He had been burned terribly, his face marred, his body an incomprehensible mash of flesh and bone. It was a miracle he was still alive. A miracle Akaros made sure she did not forget.
“We can keep him alive, Jaya,” he had told her after Div had slipped into his coma. “He is special, and in time, you will see how.”
Every mission, every game, she thought of Div. Asleep in a bed, then trapped in a tube, then floating in a tank as his blood fed the third, and the third fed him.
She thought of him now as she placed the last lotus in the shadow of a pillar in the courtyard. In her pocket, the holopod sat heavy, cold. Maya nodded, then disappeared into the bustling mass of attendants. Jaya stepped back as an attendant rushed past, shouting at another to place the flower displayover there, not in the corner.
She had no qualms about what was to befall the kings and queens. She did, however, feel a strange twisting in her chest as she watched the attendants, the musicians, and the guards. This was not their fight. The strange feeling increased as she thought of Elena and Samson. They, like the gold caps, held vicious prejudices. So what if they did not draw the sword now? They would eventually.
Right?
Jaya stepped farther into the shadows, gripping the pod tightly.They will, she affirmed to herself.They’re all the same.
She pushed back her guilt and thought of Div. When he awoke, she would give him a new body. And they would go into the mountains beyond Magar, deep within the glens. She had already arranged the barrels of sand needed to sustain him. They would live undetected, in peace. War or no war, once she had Div, she had no intention of staying.
She gripped the pod tighter, her chappals slapping purposefully as she strode out of the courtyard.Here is my courage, Div, she said silently.I give it all for you.
CHAPTER 63
ELENA
I have always suspected a deep, rotten thing at the heart of me.
—from the diaries of Priestess Nomu of the Fire Order
Farin held out a golden kamarbandh. “This is for you.”
Gingerly, Elena avoided his metal fingers. “What is this for?”
“For tracking. I want you to lead Samson to the beach between the docks. Tell him you have something to show him on the killdoms. My men will handle the rest.”
Elena examined the waist belt. Precious emeralds and pink diamonds were set delicately into patterns of lotuses and jasmine. Intricate threadwork twined around the band, shaping vines, trees. She turned it around and stopped, her breath catching. A golden Phoenix, eyes ablaze with rubies and wings flared to the heavens, rose in the middle of the kamarbandh as if ready to take flight. It reminded her of her coronation necklace. How heavily the Phoenix had sat on her chest. Perhaps it had been a warning of all the burdens she would come to bear.
Carefully, she turned the belt around, swallowing the sudden bitternessin her throat.
“Where is the tracker?”
He tapped a metal finger against the Phoenix with a sharpping. “Right here.”
Of course he would put it in the Phoenix. Elena met his eyes, and Farin gave a cold, simple smile that stoked the ire in her belly. “Do you want to see if it fits?”
“It will,” she said, stepping quickly away from him.
Farin watched her for a moment, his robotic eye still. “Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts.”
“None.” She kept her face remote, impassive. “The quicker we get this done, the better. I have a lot of work to do in Ravence after the ruin you caused.”
“And I in Jantar, after the destruction you created in my mines.” This time, his smile was edged. “So I say we’re even.”
She thought of her father, falling into the flames. Her city, scorched. Her people, lost. War had cost her everything, and still, it was not enough.
“No, Farin,” she said softly. “We are not even. But it will have to do.”
Back in her rooms, Elena cinched the kamarbandh around her waist. Despite all the jewels and gold, it remained light, weighed down only by the Phoenix. The tracker lay tucked within its hollow underside. Elena tugged the kamarbandh tighter, wincing as it began to cut into her skin. She draped her golden pallu down her arm when a sudden thud broke the quiet. Elena stiffened, the pallu drifting to the floor. Cautiously, she turned. A shape appeared outside her balcony, becoming more solid, drawing close, and she carved her hands into the Lotus, a flame sparking between her fingers when the door opened and the high sister stepped through.
“You?” Elena gasped.
“I told you we would meet again.” Sura pulled down her hood with an amused smile as she saw the flame in her hand. “Is that meant for me?”
