All the kehoks quieted at once, leaving only Raia’s parents making noise—which seemed telling.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the augur’s attention shift to her. She supposed that was because she’d silenced all of them—that little parlor trick always drew notice. I guess hiding the body isn’t an option. She knew a very nice desert just beyond the tracks with hot winds and sands and wraiths that would happily flay the flesh from a corpse until it was unrecognizable. But there were far too many witnesses.
Also, that wouldn’t be good for my soul.
But that was a secondary issue. When it came right down to it, no matter what the augurs preached, she didn’t much care what happened to her in her next life, so long as everyone she cared about in this life was safe. And now they decidedly weren’t.
Without the screaming of the kehoks to drown them out, Raia’s parents were shouting even louder. Raia’s mother was howling, “This is murder! Murder! It’s the murder of my baby’s future! The murder of all her dreams!” while her father was shouting that the city guards must be called, someone was responsible, and justice must be served.
Belatedly, she realized this might be insensitive. For all she knew, they’d truly cared about this overdressed corpse and their pain was real. On the other hand, they’d come here to threaten and coerce her rider—not to mention the fact that this man should never have been inside the stable in the first place—and that lost them any sympathy she might have had.
Plus, they haven’t even checked to make sure their daughter is okay!
Now that she’d caught their attention, they aimed their anger at Tamra. She heard the words “irresponsible” and “unforgiveable” before it degenerated into curse words spat at her. She filled her lungs, intending to yell them into silence, when the augur stepped forward with his hands raised.
“Please,” the augur said.
His simple word quieted Raia’s parents. Tamra was impressed despite herself—even without being able to read auras, she could feel his holiness. It permeated his voice, his demeanor, his very being. That inherent purity was why augurs were so essential to Becar. It was said one augur could stop an army or soothe a mob, and feeling his serenity fill the stable, she could believe it. He’s much better at this than Augur Clari, Tamra thought.
“Most Holy One.” Raia’s father bowed. “You must help us seek justice for this good man, viciously slain! The kehok must be destroyed, and his trainer punished!”
Tamra felt her heart sink. That could happen. This wasn’t a death on the tracks, where accidents were expected. This was a civilian inside a stable. If the augur believed the cause was negligence . . . A second charge of negligence would destroy her. And take Raia and Shalla down with me.
“Is there no hope for the boy?” the augur asked.
Tamra glanced at the widening pool of red. “Um, no.” Definitely no. She added, “I am deeply sorry for the accident that occurred here today.” She emphasized the word “accident.”
The augur hurried past them, crossing to Raia, and Tamra and Raia’s parents backed out of his way. He bent down beside Raia. “Are you hurt, child?”
Now that was what an augur should do: be kind to those in distress. Of course, Tamra hadn’t seen many augurs who acted that way. She thought of Augur Clari once more, so certain of her superiority. But this augur didn’t seem to care that the hem of his robes was dipped in blood, or that Raia’s parents were muttering behind him about how they’d been wronged and what reparations should be made for this calamity.
“Can you tell me what happened?” the augur asked in a gentle voice.
Raia lifted her tear-streaked face, and Tamra wanted to gather her in her arms and soothe her, like she did Shalla after a nightmare. Except this nightmare was real.
“He s-scared me,” Raia whispered. “I—I backed away. Into the stall. And he came toward me. And my racer—the lion kehok—he tried to protect me. It happened so fast. I didn’t—”
Raia’s mother gasped. “Oh, Raia, is this . . . is it your fault? You made that monster attack him? River protect you from your fate, for we cannot!”
“I didn’t!” Raia cried.
Tamra stepped in front of her parents. “You said yourself she couldn’t be a rider, and now you think she has enough control over a