came here, it reminded her of all the things in life she couldn’t control. Her hand gripped Shalla’s tighter, and her palms began to sweat.
Set into a rocky hillside, the augur temple of Peron was built to appear impressive and intimidating. And it succeeded wildly. Built of blue stone and edged in gold, it gleamed in the sun. Multiple cupolas with golden points looked as if they were about to etch words on the sky. Many gleaming white archways echoed the curves of the surrounding hills. Through the arches, you could see both the hills and the desert beyond, stretching into the distance. It made it seem as if the temple contained the world.
At the gate, Shalla hugged and kissed her. Tamra held on for a few seconds longer than Shalla wanted, and Shalla squirmed out of her grasp with a laugh. “Silly Mama.”
“Yes, I am.” Tamra tried to think of something silly to say, to make that wonderful laugh even louder, but in the shadow of the grand cupolas and arches, she could come up with nothing but serious thoughts.
Finding strength, she said, “Don’t get too comfortable here. You’ll be back in your own bed as soon as the races end.”
Shalla whispered conspiratorially, “I can’t get comfortable. Their pillows smell like duck.”
Tamra smiled. She knew the augurs and their trainees had only the finest—goose-down pillows, silk bedding, pastries at every meal, and hot bathing pools—so Shalla was saying that only to make her feel better. But she liked that Shalla had said it. “Be good, be smart, and be strong.”
“My teachers always say ‘be nice.’”
“Sometimes being good, smart, and strong means being nice. But sometimes it doesn’t. You be who you are, and don’t let anyone change you in ways you don’t want to change.”
“I like that. Did you just make it up?”
“Probably not,” Tamra admitted. “I think I stole it from someone wise.”
“You’re wise,” Shalla said.
Tamra couldn’t help smiling. “As wise as an elephant?”
“Wiser,” Shalla said solemnly. “You’d notice if a bird sat on you.”
Laughing, Tamra hugged her again, and then released her. She gave Shalla her pack after making sure all the clasps were secure. In the cupolas, the bells began to ring, and Shalla hurried to join the other students on the opposite side of the gate.
Tamra saw several of them look back at her. She knew they were destined for this, that their past lives had molded them to be self-sacrificing, noble, and above all, good. But she couldn’t help imagining she saw longing in their eyes. They varied in age, from eight to eighteen, and all wore the matching tunics that marked them as augur students. All of them, boys and girls, had either braided hair, like Shalla, or shorn heads, and their faces were scrubbed clean of any hint of dirt or grime. She wondered how many of them were wards of the temple and how many missed their families. And she wondered how many didn’t want to be augurs and how many wished they weren’t stuck within these walls. Before Raia, she would have said the answer was none. These children were honored above all others, and rightly so. It was foolish to waste time imagining injustice when all the sadness and regret were in her own head. Unless it wasn’t foolish. Unless some of them wished their lives were different.
Lingering by the gate, she watched Shalla talking and laughing with a few of the girls and boys as they filed into the temple. Each of them grew silent and serious as they crossed the threshold, though. As Shalla crossed, she shot a glance back, and Tamra saw her hand twitch in a tiny wave.
Tamra waved back, and then Shalla was gone through the arch.
It hurt just as much as it did the very first time she’d watched her walk into that temple.
Squaring her shoulders, she marched away from the students’ gate and toward the visitors’ entrance to the temple. She gave her name to the guard and waited with the other temple visitors. Nearly all the others were here for readings from the augurs, and they displayed a variety of nerves: from laughing like shrill birds, to wringing their hands, to shifting from foot to foot, to standing motionless as they stared at the temple. The petitioners ranged from young to old, poor to rich, alone to in hyena-like packs.
She ignored them all.
At last, the guard called her name, and she was escorted inside.