This story serves as a backstory filler for Tadek, one of the khayalar from Rowland’s first book, A Taste of Gold and Iron. It’s very sweet—ritualistic, formal, and heart-wrenching in the way that only fantasy novels, highly focused on found families and deep emotional connections, can be. As noted in the blurb, Tadek met the late Crown Princess Mihrişah many years ago and immediately fell into khayalar-love with her, and he hasn’t really examined what that could mean for his present life. It falls to our chaos couple, Kadou and Evemer, to be their best, fluffiest selves and bring these two great loyalties of Tadek’s together.
It’s funny to be reviewing this book having already read Rowland’s follow-up, Running Close to the Wind, because there (mild spoilers) we see another side of the khayalar and the Sultanate of Arasht, and how benevolence can mask authoritarianism. I’m still a fan of Arasht’s law-and-order vibe, and I’d love to see how the two depictions could be reconciled someday—perhaps in a book three?
One interesting thing to note about this book is that it creates a bit of tonal whiplash after reading Running. If in AToGaI we’re introduced to khayalar loyalty as the backbone of a generous and benevolent empire, RCttW shows us the darker side to empire, when it overreaches and attempts to apply similar rules to all of it subjects without thinking of the consequences. To then jump back to central Arasht, and double down on the idea of khalayars being unimpeachable forces for good and imbued with morality…it’s weird, and also I’m amused by how much I wanted to get back to the order of the capital. As my friend pointed out, though, it’s the story of empire (or really, federal government) worlds over—what works when you’re close to the center doesn’t always work when you’re at the fringes.