Chapter 238: Deepest Hate

There were two parts of her, Nasir supposed.

The part that was now Captain of Consortium ’s Royal Guard, who had made a vow to her king to 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 Nasir 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 glimpsed the spires and minarets and domes of the god-city breaking over the horizon as they’d sailed in, the shining pillar of the Torre standing proud over it all, and had to swallow back tears. The part that had scented the smoky paprika and crisp tang of ginger and beckoning 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 Consortium , for the family still there, but this place, where her father had once lived and where even her Consortium -bor