he knew what he was doing, because he was acutely aware he had no idea.
Chapter 15
Tamra led them across the sands to the visitors’ waiting room, the nicest area in the training facility and also the farthest from the stable. The “nicest” room still had cracks in the walls, stained cushions on the chairs, and a dead plant in a pot. It had died on Tamra’s week to water it three months ago, and no one had cared enough to chuck it out.
With her arm around Raia’s shoulders, Tamra guided her rider to a chair on the opposite side of the room, where she wouldn’t have to sit close to her parents. Into her ear, she murmured, “Tell me you didn’t loosen the chains deliberately.”
Raia’s eyes widened. “It’s my fault. I did loosen them.”
Tamra’s grip on her shoulders tightened. No one knows that. It may still be okay. “Before or after you knew your personal nightmare had joined you in the stables?”
“Before. I swear. I didn’t mean for this to happen!”
The last bit was loud enough for the others to hear. Tamra winced. “I know you didn’t,” she said firmly. She nudged Raia to lower herself into the chair. The girl was shaking, and her skin felt clammy to the touch. If those horrible excuses for parents started yelling again, Tamra thought Raia might burst into tears or faint. “I’ll be right here with you.”
Sure enough, as soon as they shoved their way into the room and plopped their butts into seats, Raia’s parents started in again. “Pure One, you must understand. Our daughter does not accept how the world works. She doesn’t understand that we must all follow the paths laid out for us—”
The augur held up his hand. His voice was smooth, as if gentling a horse. “The truth will come out. In cases of violent death, an augur is asked to read the souls of the witnesses, to aid with determining their guilt or to identify the level of comfort they will need.”
Beside her, at the word “guilt,” Raia grabbed Tamra’s hand and squeezed it. Tamra squeezed back. This was the first bit of good news. If the augur read her, he’d see Raia’s innocence. Or at least she hoped he would. If Raia doubted her own innocence . . . Could guilt stain a soul if you weren’t truly guilty?
“Then you should be able to read that she—” Raia’s mother pointed at Raia, her hand trembling. “She—she—We did everything for her! Sacrificed everything! Gave up our own dreams, our own future, to secure hers, and she . . . she destroyed the life we worked so hard to give her.” She buried her face in her hands, and her shoulders heaved as if she were crying. When she lifted her tear-streaked face, Tamra saw she wasn’t faking it. She truly believed everything she was saying. Maybe they honestly didn’t know how terrible they were. Not everyone was willing to submit to the kind of regular augur readings that would have made them aware.
“Your choices don’t give you the right to control her future,” Tamra said.
“That’s exactly what gives us the right!” Raia’s father boomed. “We’re her parents! Without our choices, she wouldn’t exist. It’s our job to guide her toward the best possible path, and it’s her duty to walk that path! You would understand if you had children, instead of spending your days with monsters.”
Raia jumped in. “She’s a better parent than you’ll ever be! She’d never try to declare her own daughter incompetent and sign her rights away!”
Tamra felt as if her vision blurred red. “They did what?”
“He—he had papers saying he had been named my guardian. He and my parents—they planned to force me to marry him by claiming I wasn’t rational enough to make my own decisions.” She was shaking, her shoulders tight and eyes fixed on the floor, but her voice was steady and clear.
Tamra curled her hands into fists and rose. She kept her voice measured and low. “Augur—what’s your name?”
“Yorbel,” he supplied. She heard curiosity in his voice and wondered what he was reading in her aura. She hoped she got extra points for not pummeling Raia’s parents.
“Augur Yorbel, I would like to formally submit my request to adopt this girl, Raia”—she realized she didn’t know Raia’s last name, so she skipped over it—“as my daughter, on the grounds that her birth parents are spiritually stunted and incapable of guiding their daughter on the path of righteousness.” She thought