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Zarrah winced internally, but Bermin only inclined his head. “As you say, Mother, so shall it be.”
“Good.” The Empress paused next to her waiting horse. “Much goes into victory, dear one, but timing might well be the most critical piece of all. You will keep our forces to this side of the Anriot, no matter what provocation.” Then she leaned closer, breath hot against Zarrah’s ear. “And when the princeling gets himself killed and his men return north to fight Ithicana, we will strike.”
Zarrah pressed her hand to her chest. “Yes, Empress. Safe travels.”
Her aunt mounted in one swift motion, and without another word, led her escort out into the city.
Only to be passed by a rider galloping in.
A scout.
“Raiders,” the man gasped out, slipping off his lathered mount. “They hit a village.”
The Maridriniansneverraided twice in one day. Zarrah’s stomach plummeted. “How did they get past our scouts?”
“We think they traveled south along the edge of the desert and then cut inland, returning by the same path. They were gone by the time our patrols arrived. Forty-three dead, all farmers and their families.”
Forty-three.“Children?”
The scout gave a grim nod, and Zarrah had to clench her teeth to keep from vomiting.
“Cowardly vermin,” Bermin snarled. “We must retaliate immediately. Attack their garrison and make them pay in blood.”
“No.” Zarrah swallowed the taste of bile. “The Empress was clear in her orders. We will not cross the Anriot for any reason.” She looked to Yrina. “Increase patrols.”
“Yes, Gen—”
“To do nothing makes us look weak,” Bermin interrupted. “It dishonors the dead.”
Frustration and guilt bit at her guts, but Zarrah only flattened her palms against her thighs, looking up at him with a measured expression. “And yet that is what the Empress has ordered me to do.”
“Forty-three dead, Zarrah! Many of them children! The Maridrinians are rats that deserve nothing more than extermination!”
The ferocity and passion in his voice were the reason soldiers loved to follow him into battle, but Bermin saw no farther than the length of his sword. “We will avenge them when the time is right, but that time is not now, cousin.”
He eyed her coldly, looming over her with his enormous bulk, his voice patronizing as he said, “Good little Zarrah. Perfect little Zarrah. Always listening to Auntie’s orders even when it means sacrificing her own honor.”
Zarrah exhaled a slow breath. Since he’d been removed from command, Bermin’s efforts to goad her into making mistakes had increased. But unlike him, she possessed a modicum of self-control. “Increase the eastern patrols. We might not be able to avenge the dead, but at least we can protect the living. If you catch them, show them no mercy.” She added, “Now if you’ll excuse me, the hour is late, and I’ve work yet to do.”
She heard Yrina give the orders, and then the sound of footfalls as her friend ran to catch up. They walked through the corridors together, and only when they were in Zarrah’s suite, the doors shut, did Yrina say, “I’d sooner believe you’re related to a lump of rock than that idiot. Did her Imperial Majesty drop him on his head when he was an infant? Perhaps more than once?”
Rubbing her temples, Zarrah said, “His bravery is unparalleled, and his soldiers would follow him into fire. That is no small thing.”
Yrina lifted up one hand. “Bravery.” Then she lifted the other. “Stupidity. They can follow him where they like—I wouldn’t follow him across a room.”
Not answering, Zarrah went to the expansive windows to look out at the growing night. The Valcottan palace was perched on a hill on the southern edge of Nerastis, giving her an unimpeded view of the massive city. At night, it was beautiful: a sea of colored lights and flickering flames, the river Anriot flowing through its center like a serpent. Yet the shadows concealed that most of the buildings were rubble, the streets reeked of waste, and the marshy edges of the Anriot were home to countless rotting corpses that had yet to be consumed by the river’s inhabitants.
“What reason did the Empress give for her orders?” Yrina asked. “It’s unlike her not to desire retaliation.”
Zarrah explained the Empress’s intent, but Yrina’s frown only deepened. “It’s a good strategy, but it’s going to cost us. If the Maridrinians don’t fear retaliation, their appetite for raiding is only going to increase, and we can’t stop them all. We could lose hundreds of civilians waiting for Silas to withdraw his men to reinforce his armies in Ithicana.”
“The Empress is wise.” Zarrah wasn’t sure if her words were for Yrina or herself. “And she knows how to fight Maridrina—she’s been doing so all her life.”
“But do you agree with this plan?”
“Of course I agree with it.” The words slipped from her tongue without hesitation because her aunt hadneverled her astray. And yet… Zarrah couldn’t push aside the sourness that came with knowing an entire nation had been sacrificed as a part of her aunt’s ambitions to strike a heavy blow against Maridrina. For all it was strategically brilliant, it felt…lackingin honor. “We just have to do more to protect our borders while the plan comes to fruition.”
Yrina opened her mouth as though to say something, hesitated, then said, “That’s a problem for tomorrow. Care to take a trip into the city for the night? I know a few establishments where the drink is tolerable, and they employ men pretty enough to make you forget your cares for the night. I could arrange an escort?”
