Roshar said, “I regret every day since I saw you last.”

“What do you regret most? This?” She gestured at his mutilations.

“No.”

“How you let our older sister persuade you?”

“Yes.”

“Or when you saw the Valorians take me.”

“Yes.”

“Maybe it was when you explained to a child that she wouldn’t be gone long, that she must pretend to be surprised when she’s taken hostage. All she has to do is kill one man.”

Kestrel felt Arin’s tension, the way he looked at the prince. Arin’s worry was plain, his hands still at his sides yet slightly open, as if his friend might shatter and Arin needed to be ready to catch the pieces.

“Could it be so hard to kill a man?” Risha continued. “Especially when we consider her talent. Look at the little girl’s grace. Her skill with a blade. A prodigy, surely. Never before seen in one so young. Yes, the assassination of the Valorian emperor should be easy for her.”

Then Kestrel understood.

Roshar said, “I regret it all.”

“I have wondered, over the years, whether you were weak to let my sister rule you, or simply stupid.”

“I didn’t think—”

“About what would happen to me after I killed the emperor? Brother, I thought about it when I walked the halls of the imperial palace. When I learned their language. Played childhood games with their prince. I thought about what the Valorians would do to the little girl who murdered their emperor.”

A pressure tightened Kestrel’s lungs. Her father, when he had refused to be her father anymore, had transformed into something else. A block of opaque glass, maybe. She wanted to heft the weight of his betrayal and show it to Risha, to ask if it looked and weighed the same as what the princess carried, if it ever got any lighter, or could diminish like ice.

Yet Kestrel also saw the ruined expression in Roshar’s eyes. Maybe she shouldn’t pity him, yet she did.

Arin said, “Name what you want.”

Risha settled into a teak chair. “I will never kill Verex’s father. But”—she flipped her hand at the three of them—“you could, with my help. Get rid of the emperor, and you can win this war without open battle.”

“Wait,” Kestrel said. Cautious, focused now, she said, “You’re not even supposed to be here. Verex said you were safe at court.”

At the sound of Verex’s name, some of the anger left Risha. “Verex had left. There was nothing to hold me there. I escaped.”

“And found your way here? So easily?”

The princess shrugged. “It’s not hard to find safe passage if you’re willing to kill for it.”

In Herrani, Arin asked Kestrel, “What are you thinking?”

She noticed the switch in language and recognized that Arin believed it was safe to speak in Herrani, but she didn’t risk an answer in front of Risha. She didn’t say that General Trajan could have sent the embittered eastern princess with tempting bait. Kestrel feared a trap. “What kind of help are you offering?”

“I can give you a location where the emperor will be, separate from the army, with a light guard.”

“How did you come by this information?”

“The court.”

Kestrel didn’t like this. It was too easy. “You still haven’t said what you want out of this bargain.”

Risha kept her eyes on Arin. “Promise that Verex won’t be hurt. Protect him.”

Startled, defensive, Arin said, “I don’t wish the Valorian prince any harm.”

But Roshar’s face changed . . . and Kestrel suddenly realized why. “No,” she told him, her voice rising. “You musn’t. His death wouldn’t serve you. You should want him to inherit the empire. He’d be a friend to the east.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Roshar said. “Our queen will smash the empire to pieces if she can. Killing the emperor might win the war. Verex might become a political ally. But if he inherits Valoria, that country will always be a threat to us . . . and to you, Arin.”

“Someone else would step into Verex’s place,” Kestrel argued. “If the prince died, the senate would elect a new emperor.”

Arin’s gray eyes went flat. “It’d be the Valorian general.”

Roshar shrugged. “Unless we eliminate him as well. Knock down all the principal pieces in Borderlands, and what’s left for your opponent? Surrender.”

“You forget an important piece in this game,” Risha said. “Me.”