the hand that strokes the elephant

I had my whole today turned yanked sideways by a possible medical emergency that turned out not to be one, for which I'm grateful, but I still needed to drive 45 minutes north in the driving rain and then 45 minutes south in the same rain to see disparately located specialists.

Fortunately I had reading material, Tasha Suri's The Jasmine Throne, which I won in a Goodreads giveaway. It's set in an alt-Indian subcontinent in ancient days, with an empire ruling over many principalities and one conqu...