to prove to anyone that she was worthy of the kind of future she wanted.
I make my own destiny and determine my own worth.
And I am worth quite a lot.
Raia was silent as Lady Evara left the aviary. When the door closed, she said, “You didn’t want her to win her inheritance, did you? You wanted her to need you.”
“I meant what I said: I need allies,” Dar said. “I let my brother down once—his murderers almost succeeded. I will not leave the empire so vulnerable again.”
Rising, the lion pressed against her side. She placed a hand on his smooth metal mane. She could guess what her kehok wanted to say. “You didn’t let him down. And we’re your allies. You can count on us.”
“I am counting on that. Are you ready?”
When she nodded, he signaled the guard, who let augurs file into the aviary. There were six of them, four women and two men, in robes and wearing pendants. Raia guessed they were the new high council—she’d heard elections had been held across the temples. An unusual move, but then there had never been another time in history when all the high augurs needed to be replaced at the same time.
They halted, formed a semicircle, and bowed in unison.
They’ve been practicing, she thought, and buried a smile.
“Your update,” Emperor Dar commanded.
One of the augurs stepped forward and began reciting a litany of facts: the cost to rebuild the temple, the number of workers they’d already employed, the impact of the riots on various professions and how the augurs were assisting. . . . Raia stroked the kehok’s smooth mane while Dar listened to the augur drone on.
At last, she wound down, and Dar said, “I am delighted to hear the augurs are offering so much aid to the people of Becar.”
“The old high augurs strayed from the path,” the new head of the high augurs said. “We wish to restore the people’s faith in us.”
“Excellent,” Dar said, nodding. “Then you will be open to restructuring of the role of augurs in Becaran society.”
The high augur blinked. “The—”
“I have prepared the proclamation that my brother wanted. The one that he died for.” He smiled, and Raia could tell it was a fake smile. She was beginning to notice the nuances between his always well-controlled expressions. “I know you’re not your predecessors, but in the interest of the stability of the empire, I have already had multiple copies written. If I die unexpectedly, they will be distributed.”
The head augur managed to stutter, “P-p-proclamation?”
“My brother uncovered the truth that all people have the capacity to read auras. It is not limited to ‘the purest of the pure,’ which is how it was possible for corruption to sneak into your ranks. Now the truth will be known: anyone can be an augur. I imagine your temples will want to prepare themselves for an influx of volunteers. And an exodus of those who never wanted to be augurs in the first place.”
He said all of this calmly, as if he weren’t upending a basic tenet of what the augurs believed about themselves and their power. Raia kept her face expressionless—she had heard all of this as the one who had helped the kehok and the emperor communicate with each other over many, many sessions—but it was new to the augurs.
New and unwelcome.
“Only the purest should become augurs,” Prince Dar said. “This is very different from only the purest can become augurs.”
The augurs murmured to one another, and the second from the left, a man with a braided black beard and bald head, said, “This will undermine people’s faith in us!”
“There will be ramifications,” Prince Dar agreed. “You may, in fact, find people relying on themselves more, once they know we are all the same: equally human, with our own choices to make.”
“It will shake the core of how people see themselves, as well as us!” the bearded augur said. “Becarans are not prepared for this. You cannot issue this proclamation!”
The black lion began to growl. She felt the rumble vibrate through his mane.
The bearded man swallowed hard but pushed on. “I only mean that such an unsubstantiated claim could cause great harm, especially with no proof that it’s true. . . .”
The kehok bared his teeth, continuing to growl. Easy, Raia thought at him. The people might not be so forgiving if kehoks slaughtered a second set of high augurs.
“My brother was murdered to keep this secret,” Dar said blandly, as if sharing news