Tamra and her rider, as well as Shalla. But she asked me to take her daughter to safety, Yorbel thought. She trusts me, and I couldn’t say no.
He hadn’t even questioned it.
Opening his door, he welcomed Shalla in. She scanned the mostly empty room: a cot, a desk, a table where he ate solitary meals. He had a few books on a shelf, and his robes hung in his closet. A plant sat on his windowsill. “It isn’t much, but you’ll be safe here.”
“And my mother? Will she be safe?”
“Knowing you’re safe will help her,” Yorbel said. “She’ll be able to focus on protecting the kehok until Lady Evara is able to reach the emperor-to-be.” He thought of the way she’d quieted multiple kehoks at once. She was one of the most powerful people he’d ever met.
“And if the high augurs come for her?” Shalla asked.
“The high augurs are a force for good in Becar.” He believed that with all his heart and being. “I don’t believe Raia lied, not knowingly, but she must have misinterpreted. There must be more to what is going on than what we know.”
“Then find out.” Shalla crossed her arms. In that instant, she looked so exactly like her mother that Yorbel nearly smiled. “Ask your augur friends. Before the truth gets my mother killed.”
It was a brilliant idea. And now he had a way to help Tamra, even from a distance: discover the truth and share it. Once he knew why the emperor kehok had reacted the way he did, Yorbel could spread the word and save them all. He had the potential to know both sides of the story. In fact, as the only augur who was privy to all the details of the kehok’s relationship with Prince Dar, he was uniquely suited to this task. “Stay here,” he told Shalla. “I have a friend who is a high augur. I’ll speak to her.”
“Speak well,” Shalla demanded. “Mama thinks she can fix everything if she works hard enough, and sometimes that’s not true. She needs help, even if she won’t ask for it. Promise me you’ll try to help her.”
“I promise.”
She was scowling at him as he let himself out of his quarters. He swore silently that he wouldn’t let her down, either of them. If there was anything he could do to help, he’d do it.
He hurried through the corridors. It would be a supreme stroke of luck if Gissa were in her quarters, but it wasn’t impossible. She could have returned after the riots on the racetrack—seeking safety was a sensible course of action, and Gissa was sensible. He was crossing a courtyard, heading toward the east wing of the temple, when he heard a clatter from the front gate. Veering, he followed the sounds.
The temple soldiers were returning with a prisoner. He didn’t see who it was, but he saw they were within a cage—and there was Gissa! She was with other high augurs, accompanying the cage as it crossed the courtyard between the pillars.
Lurking in the shadows so he wouldn’t be drawn into extraneous conversations, he waited as they maneuvered the prisoner into the temple, and then he intercepted Gissa as she split off from the others. “Gissa, it’s urgent that I—”
Grabbing his arm, she yanked him into a side corridor. “Yorbel, you shouldn’t be here! These are matters for the high augurs.” She shot a look back at where the prisoner had disappeared through a doorway. Yorbel briefly wondered who the prisoner was, then dismissed it as irrelevant. He had to stay focused on his purpose.
“This is a matter for the high augurs too—matters that affect all of Becar. Gissa . . . I was there when the grand champion accused you all. I know it was a misunderstanding, but if you could help me sort out the truth, then we could end the violence that’s sweeping our fair city.”
She shot a look back at the courtyard, and then she sighed. “Yorbel. Oh, Yorbel. So innocent. So foolish. You had to get yourself mixed up in this, didn’t you? Why couldn’t you have stayed in your quarters, done your readings, continued your studies, and not ventured out into the world? The world eats those like you.”
“Gissa?” He didn’t know why she was talking like this, but it wasn’t helpful. “You can’t expect me not to care about the turmoil in Becar. There’s rioting in the streets!”
“And an invading army nearly on our doorstep,” Gissa said. “Seal yourself in