your room. Ignore it all. Come out in the morning when the world is pure and fresh again.” She put her hands on Yorbel’s shoulders and turned him, giving him a little shove toward the rooms.
He heard footsteps clip-clop on the stone. A deep voice said, “High Augur Gissa.”
Yorbel turned and bowed low to High Augur Etar.
“You’re needed for securing the prisoner,” High Augur Etar said. He then hesitated. “Who is this? Your friend who found the kehok?”
“High Augur Etar, may I present Augur Yorbel,” Gissa said. He thought he heard a strange note in her voice, but he couldn’t identify it, and he didn’t dare rise from his bow until High Augur Etar acknowledged him. He’d never been in the presence of the most holy of augurs before.
“Rise, Augur Yorbel. High Augur Gissa has spoken highly of you.”
He straightened his back. The high augur looked as he’d imagined him: serene and wise, with gentle eyes. “High Augur Gissa is kind.”
Gissa gave a light snort.
High Augur Etar actually smiled.
Yorbel felt as if the moon had peeked through the clouds. The high augur knows I exist! It was one thing to know Gissa was a high augur. It was quite another to be talking to the most revered elder. He wanted to ask him a thousand questions about the nature of souls and their place in the universe, but his tongue couldn’t seem to form a single coherent sentence. He dragged his thoughts back to Tamra, whom he’d sworn to help.
“You would not happen to know the location of the emperor-to-be’s kehok and its rider, would you?” High Augur Etar asked. “We were separated from them at the tracks and are concerned about their well-being.”
“They’re safe,” Yorbel reassured him, “though I am deeply worried for their continued safety. Your Pureness, I overheard the accusation made by the grand champion, and if I could but know the truth of the matter . . .”
“The truth of the matter is that emperor-to-be Dar has been arrested on charges of high treason,” High Augur Etar said. “He is accused of the murder of his brother, the late emperor Zarin. This will be known to all soon enough.”
Yorbel felt as if all the air had left his lungs. He gaped at the high augur, then found his voice. “With all due respect, Your Holiness, but that is impossible. To murder an emperor . . . one’s own brother . . . it would leave an unmistakable stain on the soul, and Prince Dar showed no such corruption. I read him as recently as a few days ago.”
He thought he heard Gissa make a small, sad noise, but when he glanced at her, her expression was impassive. He remembered the prisoner he’d seen brought in through the courtyard—had that been Dar? Was his friend imprisoned here, right now?
High Augur Etar was regarding him with far more interest. “You will swear to this?”
“By the Lady, by the River, by all I hold dear, I swear it.”
Another almost-imperceptible sigh from Gissa, and Yorbel wondered if he’d misspoken. Surely, honor compelled him to defend his friend and their prince. If nothing else, the truth ruled in Becar, and for all his recent, smaller obfuscations, he was a servant of that truth.
“You were never approved to read the emperor-to-be,” High Augur Etar said sternly. “Only a select few are permitted to view the auras of the royal family. How did such a thing come to be?” He then held up a hand before Yorbel could explain and apologize—it had never been Yorbel’s intent to read Dar. His second sight often manifested on its own accord. But even if that wasn’t true, Dar was his friend, and he never would have objected to Yorbel reading him. “That is of no consequence. What matters is what you saw.”
A little voice inside Yorbel whispered that he may have misread the situation very, very badly. He looked from Etar to Gissa and back again.
“High Augur Gissa, you know what must be done.”
Yorbel felt a chill chase over his skin. Surely, he doesn’t mean—
“Obtain the answers we need, and then do what you must.”
Gissa bowed. “Yes, Divine One.”
They both watched as High Augur Etar strode after where the cart had disappeared. “You’re an idiot, Yorbel. You know that? You mean well, but . . .”
“Gissa . . .” Yorbel began. He didn’t truly order Gissa to interrogate me, did he?
And kill him.
Yorbel couldn’t forget about that part. He thought back to a conversation that he