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“What do you want from me? You want me to dedicate everything we have to Altura’s defense? There’s no guarantee they’ll make landing there. It’s the Sentinel he wants. I can’t look after you. I have to worry about the needs of all the houses. That’s what an emperor does. I can’t be seen to favor one house over another.” He shook his head, and his red locks tossed from side to side. “How could you? And now you’re asking more of me?”
    “You don’t understand,” Ella cried.
    “You’re right,” Killian said. “I don’t.”

    Miro found Ella sitting with Shani on the stairs in a secluded part of the gallery, their heads close together.
    “Ella,” he said softly.
    Ella glanced up, and Miro saw that her eyes were red. “What is it?” she asked.
    “Kalif Ilathor . . . he’s spoken to me.”
    Ella raised her voice. “About what?”
    Miro shrugged. “He wants my permission to ask for your hand.”
    Ella drew in a sharp breath. “And what did you say?”
    Miro smiled. “What do you think I said? It’s your decision to mak e.”
    “She doesn’t love him,” Shani said.
    Miro nodded. “Ella, I have to ask something of you, though, and if that’s the case, you aren’t going to like it.”
    “What is it?” Shani demanded.
    “Ilathor’s sailing home to Agira Lahsa tomorrow. We have yet to connect Agira Lahsa through the desert to Wondhip Pass so they can be part of our signaling system.” Miro turned his gaze on Shani. “I need Ella to go with Ilathor and see it done.”
    “Send someone else,” Shani said flatly.
    “I can’t,” Miro said. “Ella,” he implored, “we are in desperate need of allies, and Ilathor is a proud man. Now isn’t the time to refuse him. There’s next to no chance Sentar will make landing in the desert, and we need the Hazarans to agree to come to our aid in Altura. I’m sorry to ask this of you, but I need you to ensure Ilathor’s help. You have to go with him. You won’t have to stay long—just long enough to build the station in Agira Lahsa and continue the chain north to Wondhip Pass. You’ll also need to connect Tlaxor, Petrya’s capital. Please, will you do it—for me?”
    Shani frowned, but Ella nodded. “I understand. Of course I’ll go.”
    “Thank you,” Miro said.
    “I don’t want to spend any more time in Seranthia anyway.”
     

4
    Agira Lahsa, the hidden city, was hidden no more. Ella watched as it materialized out of the hazy desert sky, rising from the sands as the swift Buchalanti ship approached.
    Ella had seen this city when it was little more than a series of blocks jutting out of the sand. Now the walls were complete, the great amphitheater rebuilt, bigger than any arena in Sarostar. An enormous archway with a tower on each side framed the paved road to the city’s entrance, splitting as it left the city, with a fork heading down to the sturdy dock and a second road wandering out into the desert.
    It was getting dark, and the palms that marked the low oases dotting the landscape around Agira Lahsa became silhouetted by crimson rays. The first stars appeared in the sky, and Ella breathed in the cool, dry air as she tilted her head back and looked up at the sky. Nowhere in Merralya, not even in the icy north, were there stars like those in the Hazara Desert. They pricked the night’s curtain in ones and twos, and then in their hundreds. Soon a swath of constellations swept from one horizon to the other.
    Ilathor joined Ella at the rail. “Beautiful, is it not?”
    The six-week journey from Seranthia had been smooth, with fair weather and pleasant conversation. Ilathor never finished the proposal Killian’s arrival had interrupted, and it hung in the air between them. Ella had departed Seranthia swiftly and didn’t see Killian again.
    If he’d tried to find out at all, Killian would know she’d left in Ilathor’s company.
    “Glorious,” Ella said in response to Ilathor. She knew she couldn’t do anything to