She shook her head. ‘No, Melan, you tricked yourself. All I had to do was nudge, and you were off running. If you’d kept your centre, you’d have finished your dice a year before me. But you let your pride and your jealousy rule you, and were fool enough to treat carving the sacred dice like a camel race. You didn’t deserve the veil.’

Melan’s eyes darkened. ‘And do I deserve it now?’

‘It must have been crushing to fall as you did,’ Inevera said. ‘The pain, the humiliation, and the scars – a constant reminder. Most girls would have been broken by that and left the Dama’ting Palace. Even a failed nie’dama’ting is a sought-after bride. Wealthy dama would have happily overlooked the scarred hand for your training at pillow dancing alone, not to mention knowledge of healing and sharusahk and hora magic. You could have arranged a marriage and secured yourself a comfortable position as Jiwah Ka to a worthy husband.’

Melan breathed hard, causing her veil to suck in, then billow.

‘But it didn’t break you,’ Inevera went on. ‘It took incredible courage to ignore the stares and derision and return to the chamber day after day these long years, and indomitable will to keep centred enough to carve a perfect seven. You deserve the veil.’

Inevera flicked her eyes to Melan’s clawed hand for an instant. Not in fear, just a reminder to Melan of her stance, attempting to menace Inevera like a bully in the bazaar.

Melan looked at her hand and shook her head, as if coming out of a reverie. She breathed again and took a half step back, dropping her arm.

Without giving any indication, Inevera readied herself. If an attack was to come, it would come now. ‘We can end this right here, Melan. I bear you no ill will. Whatever our motives, I needed the lessons you gave me, as you, I think, needed mine. Now we are reborn as Brides of Everam, and should leave the feud between us in the Vault where it belongs.’

Inevera held out her arms. ‘Welcome, sister-wife.’

Melan stood there, eyes wide, for a long moment. Stiffly, she moved into Inevera’s arms, meaning a token embrace, but Inevera held her tightly, in part to cement the moment, and in part to keep a lock on that dangerous, clawed hand.

Slowly, and then more powerfully, as if a dam were cracking and then finally gave way, Melan began to cry.

On the day Jardir took the black – the first ever to do so with a white veil – Inevera strode through the halls of the Dama’ting Palace to the Damaji’ting’s wing.

She encountered a group of Brides, and they made a show of stepping from her path in a precise, orderly flow that reminded Inevera of a flock of birds. The first to clear her path were the youngest and least influential, the last the oldest and most powerful.

Tea politics. Kenevah served Waxing Tea each month without fail, controlling the seating precisely to show the women their place in her regard. The places closest to the Damaji’ting seldom shifted, but those farther out did often, and there was a constant struggle for a rise in status. The dama’ting wasted endless hours fretting over every opportunity to impress the Damaji’ting and her closest advisors.

Inevera suppressed her derision. Over the years, she had moved up the table to sit at Kenevah’s left hand, second only to Qeva at her right. The concerns of the other Brides meant nothing to her. Sharak Ka was coming, and she had little patience for petty feuds over imagined slights, talk of who had which dama by the bido, whether he had the Andrah’s ear, how much gold was in his purse or how many wives in his harem.

To some, her refusal to play at tea politics only made her seem more powerful. What secrets did she hide, that let her rise above the intrigues of the palace? Most gave her a wide berth, believing – rightfully – that she knew something they did not.

But others saw weakness in her lack of involvement in palace intrigues. Kenevah was an expert at playing the Brides against one another, and by keeping Inevera at her left, her veil still white rather than black, she signalled that Inevera had not been formally named her heir. This led some to speculate that Kenevah was not convinced Inevera was fit to lead the tribe and might have her killed and name Qeva Damaji’ting until the dice called another.

Already, there had been attempts on Inevera’s life. Three times, her food and drink were poisoned. Once, there was a tunnel asp in her bed, and another time a passing eunuch whirled on her with a knife.

Each time, the dice had warned her. The viper she caught and boxed, and the poisons she pretended to ingest with no sign of ill effect. The eunuch she killed, offering no explanation save that he gave her insult. Nothing more was required of a sister.

Never once did Inevera retaliate, or seek the identity of her attackers. It was irrelevant whether the attempts came from the Damaji’ting herself or simply other sisters sensing weakness. She’d no time to waste preparing poisons or planting rumours in return. If the dice were giving warning, she was in Everam’s favour, and there was nothing to fear. What was her sister-wives’ regard in comparison with that?

Ahmann was her only concern. Making sure he was safe, and ready to grasp at power when it passed his way. Planting the seeds of that power. If he was allowed to come into his full, all the politics in Krasia would be obsolete. And if not, her people would destroy themselves in a generation.

But today, with his veiling, matters had changed. So long as he slept in Sharik Hora, Ahmann had been protected. Few had known he was even there, and there was no alagai’sharak beneath the temple of bones; no rival who would strike at him.

But now he was kai’Sharum and would lead men into nightly battle. She feared little for his safety against the alagai, but with his skill and prowess, he would quickly come to the notice of the other kai’Sharum and the Sharum Ka. The dama might not – yet – fear so promising a warrior, trained as one of their own, but the more powerful Sharum would see him as a threat to their status. Sharum did not do their business with poison and hidden knives, but at any sign of weakness they would challenge him like wolves.

She needed to be by his side, to cast for him daily and keep death at bay. Krasia needed him, and he needed her. The Deliverer could not go unbridled.

– Make him a man—

The words had echoed in her mind as she pressured him into betrothal, and the thrill she felt upon his acceptance was not all in duty to Everam. Illiterate and barely more than a savage just a few short years ago, Jardir could now debate tactics, strategy, and philosophy with the wisest dama, and break any that faced him in sharusahk.

And he was handsome. All those hours spent watching him in his bido as he grew into manhood had put a longing in her. She ached to unwrap her bido weave for the last time on their wedding night and never tie the cursed thing again.

Inevera reached Kenevah’s chamber and saw Enkido standing watch without. The Sharum eunuch had a touch of grey in his hair now, but he was still strong and dangerous, the only man in the world privy to the fighting secrets of the Kaji dama’ting. He allowed women to defeat him at practice to show how a move should be correctly applied, but Inevera had watched him closely, seeing how he was always in control. Any dama’ting who underestimated Enkido was a fool.

She signalled him in the secret hand code of eunuchs, her nimble fingers speaking quickly, her stance conveying respect but not deference.

He was still a eunuch, after all.