arwia’s face twisted in angst.

“It doesn’t matter, does it?” Nasu asked. “You’re the rightful sarratum. And you’ve been telling me that you feel guilty for leaving everyone behind in Uruku’s claws, have you not?”

Arwia flushed and looked at her hands. “Sarratum Tabni tells me that by abandoning them, I’ve disgraced my ummum and abum. That my parents would be staring at me from the Netherworld, urging me to rule the city in peace.” Arwia looked up at me. “But who would even want me on the throne? No one. I left them.”

“Whether or not killing Uruku is the means”—I cast a hard look at Dagan—“I doubt there are very many people in Alu who wouldn’t welcome your rule. They loved you before, Arwia.”

“Some did.” She shrugged.

“Many more than ‘some.’ ”

“But I’d have no idea how to lead.”

“If you were queen, you’d have twelve ensis to help you if you didn’t know what to do.” Nasu stood and took his bowl to the washbasin by the door. He squatted down to scrub it clean.

“Yes, and those same ensis would have to agree by majority to reinstate me as well. How would we accomplish that if Uruku has been keeping them happy enough by his side? It’s too much.” She stood. “Too soon. We just got here.”