But it was Tamar who spoke. “If what Makhi has done becomes widely known, chaos will erupt. Each of the Taban sisters will become contenders for the throne.”
“They’re murdering Grisha!” Mayu shouted. “Your own people! Don’t you—”
Tamar didn’t flinch. “I am Grisha and I am also Shu. I don’t want to see this country torn apart by civil war the way Ravka has been.”
“You don’t care about Shu Han. You just want an ally to help fend off the Fjerdans. Makhi should face trial.”
“There will be no trial,” said Queen Leyti. “Makhi will claim she’s ill and will gratefully serve the crown alongside her sister.”
Mayu threw her hands up. What had been done to her brother, to the Grisha, to her, to Isaak, did none of it mean anything? “You know she won’t settle for that. Makhi can’t be trusted.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” said Queen Leyti. “That is why I have arranged for insurance.” She gestured to her guards and Minister Yerwei entered, the man who had served as doctor to three Taban queens.
“Him?” Mayu said in disbelief. “Yerwei is her closest confidant.”
But Makhi didn’t look triumphant. For the first time her serene expression faltered and her face paled. Queen Leyti watched her granddaughter with sad eyes. “I hoped there was no truth in it,” she said. “But I see now that Minister Yerwei did not lie. Ehri was meant to be your mother’s heir.”
“That … that can’t be,” said Ehri.
Makhi’s lips pulled back in a sneer. “She said I had been born with all the Taban guile but none of the Taban heart.”
“I fear she was right,” said Queen Leyti. “Minister Yerwei, you have prepared a confession, have you not?”
“I have, Your Majesty. Four copies, as you commanded.”
“Makhi, you will sign these confessions too. Then they will be sealed. One will remain with me, one with Ehri, one with Ministers Nagh and Zihun—who have no idea of the contents. One will go to Ravka with Tamar Kir-Bataar. You will abide by the terms I have set before you and the treaty you yourself signed, or your crimes against the crown will be revealed and you will be tried as a traitor to the Taban line.”
“I will never bow to another Taban queen,” Makhi spat.
“That is your choice. In which case, you may absent yourself from court and spend your days in a palace of your choosing, guarded by the Tavgharad of my choosing. If you’re in need of a hobby, I recommend gardening.”
“Your Majesty,” said Tamar, stepping forward. “I would ask—”
“I know what you will ask, Tamar Kir-Bataar. I cannot send troops to aid your king.”
“Queen Makhi signed a treaty. An attack against Ravka is an attack against the Shu.”
“We will send the Ravkan king our most sincere apologies and a confirmation of our friendship, but we cannot send our soldiers to die in a foreign war.”
“Grandmother,” said Ehri, “it was Nikolai Lantsov who saved my life.”
“We owe him a debt,” Mayu agreed. She had no love for the Ravkan king, but she and her brother owed him their lives. He could have put her to death for the crimes she’d committed. He could have married Ehri to forge an alliance and forsaken the Grisha and the khergud soldiers trapped in secret laboratories. “We can’t abandon his country.”
Leyti held up a hand. “We fulfill this debt by honoring our treaty and agreeing to support the rights of all Grisha. We cannot do that if we are seen as Ravkan puppets.”
Tamar was watching Leyti, and Makhi, and Minister Yerwei. “You’ve made some kind of agreement with Fjerda, haven’t you? They want you to stay neutral.”
“Fjerda has let us know that, should they occupy Ravka, they will honor our shared border.”
Slowly, Tamar shook her head. “You had best hope they’re more trustworthy than you and your granddaughter.”
“We cannot send the Lantsov king aid. The ministers will balk and they’re right to. It’s not our war.”
“It will be when there’s no Ravka to stand between you and the Fjerdans.”
Queen Leyti Kir-Taban, Daughter of Heaven, was not moved. “If the wolves come howling, we will face them then. For now, the fox will meet them on his own.”
33
THE MONK
ALEKSANDER SURVEYED HIS ARMY of the faithful, his acolytes, the people with whom he would build a new age. For the first time in several hundred years, he wished for whiskey.