be exiled and warned to shut his mouth on pain of execution, and, with the slant-eyed scoundrel gone, who would help dull her agony?  

Not too long afterward, Vasudeva had brought home the shocking news that Lord Kushal had come close to death as a result of excruciating abdominal spasms. The envoy’s personal healer suspected the origin of his disease to be minute doses of an exotic nerve poison administered over an indefinite period of time. At this alarming diagnosis, Lady Sarahi had whisked him away to the family estates to recuperate in safety. So someone in the Council had tried to kill the incorruptible envoy! Was it for his intimacy with both Takshak and herself? Of course only a handful knew just how strained the Maharaja’s bond with his once favored advisor had grown. Why was it always...

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