could make inquiries, discreetly, of course. There is one member of the council who is like a sister to me, High Augur Gissa. I have known her for many years and would trust her with my life.”
“Would you trust her with mine?” Dar asked.
He expected Yorbel to say yes, of course. But the augur was silent, which told Dar all he needed to know. Whoever this Gissa was, her loyalty didn’t extend beyond the temple, perhaps not even beyond her friends.
“If anyone were to know that I, or anyone close to me, was interested in a charm like this, they might suspect the truth about Zarin’s vessel,” Dar said. “And if the truth comes out . . . No. Winning the victory charm is still the best plan. It’s enough for me to know that it’s possible for such a charm to exist, for Zarin to still have been the man I thought he was.” That was a very comforting thought.
“Then yes—I believe it is possible,” Yorbel said in his always-reassuring voice; then he hesitated. “But if it is and you are correct . . . then it means your brother had a very powerful enemy.”
Which means that I do too, Dar thought.
And that was a much less comforting thought.
After receiving a summons from the palace, Lady Evara chose her hat with care: not the hat with the triple-masted ship, not the hat with the live hibiscus growing from the rim, not the hat with a cradle for her bowl of koi fish, but yes to the hat with the diamond the size of her fist.
She used to think of such hats as fashion, but now she saw them as her disguise.
A hat like this said: I have wealth. I am one of you. I belong.
And it was a lie.
She’d spent the last of her gold ensuring no one suspected she was a fraud.
She’d hit on the plan of owning a grand champion kehok when she first discovered her inheritance was . . . inaccessible. Her parents, before their deaths, had written a quaint little clause into their will. In order to inherit their wealth, their daughter had to be “worthy.” In other words, an augur had to read her soul and determine her soul was unblemished by human faults.
Even after death, they wanted to make sure she felt their disapproval.
She’d spent the first six months trying to make herself good enough, but the standard they’d set was impossibly high. Her soul was, like most, blemished. Her parents’ had been too, of course, but that didn’t matter for the legality of the will. So Lady Evara was stuck, unable to access the fortune that should have been hers and unwilling to tell anyone why she couldn’t access that fortune without suffering censure and ostracization.
Ever since their deaths, she’d been pretending she was good enough to live in her home, to wear her silk clothes, to call herself “Lady Evara.” Meanwhile, her funds had been dwindling.
Along came Trainer Tamra Verlas, and Lady Evara had been certain she had a winner, a way to wealth that didn’t rely on her parents’ whims and an augur’s judgment. When that went up in flames, Lady Evara was able to look both eccentric and generous by spending a minimal amount to support her—all the while hoping Tamra would become desperate enough to do something mad and crazy and wonderful, like train a needy rider and a barely controlled kehok, which was exactly what had happened.
She had to admit she hadn’t predicted the latest development.
But it was all to the good, at least if she could keep it from falling to pieces. If she could be seen as aiding Tamra and the rider girl, and if this emperor-to-be was in fact legitimized, the reward could be more than she’d dreamed. As a bonus, she’d also be helping a single mother and an unloved runaway, which was a delicious rebuttal to her late parents’ belief that she wasn’t a worthy person.
It was a positive sign that she’d been summoned to speak with Prince Dar. She hoped the diamond hat would project the right image—that he needed her more than she needed him, which was abundantly not true. She had spent the last of her gold on the three servants who had traveled to the Heart of Becar with her. Once they’d reached the capital, she’d quietly and discreetly let them go after only a day, with promises of good references to ensure their silence on her financial