She had jumped. Without hesitation, without fear, without so much as crying out to him.
The Eternal Fire had never fought him since.
“So you see,” Leo said after a while, voice carefully composed. “Elena will need to give a sacrifice if she learns. And who do you think the one of love or blood will be?” When Ferma did not answer, Leo pointed at his chest. “One of blood”—and then to her—“one of love. Would you really want to be burned alive and leave Elena alone to handle the Jantari and the Arohassin?”
“This—this is madness,” Ferma said.
“It is the truth.”
“But she will make the same mistake as you! You said yourself the Eternal Fire does not forget. It will harm her, one day or another.”
“Why do we do the Ashanta ceremonies, Ferma?” he asked quietly.
“To… to seek the Phoenix, of course,” Ferma said, but her voice lacked conviction. “Or, is that a ruse too?”
Leo glanced up at the temple, at the trail of smoke rising from its center. “We do the Ashanta ceremonies to show the people that the Ravani family is and will always be blessed by the Phoenix. But you and I know the truth now. Elena will no longer have to do the ceremonies or step in this temple again. She will lead negotiations, armies, treaties. The people will forget about the heavens and focus on the Jantari instead.”
Ferma pocketed the cloth and wiped her hands against the roots of the tree. Her hair softened, becoming shiny and sleek. As she wound it around her shoulder, her voice was steady, resolute.
“I amalwayswilling to die for Elena. It is my job as her Spear. And you—you are her father. Are you not willing to sacrifice yourself for your own child?”
And there it was, the question that haunted him, singing in the desert wind and in the crackle of the flames.
Are you not willing to sacrifice yourself for your own child?
Selfish, selfish Malhari.
Leo turned away, heat lacing around his chest like a vise. He would do anything to protect Elena, but how could he help and guide her if he was dead? Saayna, the order, they did not understand Ravence like him. If the Phoenix asked them to burn for Her, they would build the pyres themselves. But if every man and woman followed the Phoenix to their death, who would be left to pick up the remains? Who would be left to protect their borders, their way of life, against the Jantari?
“I would die for Elena,” Leo said finally. “But not meaninglessly. Not by burning. Give me a pulse gun, a slingsword, and I will happily fight alongside my daughter and take a death wound for her.
“She needs us, Ferma. Both of us. The Jantari are at our borders and the Arohassin already in our city. She cannot handle both alone.”
He took Ferma’s hands in his.
“Would you want Elena to enter her queendom grieving, having lost her father or her most stalwart friend? She will be distracted, vulnerable. And Farin will use that against her.” He squeezed, hard. “You can despise me, Ferma, but do not fling yourself into that fire for Elena. She needs you here, by her side.”
The Yumi said nothing for a long time. One red leaf fell from above, brushing Leo’s cheek. It pricked him on his chin, and a tiny dot of blood swelled. Leo did not break away, but Ferma took her kerchief and handed it to him.
“I will not perform the sacrifice,” she said as he dabbed his chin with the same cloth she had used to clean off the blood of the priests. “But you must tell her the truth. Or I will.”
When he said nothing, she stood. “She deserves to know.”
Finally, slowly, Leo nodded. She did. But he hoped that when he told her, Elena would not judge him too harshly. That she would not think he was as selfish as the fire claimed him to be.
“Your Majesty.”
Leo turned to see Arish walking toward them.
“It’s Saayna,” the Astra said and then hesitated. “And there’s something you need to see.”
Leo offered Ferma the kerchief, but she shook her head. “Keep it,” she said. Her hair curled as the wind rose, the gulmohar tree groaning. “Remember it.”
“I heard that you tried to speak with my daughter,” Leo said to Saayna. They stood at the entrance of the temple. When the high priestess said nothing, Leo sighed. “What are you hoping to achieve here, Saayna? Sympathy? Salvation?”
Still, she said nothing.
He was suddenly so tired. His conversation with Ferma had drained him, and now, if Elena knew about the priests…Mother’s Gold, it never ends.
