back. She joined the surge as the monsters rushed in through the archway. The guards fell beneath their paws and hooves. As sand stirred around them, Raia couldn’t see whether the guards lived or died. They’d been warned, she thought, trying not to feel sick.
As the kehoks bashed through doors and plunged inside the temple, Raia guided her lion deeper through the courtyards. She knew the layout of the temple, and she wasn’t distracted by the need to destroy everything in their path. She and the lion quickly left the other kehoks behind.
The screams and crashes faded, muffled by the thick stone. Prince Dar would be in the old prison cells. They had been used in ancient times to hold those likely to be reborn as kehoks, in hopes of rehabilitation before their fate was sealed. All old temples had them, she’d learned from her lessons. The high augurs of several generations ago had determined that their efforts were better spent persuading the vast swathes of the public to living holy lives, than in trying to save the handful of the doomed, and the prisons were left unused. But she didn’t doubt that they’d been maintained. Everything in the temple was kept in perfect order.
She and the lion ran past quiet reflection pools and statues of birds and animals in a chain of courtyards, before they were enveloped by the cool shadows of the inner corridors. She caught glimpses of augurs, fleeing with their belongings clutched to their chests. Seeing her, they’d flee in the other direction. She didn’t bother to tell them she wasn’t here for them. Or that there were even worse kehoks the way they were now running.
She wasn’t sure what to do about the guards that would almost certainly be protecting such an important prisoner. She wished that she had some of Trainer Verlas’s courage. It suddenly occurred to her that her thoughts weren’t focused—she was feeling self-doubt, worrying about the future, all the things she wasn’t supposed to do near a kehok—but the lion hadn’t slowed or veered. He seemed to be following a map in his memory, with no prompting from her. It’s as if he knows we’re trying to rescue his brother, she thought.
Maybe he does.
She wondered if he’d ever speak to her again, in her mind.
As they neared the prison cells, Raia regained her focus and encouraged the lion to slow. He padded silently through the corridor. Ahead she heard voices, barking orders to stand firm.
Two voices, she thought. Two guards.
And then a third voice, a woman.
Three guards. She felt the lion tense. She wasn’t sure what to tell him to do. She was certain this was the place—or maybe they should make certain?
“What’s going on?” That was Prince Dar!
Hearing his voice was all it took. The lion, with Raia clinging to him, leaped out of the shadows. He plowed directly into the first guard, knocking him back against a wall, and then spun to bat away a second guard.
Raia realized what it meant that she didn’t have to guide him: she’d take care of herself. And she could free Prince Dar. She immediately slid off the lion’s back, leaving him to fight the guards. She crossed to the nearest fallen guard, who’d been thrown into the wall. Kneeling, she yanked the keys from his belt.
She hurried to the prison cell door. Her hands shook as she slid a key into the lock.
With any other kehok, she couldn’t have turned her back to him. She couldn’t have trusted that he wouldn’t attack her too. But she trusted the lion absolutely.
“Prince Dar? Don’t worry. We’re getting you out.”
“Raia? Is that you? What are you doing here? You can’t be here! You’ll be arrested. They’ll kill you!”
“Only if we’re caught.”
The first key failed. She tried the second. There were over a dozen on the key ring, and her hands were shaking so badly it was hard to hold them. Behind her, she heard the guards scream but she refused to look. She kept trying the keys, one after another, until the second to last key turned.
She felt her heart thud hard against her chest. She was not going to look behind her. If the lion had killed anyone . . . she didn’t want to know. Raia yanked the door open, and Dar stumbled out—he’d been pushing from the opposite side.
“What . . .” he began. “Zarin?”
Raia turned. Two guards were prone—she didn’t know if one was alive or not, but the other was