Chapter 31 · Chapter 31

"You play a dangerous game, Mariam," Abu Khalid said, his voice dropping into that quiet, measured register elders used when their patience had thinned to thread.

"The council gathers within the hour. The papers to reassign the commercial warrants and the signature over the northern holdings are already laid out on the cedar table.

If you have seen Talal incapacitated, if the whisper that he can no longer govern his affairs is the truth, a single word from you here spares your family from standing beside a fallen pillar. You owe this house clarity before the elders take their seats."

I did not step back. I did not clasp my hands together or betray the cold fire running steady beneath my skin. The fragrance of Oud that drifted from the edge of my sleeve belonged to the locked wing, deep and resinous, carrying the silent memory of a man whose authority had not wavered by a fraction of an inch.

"My family’s name does not depend on a private bargain struck in a corridor, ya Abu Khalid," I replied, each syllable balanced and deliberate.