Yorbel hated every thought that was pummeling his brain. Gissa knew. And if Gissa knew, all the high augurs must have known. Raia was right. He repeated his question: “How long have you known that the lion was Emperor Zarin?”
“Only since the final race.”
And then he asked a more terrible question: “How long have you known that the late emperor was reborn as a kehok?”
Gissa was silent for a moment. In this chamber, where all other sound had been erased, the silence had weight and meaning. “Do you want the answer to that question, Yorbel? Think carefully. You may not like what you hear.”
He already hated everything he’d heard so far. It felt as if his world had been ripped open and turned inside-out. He felt numb, stunned by the sense that one of the foundation stones of his life had crumbled to sand.
The high augurs were supposed to be good. The holiest of holies.
But he didn’t need to read her or any of the others to know that was no longer the truth.
He wondered if it had ever been true.
“Did the high augurs use a charm to ensure that Emperor Zarin was reborn as a kehok?” The question felt as if it burned his tongue. It was inconceivable that he could even suspect them. There was no rational reason they’d want the late emperor dead, and no reason to arrange events so that Dar would fail and the empire would suffer.
He heard a shuffling behind him.
Gissa intoned, “You are known to us.”
High Augur Etar entered the chamber. “High Augur Gissa, I question your methods. You are supposed to be questioning the witness, not vice versa. Have you obtained the information? Where is the kehok?” The last question was aimed at Yorbel.
Yorbel felt as if he was reeling, but he pulled himself upright and answered the high augur, the most holy of holies. “As I told you, Illustrious One. Safe.”
The high augur snorted and then sank into his throne, the one decorated with carvings of men and women. Yorbel wondered briefly what the carvings signified, his scholar’s mind wanting to categorize all he saw.
“You do not understand the gravity of the situation,” High Augur Etar said with a heavy sigh.
Gissa inclined her head. “He is an intelligent man. I had thought to explain it to him. Once he understands, he will help us willingly.”
“If he doesn’t, he will die.”
The casual indifference in his voice was chilling. The way they talked about him as if he wasn’t even there was perhaps even scarier. Yorbel thought of Shalla, asking if he knew the high augurs’ souls were pure, since no one could read them. I have been so very wrong about so many things. He met Gissa’s eyes, hoping against hope to see some drop of compassion, some hint that he could have misunderstood.
More shuffling from the labyrinth beyond. One by one, the other high augurs entered the room, each greeted with the same phrase: “You are known to us.” At last, five of the eight chairs were filled.
“We have before us Augur Yorbel,” High Augur Etar said. “He has graciously agreed to share with us the location of our errant kehok.” All the augurs present murmured their approval.
Yorbel wet his lips and tried to think quickly and clearly.
He would not lie to the high augurs, even knowing what he did about them now. But he also would not betray Tamra. “He’s well guarded. You will not be able to force him from his position. But there may be another way. If you confess the truth to the people, explain why—”
High Augur Teron said, “You are ignorant of what is at stake here.”
Gissa cut in. “Then enlighten him. Augur Yorbel is a good man, concerned with the future of Becar. He has already compromised his soul to protect the kehok; he may be willing to go further to protect all of Becar.”
The high augurs regarded Gissa as if she were a unique bug specimen. Yorbel realized she was going out on a limb, defending him. He also realized it was likely he wouldn’t walk out of this chamber alive, and that no one would ever know. Either this ends in the death of my body or the corruption of my soul, he thought. He couldn’t see any other possible outcome.
I should have left Shalla with her mother. If he never returned, what would happen to the girl? With luck, she would simply be sent back