had not known what to expect. In Koth there stood a moonstone temple that was Vela’s, but the fires were cold and no priestesses tended it. The crystal palace was the realm’s only true temple, built by a man who’d become a king, and then who’d become a god.
No crystal or moonstone was here. Only wood. It seemed a plain room, and at its center stood a petal-strewn altar and an offering bowl on a pedestal.
The only person inside was a small figure in black robes, her face veiled. As Lizzan staggered through the entrance, sweating and her chest still heaving, the priestess came forward. Nothing of her face could Lizzan see under the black veil, yet the concern in the priestess’s voice could not be mistaken.
“Are you injured?”
Lizzan looked down at herself. Dried blood stained her armor and linens. Likely she ought to have taken a bath before coming. “It is a bandit’s blood,” she said, then corrected herself. “Several bandits’ blood. Can you see through that veil?”
“Likely better than you see through your ale,” said the priestess, voice warmed by amusement now. “You are very drunk.”
“Only a little very,” Lizzan said. “It helps me think clearly.”
“I doubt that is so.”
“It is true.” Lizzan touched her hands to her head, fingertips pressing to her temples. “There is always . . . ice screeching in here, and the sun blinding me. But the drink makes it easier to think. And quiets the screeching. I am so cursed tired of the screeching.”
“You may take your rest here, then.” The priestess began to move deeper into the temple. “There is a sleeping chamber through this way.”
“I need no rest.” Lizzan stopped her. “I need a quest.”
“When you are clear of mind, we will speak of one.”
“I am clear of mind.” Her throat tightened. So far she had come. She could not be turned away now. “I know exactly what I must do.”
“Then you do not need Vela to tell you. Go to the healing baths, young one—” The priestess cut herself off, tilting her head as she regarded Lizzan through her veil. “Ah, no. Perhaps not in this state, or you will drown. Sleep, then go to the healing baths, and then return.”
“Do not send me away. Please.” Eyes burning, Lizzan moved toward the altar. “My family lives in shame. I would ask that Vela will help me clear my name.”
“Not while you are—”
“I have an offering.” With hitching chest and trembling fingers, she fumbled with the strings of her heavy purse, then dumped the contents into the silver bowl with a clatter of falling coins.
“A generous offering, indeed.” The priestess reached in and unearthed a severed finger from the pile of gold. “It has been many ages since Vela has asked for offerings such as these.”
One of the bandits’ fingers. Heavy mortification spilled the tears that had gathered in Lizzan’s eyes. She had been in such a hurry when cutting away their purses. Hurrying to escape Aerax.
Yet he’d found her anyway. And confirmed that her family bore the weight of her shame.
She reached for the finger. The priestess pulled it away from Lizzan’s grasp, her voice changing to steel. Cold warning rang through every word. “Never take an offering from my bowl.”
Then Lizzan would not. “I will bring you more, if you would but hear me.”
“It is not this bloodied offering which has made me stop to listen, Lizzan.” The priestess’s hand seemed to shine as she tossed the finger back onto the pile of coins, and her glowing fingertips swept through the teardrops that had splashed onto the bowl’s rim. “I will hear you for these.”
If this priestess wanted her tears, then Lizzan had many to give. “I only need a quest. Please.”
“You need no quest from me. You wish to lift the shame your family bears—but the path that I would put you on is no different from the one you will take on your own. It is not my help that you need.”
Lizzan shook her head, wiping at her nose. “I do need your help. For there is only one way to know redemption.”
The priestess’s veil no longer concealed her face, and so bright her skin was. Her eyes glowed like the moon on snow. “What way is that?”
“By dying in glorious battle while saving many lives, or while helping to stop the Destroyer. No one in Koth will say my name, so I must sacrifice myself while performing a feat so incredible that my name will reach