If Lady Evara weren’t able to reach the emperor-to-be . . . If he didn’t agree . . . If the high augurs refused to cooperate . . . “I wish there were something we could do.”
“Me too.” Trainer Verlas laid her hand on Raia’s shoulder.
They waited, as the kehoks raged through the stable and the people of Becar raged outside. Raia thought this was worse than when she ran away from home. At least then she was doing something. But this . . . She hated this. The not knowing was like a constant pressure on her mind.
She saw a flutter of white by one of the windows. “Trainer Verlas?”
Trainer Verlas did not switch her focus from the kehoks. She was eyeing the three of them, clearly ready to restrain them if they tried to attack the lion’s stall or tried to force their way out of the stable. So far, they hadn’t. “Yes?”
“The window. I think . . . It looks like a messenger wight!”
The delicate white shape was fluttering against the windowsill.
One of the loose kehoks, a muscular brute that looked like a cross between a bull and a crocodile, lunged for it, pawing at the wall. “It could be from Lady Evara!” Raia said.
Trainer Verlas nodded once, then vaulted over the stall door.
Raia saw her wince as she landed on the other side. But then Trainer Verlas straightened as the three loose kehoks all targeted her. They charged across the stable.
Trainer Verlas, however, was having none of it. She raised her hands. “Stop.” She didn’t even raise her voice, and they skidded to a trembling halt. They pawed the ground and snorted, but none of them moved. She walked between them to the windowsill. Gingerly, she lifted the wight off the sill and unfolded it.
She turned back toward Raia as her eyes flickered over the silken paper.
Raia saw Trainer Verlas’s face harden.
And then every kehok in the stable, all three hundred of them, screamed at once.
Tamra read the ransom note.
There could be no other interpretation for the message, despite all the flowery language. She crossed the stable, and the three loose kehoks cowered away from her. She handed the message to Raia, who read it, let out a gasp, and then read it again.
“The high augurs have Shalla,” Tamra said flatly.
She felt her throat close up as she said the words.
Raia’s eyes widened in alarm. “Trainer Verlas! The kehoks!”
Tamra pivoted. She fixed the three kehoks in their place. Slowly, they knelt and then lay down, submissive. Her will was implacable. She felt as if she were holding an ocean within her. “Tell me I read it wrong.”
“You . . . you aren’t wrong. I trusted Augur Yorbel.”
“So did I.” She felt as if her heart were being pierced by a thousand claws and talons. He betrayed me. And Shalla. And Raia, Emperor Zarin, and Prince Dar. Closing her eyes, she felt as if a sandstorm were battering within her.
“How could they blame Dar?” Raia asked. “He didn’t kill his brother! They’re lying!”
“Of course they’re lying. But even if they were saying the sky is green, it wouldn’t matter to the people. Trusting augurs is our national pastime. As soon as the riots die down, everyone will remember how much they revere the high augurs. They’re the purest of the pure—or so they told us,” Tamra said, opening her eyes again. Her hands were clenched so hard that her nails bit her palms. Even if she were to show this message to anyone, it was written cryptically enough that it wouldn’t be proof of anything. The high augurs were too clever for that. “You were right. They killed Emperor Zarin, and they’re using Emperor-to-be Dar—” She stopped. He wasn’t emperor-to-be anymore. “They are using Prince Dar to cover their tracks.”
The lion and Raia . . . We’re loose ends they want to tie up.
“I believed in them,” Raia said. “The high augurs. They’re supposed to guide us. They’re the heart of Becar, within the Heart of Becar—that’s what my teachers always said. Do you . . . do you think they’ll kill Shalla if we don’t go?”
“I think they’ll kill us if we do,” Tamra said.
She felt cold, as cold as the metal in the black lion’s mane. She felt as if silver were flowing through her veins instead of blood, hardening her.
Raia swallowed but did not cry. She merely trembled as she reviewed the message once again, as if on a third read, it would give