I briefly wondered when Rory would have seen my back until I remembered the night he found me at his shop. I’d been drenched in Hanim’s blood, and he had given me a tunic to change into. He must have caught sight of my scars before he turned around.
I chuckled softly. “Hanim wanted her lessons to last.”
Rory’s head snapped to attention. “What did you say?”
“Am I speaking too quickly for you?” My smirk fled at Rory’s mounting horror. “What?”
“Tell me you don’t mean Hanim, Qayida of the Jasadi forces.”
“One and the same. Rory, what’s wrong?”
I eased a wobbling Rory into his chair. He didn’t answer, clutching his cane in a white-knuckled grip. My concern grew. I fetched him a glass of water. Hanim’s reputation clearly preceded her.
After he drained the glass, he cleared his throat. “That woman loathed your family.”
I snorted. “Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
“No, no, she—” He coughed hard, shoulders curving inward. I thumped his back until the rattling stopped. Rory’s poor heart must’ve been twice as strong before he met me.
He swatted my arm off. “Did she tell you why Niyar and Palia exiled her from Jasad?”
“She violated the tenets of war.” My voice rose at the end, pitching the statement into a question.
“Yes, most certainly, and she committed treason.”
I lifted my shoulder. Rory seemed to think this information should shatter my mind. I committed treason every day, merely by existing. The word had lost its sting. “How? The war crimes?”
“She was found guilty of conspiracy against the crown with an enemy party.”
I took the empty glass, setting it on the counter. My voice was flat. “Enemy party.”
“Supreme Rawain,” Rory confirmed. “When he was only an Heir, they found records indicating he and Hanim had plotted to overthrow your grandparents and seize Jasad.”
He must have been speaking in jest. If there was anyone Hanim hated more than my grandparents, it was Supreme Rawain. Why would she ever stoop to working with him against Jasad?
“I thought she hated Nizahl.”
“Not at first.” Rory grimaced. “Once she was discovered, Rawain and his father, Supreme Munqual, denounced her deceit. Your grandparents weren’t interested in war, so they accepted Rawain’s attempts at reconciliation. I imagine Qayida Hanim did not take kindly to losing her position and her home for naught.”
“How long did she conspire with him?”
“They had been in communication for years. Her betrayal was not a revelation for your grandparents. They had long known of Qayida Hanim’s disdain for the crown.”
I scrubbed at my hair, pulling curls from my braid. None of it made sense. I hadn’t thought twice about Arin calling Jasad the architect of its own ruin—he genuinely believed magic destroyed everything it touched. But the Mufsid woman describing the walls of Usr Jasad as corrupt?
Keeping on an untrustworthy Qayida was placing the entire kingdom at the knife’s point and hoping it did not tip over. For all their faults, I had always believed in my grandparents’ love for Jasad above all else. It had soothed the anguish of losing my magic as a child, knowing Niyar and Palia had cuffed my powers to protect our kingdom.
Rory read the confusion on my face. “I believe they were under the impression her role was superfluous. They were overly reliant on their magic and the fortress.”
“It’s the Qayida’s duty to reinforce the fortress!”
Nausea rolled in my stomach as my cuffs tightened. Grief. Rage. Fear.
“The fortress. Do you think she—could she have?”
The jars behind Rory rattled, and the bell over the door swung wildly. If Hanim had collaborated with the Supreme to bring down Niyar and Palia, it was entirely possible she had schemed with others inside the kingdom. They had all lied to me. My grandparents, Hanim, my mother. What else had they hidden about Jasad?
“Hanim is not why the fortress fell,” Rory said, prodding a jar of floating herbs with his cane. “Hanim was expelled from Jasad two years before the Blood Summit. The fortress was renewed annually. Renewing the fortress was always meant to be Niphran’s duty. Your grandparents decided as soon as their daughter was born to appoint their Heir as Qayida in the Nizahlan tradition. Hoping it would show the might of the royal blood. Many wilayahs disapproved of breaking from custom, believing it dishonored the memory of Qayida Hend. The problem resolved itself after—” Rory cleared his throat.