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Nesryn paused a healthy distance from the dais—from the wall of five royal children, all in their pri between them and their father

Defense of their emperor: a prince or princess’s first duty The easiest way to prove their loyalty, to angle for being tapped Heir And the five before them …

Chaol schooled his face into neutrality as he counted again Only five Not the six Nesryn had described

But he didn’t scan the hall for theas he bowed at the waist He’d practiced the movement over and over this final week at sea, as the weather had turned hotter, the air beco it in the chair still felt unnatural, but Chaol bowed low—until he was staring at his unresponsive legs, at his spotless brown boots and the feet he could not feel, could not move

Fro to his left, he knew Nesryn had co deeply as well

They held it for the three breaths Nesryn claimed were required

Chaol used those three breaths to settle hiht of as upon them both

He had once been skilled atcomposure He’d served Dorian’s father for years, had taken orders without soAnd before that, he’d endured his own father, whose words had been as cutting as his fists The true and current Lord of Anielle

The Lord now in front of Chaol’s name was a mockery A mockery and a lie that Dorian had refused to abandon despite Chaol’s protests

Lord Chaol Westfall, Hand of the King

He hated it More than the sound of wheels More than the body he now could not feel beneath his hips, the body whose stillness still surprised him, even all these weeks later

He was Lord of Nothing Lord of Oath-Breakers Lord of Liars

And as Chaol lifted his torso and met the upswept eyes of the white-haired an’s weathered brown skin crinkled in a san knew it as well

CHAPTER

2

There were two parts of her, Nesryn supposed

The part that was now Captain of Adarlan’s Royal Guard, who hadto see that the man in the wheeled chair beside her was healed—and to muster an army from the man enthroned before her That part of Nesryn kept her head high, her shoulders back, her hands within a nonthreatening distance of the ornate sword at her hip

Then there was the other part

The part that had gliod-city breaking over the horizon as they’d sailed in, the shining pillar of the Torre standing proud over it all, and had to s back tears The part that had scented the s sweetness of cumin as soon as she had cleared the docks and knew, deep in her bones, that she was home That, yes, she lived and served and would die for Adarlan, for the family still there, but this place, where her father had once lived and where even her Adarlan-born mother had felt more at ease … These were her people

The skin in varying shades of brown and tan The abundance of that shining black hair—her hair The eyes that ranged from uptilted to wide and round to slender, in hues of ebony and chestnut and even the rare hazel and green Her people A blend of kingdoms

and territories, yes, but … Here there were no slurs hissed in the streets Here there would be no rocks thrown by children Here her sister’s children would not feel different Unwanted

And that part of her … Despite her thrown-back shoulders and raised chin, her knees indeed quaked at who—at what—stood before her

Nesryn had not dared tell her father where and what she was leaving to do Only that she was off on an errand of the King of Adarlan and would not be back for some time

Her father wouldn’t have believed it Nesryn didn’t quite believe it herself

The khagan had been a story whispered before their hearth on winter nights, his offspring legends told while kneading endless loaves of bread for their bakery Their ancestors’ bedside tales to either lull her into sweet sleep or keep her up all night in bone-deep terror

The khagan was a living ods who ruled over this city and empire

There were as ods in Antica as there were tributes to the various khagans More

They called it the god-city for theod seated on the ivory throne atop that golden dais

It was indeed pure gold, just as her father’s whispered legends claimed

And the khagan’s six children … Nesryn could name them all without introduction

After the meticulous research Chaol had done while on their ship, she had no doubt he could as well

But that was not how this o

For as ht the former captain about her homeland these weeks, he’d instructed her on court protocol He had rarely been so directly involved, yes, but he had witnessed enough of it while serving the king

An observer of the game as now to be a prih

They waited in silence for the khagan to speak

She’d tried not to gahile walking through the palace She had never set foot inside it during her few visits to Antica over the years Neither had her father, or his father, or any of her ancestors In a city of gods, this was the holiest of temples And deadliest of labyrinths

The khagan did not move from his ivory throne