him deeply, and I never wanted to be emperor. You know that, Nori. You know me.”
“I used to think I did. But now . . . Believe me, this is the last thing that I wanted. But we cannot hesitate, if Becar is to be saved. An army approaches from Ranir, and a riot rages in our streets. You, I fear, are beyond saving.” She drew herself upright, looking regal. “Guards, take him away.”
The guards marched as one toward him. He froze. He could not believe this was happening—the high augurs, Nori . . . A second before they reached him, he spun, scanning the windows, looking for an escape. But there wasn’t one.
“Lady Nori,” High Augur Etar said, “it is our recommendation that your coronation ceremony be conducted at sundown—word of it will calm the citizens, and a fast coronation will enable the military to respond to the external threat.”
“You are wise,” Nori said. “It shall be done.”
It was all absurd. It was all just flimsy words. And if it had just been Nori, this would have been easily dismissed. But for the high augurs to say them—it was too much. There was nothing he could say that would convince others of his innocence when the ones who confirm such innocence had already spoken against him.
He seized on another thought that didn’t make sense. “Your coronation?”
Nori bowed her head.
And suddenly he realized what should have been clear before. Lady Nori of Griault was of noble birth and beloved by the court. In the absence of any direct heirs, she had a viable claim on the throne.
Especially if she were seen choosing the good of Becar over her feelings for Dar.
It was a brilliant move.
“Nori . . . how could you? I loved you.”
Nori didn’t speak. She wouldn’t even meet his eyes. He wanted to be wrong, to believe that she was deceived by the high augurs, that she was as innocent and good as he’d believed, that she loved him the way he loved her, but the high augur’s words about the coronation and Nori’s lack of surprise . . .
She had planned this, with them.
The guards clapped their hands on Dar’s arms. Some were guards he’d joked with only a few days before, who’d helped him secure musicians to drown out spies, who had accompanied him to the aviary. “I didn’t do this,” Dar pleaded with them. “The high augurs are lying!”
The nearest guard, one he knew, who had stood outside his chambers and protected him, said in a broken voice, “I believed in you. I thought you were good.”
That hit him straight in the heart. “I am. And so was Zarin. I don’t know why the high augurs wanted him dead, but you need to get word to my rider that she needs to flee. She accused the high augurs. They’ll target her next.” And the lion. “Please. Say you’ll warn her.”
But the guards refused to speak with him again or even meet his eyes. They marched him out of the throne room and through the court. He heard the whispers, saw tears on the faces of the lords and ladies, saw the disbelief and the pain—Everyone believes them! he realized. He tried again. “I didn’t kill my brother! The high augurs murdered him!” But even he knew how crazy that sounded. Still, he kept shouting when they pulled a velvet bag over his head, bound his arms, and threw him into a kehok cage. He fell when the cage lurched forward, hauling him out of the palace. His shouts were drowned beneath the screams of his citizens as they fought one another in the streets.
Chapter 30
Yorbel led Shalla to the safest place he knew: his own quarters within the augur temple. It took only a word to the temple guards, explaining she was a temple student who had been caught in the riots at the racetrack, and he’d been allowed inside with her.
The girl hadn’t spoken a word as they’d crossed the city, and they had slipped through anonymously, with no one suspecting he was an augur. Oddly, the farther from the tracks they got, the less the riots seemed to be about Raia’s accusation. He didn’t know how the violence had spread so far so fast. It felt as if everyone had simply been waiting to let all their frustration, fear, and anger explode, and the fuse lit at the racetrack had outrun reason. He wished he could have stayed and done something to protect