temple. Her mind was beginning to fray—thinking about the high augur’s deaths, about Shalla, about the future, about what would happen to all of them now.
A few kehoks burst free of her control and loped toward the army.
“No!” Tamra cried. She tried to focus harder, feeling sweat bead on her forehead. She breathed in the heat of the desert, tasting it in the back of her throat. The sun made the air over the sand shimmer, making the army waver as if it were a mirage.
“Dar . . .” Raia said, as more kehoks overrode Tamra’s and Raia’s control and began tearing into one another. As the first kehoks to break free reached the enemy army, the soldiers tried to defend themselves. Shalla whimpered and clung tighter to her mother.
“Let them go,” Prince Dar said calmly. “All of them.”
“But . . .” Tamra began. She couldn’t complete the sentence. It took too much to focus on the kehoks. They wanted so badly to be free, to run, to destroy, to kill. She felt as if their rage was stuffed down her throat. It was hard to breathe.
“You can’t hold them forever,” Prince Dar said. “Release them here, far from the city. Our people will be safe.”
“But the Ranirans . . .” She didn’t know them. She couldn’t hold them in her heart to steady her, the way she could with Shalla. Especially since they had come to attack her home and seize it for themselves.
“The Ranirans came to conquer us,” Prince Dar said. “Their orders were to kill and enslave. They would have destroyed our cities and our way of life. If they hadn’t made the choice to do this, they would not face the consequences now.”
More monsters broke free. Stop! Do not kill!
His voice was gentle, even kind. “You’ve saved us. You can let go now. Be free.”
Prince Dar was right—she couldn’t maintain her focus forever. Already, she felt as if the world was tipping, tilting, spinning. She hoped that the Raniran army had retreated far enough fast enough. She hoped no one innocent was hurt. She hoped . . .
“Close your eyes,” she whispered to Shalla.
She lost consciousness. Blackness swallowed her vision, and the last thing she heard was the joyous, wild screams of the kehoks as they plunged across the sand.
When Tamra woke, she was leaning against the metal mane of the lion. Raia and Prince Dar were behind her, and they were running smoothly across the sand toward the Heart of Becar. She didn’t hear or see any other kehoks around them.
“The kehoks?” she asked.
“Gone,” Raia said.
“You did it, Mama! You scared the bad people away.”
“The kehoks will hunt our people, once they’ve finished chasing the army across the desert,” Tamra worried. “Travelers . . . People in small villages . . . Our people won’t be safe from them, even if they stop the army . . .” Her mind shied away from thinking about what had happened to the soldiers in the Raniran army. It was possible they’d fled fast enough. She didn’t think that was likely.
“That’s not a problem for today,” Prince Dar said firmly. “Today you saved Becar, twice over. Today you are a hero.”
How nice, Tamra thought. It was difficult to pull her thoughts together. She felt as if her mind had been shredded. “Don’t want to be a hero. Just want . . . to save my daughters.”
Someone spoke—she didn’t know who; the voice was deep and gravelly in her mind. She thought, oddly, impossibly, that it was the lion.
You saved us all, he said.
Chapter 35
Everyone in the palace, the fallen temple, and the city scrambled to organize the coronation of Prince Dar as quickly as possible. By the very next day, all was ready, or ready enough. Raia had never seen a coronation—she was stunned at how quickly the decorations were unfurled. Flowers everywhere. Ribbons and banners strewn across every pillar, building, and bridge. Musicians were playing on every street. Dancers and acrobats performed in every open square, in the shadows of broken statues and damaged structures. It all felt forced and frantic, but no one said so. Everyone just smiled harder, determined to make this joyous even if it killed them. Per Dar’s instructions, Raia watched from the steps of the palace, beside her black lion.
Her role in the coronation was simple: stay with the kehok-emperor.
She was to keep anyone from harming him and keep him from harming anyone. Prince Dar had asked her to remain visible, so