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Then Tallu extended his arm to me, and I took it. When he brushed aside the flap of his small tent, the camp around us was strangely still. No sounds echoed against the dunes. Even the birds were silent, and Terror knew I had been eating, so he should have been begging for scraps.

“What is it?” Tallu asked one of his Dogs.

The man raised his hand, pointing in the direction that Commander Rede had traveled. We turned, and the sky was blue. Not blue like daylight—the washed-out pale blue of the desert sky—but blue like I remembered from the dragon seer’s caves.

It cast up into the sky like a pale imitation of the aurora borealis.

I glanced at Gotuye. “Have we heard from Commander Rede?”

It was an absurd question. After High General Saxu, the first person who would have known if Commander Rede had returned would have been Tallu.

“Brother!” Prince Hallu ran forward, Naî clutched in his arms, her tail hanging limp. The heat and dryness of the desert had been hard on her. I noticed every time I mounted her back, yet she never complained.

Empress Koque and General Saxu followed at a more sedate pace.

“Isn’t it incredible?” Prince Hallu asked, gesturing to the sky.

“It is beautiful,” Tallu agreed.

“In the Tavornai forests, we would see things like this at night. But it was always only bugs or magic in the trees. What is this?” Hallu turned his eyes to Tallu, his innocence making him look nearly his age.

“Commander Rede will tell you when he returns,” Tallu said. And that was the difference between growing up as a prince of the empire and a prince of the north. Tallu could not show weakness. Could not admit he did not know, so instead had to provide an answer.

I could admit to ignorance. If Prince Hallu had asked me, I would have said I had no idea. Looking at the sky, though, I had an inkling. It did look too much like the waters of the dragon seer’s temple. And I had consumed something very similar with the matriarch of one of the deep desert tribes.

We had drunk some of those hidden waters the oasis was named after. What were they really?

“Commander Rede is an intelligent man,” General Saxu said. Using his cane to steady himself, he bent to his knee so that he was at eye level with Prince Hallu. “Emperor Tallu is correct, Commander Rede is smart enough to learn all he can about the people we have come to deal with. He will bring back that information and then we will know more about our new allies.”

He said everything with such confidence that I could see Prince Hallu gaining his own conviction. He raised his chin and nodded rapidly. “Are you sure they’re our allies?”

General Saxu bowed his chin. “Your brother, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Tallu, wishes them to be. I am his loyal servant, so I will make them be our allies.”

Prince Hallu blinked, his eyebrows going up. “Can you do that?”

“I serve His Imperial Majesty. As in all things, it is my deepest honor to make his desires reality.” General Saxu met Prince Hallu’s eyes, and he had clearly read something in the boy that I hadn’t because Prince Hallu’s shoulders dropped, and he clutched Naî closer.

When he turned to Empress Koque, he was grinning.

There was a shout and General Saxu rose to his feet, steadier than he had been when he sank down in front of Prince Hallu.

One of his men ran up. “Commander Rede has returned with members of the desert tribe.”

“I will see them in my rooms,” Tallu said.

“Your Imperial Majesty, you should allow us to search them,” Gotuye said.

“I do not believe for a moment that any desert tribe could challenge my Dogs. Or are you suggesting that they might be able to best you in combat?” Tallu’s skin shone blue in the shifting lights above our heads. Gotuye dropped his chin.

“I would never suggest such a falsehood, Your Imperial Majesty,” Gotuye said. “That does not mean we should be foolish.”

“Ask them for their weapons, but they are honored guests.” Tallu glanced at General Saxu. “Our allies.”

General Saxu dipped his chin and spoke with his men as Tallu turned, heading back inside his tent. I followed behind, taking one last look at the sky before the flap used as a door closed behind me. Tallu’s servants were there, doing their best to make his remaining clothes look more imperial. One even unearthed his emperor’s robe, carefully placing it over his shoulders, letting it fall to the ground.

There was little they could do about a throne, but with the most luxurious blankets Lord Pehine’s estate had to offer, including pelts from northern animals, they managed to make it look less like a few pieces of rock in the desert and more as though the emperor had set up court in the desert.

Then they disappeared, two fading into the background, allowing the Emperor’s Dogs the positions closest to Tallu. Lerolian arrived before Rede and the goblins.