to the training temple when everything had blown over, her connection to this corruption deemed tangential at best. Without luck . . . He tried not to worry about her, or about other mistakes he may have made.
There had to be a way he could still help them. And the people of Becar.
“You favor this man,” another of the high augurs said. Yorbel didn’t know her name.
“He is a good man,” Gissa argued. Sweat beaded on her forehead. He’d never seen her look so unsettled before, and he wondered what it was costing her to stand up for him. He knew, though, it was hopeless. He was dead the moment he’d walked into the maze. He just hadn’t realized it until now. “Becar needs such as him.”
High Augur Etar spoke to Yorbel in a teacher’s voice. “Several months ago, Emperor Zarin came to me with a discovery. He had studied the ancient tomes, combed through old legends, and believed he had unearthed a long-lost secret: anyone can learn to read auras. It is a myth that an augur’s ability requires a pure soul. It merely requires the proper training.”
Yorbel gaped. “But . . .”
“Of course, we immediately realized the danger of such knowledge,” High Augur Etar said. “It would disturb the world order. Rip open the very fabric of our society. Becar functions because its people trust augurs to guide them—if they ceased to view us as superior, the result would be chaos and despair. So we had to remove the emperor.”
He shook his head, as if he could shake out the horrible things he was hearing. “You murdered him. And had him reborn as a kehok?”
Another high augur explained, “Given that it was possible he’d retain at least some of his memories, we needed to ensure he was reborn as the one creature whom no one would ever trust.”
“I don’t understand how this revelation would destroy Becar,” Yorbel said. It didn’t sound so dire. Perhaps augurs were less special than he’d believed, but surely the world could adjust. “Yes, it would cause change. Our role would change.” The augurs would lose some fraction of their power. . . .
Was that what this was all about? Power?
Augurs weren’t supposed to covet power.
Augurs aren’t supposed to be a lot of things. Like murderers.
They killed Zarin to hide the fact that they themselves weren’t pure. To prevent anyone from suspecting their depravity, they committed an act of utmost depravity.
They made a monster, in order to hide that they’re monsters, Yorbel thought. It was suddenly clear why the high augurs discouraged other augurs from interacting with kehoks—they saw too much of themselves in them.
“This is pointless,” High Augur Nolak cut in. “The longer we wait, the closer the Raniran army marches. It is not altogether certain that the Becaran army can be repositioned in the time we have as it is. Emperor-to-be Dar must be executed, the kehok must be neutralized, and a new empress must be crowned. Delays cost all of Becar.”
Gissa bowed her head, refusing to meet Yorbel’s eyes, and he knew it was over. Now Dar would die. And the decay in the heart of Becar would fester, unseen and uncured.
The high augurs had become corrupt, or corrupted themselves. That much he understood clearly. And no one will know. I’ll die here, before or after Dar, and they will descend on Tamra, Raia, and what remains of Zarin.
Great wrongs were being done here, in the name of good.
Unless there was a better explanation . . .
“I understand why you feel Zarin had to die.” He didn’t. But he would say so, if it helped. “Please just tell me why Dar must as well. He knows nothing of his brother’s discovery.”
Gissa sighed heavily. “Emperor-to-be Dar was doomed from the moment Emperor Zarin died. You know this. At least with a public execution, his death serves two purposes: allowing the empire to continue, and allowing the high augurs to do their work.”
He’s a scapegoat, Yorbel realized.
Bad enough that Gissa had been assigned to assassinate Dar for the sake of succession, but the fact that they were falsely accusing Dar in order to hide their own crimes . . .
None of them are worthy of being high augurs. Even Gissa.
They had corrupted Becar with their thoughts and actions. They were a rot in the heart of the country he loved. They had to be stopped. Excised from the body of Becar.
But what could he do?
He thought of Tamra. And Raia, her almost-adopted second