But he did not care. He could use fear, another day. Samson stumbled on, and the crowd parted for him like the sea before a relentless ship.
He found Elena and Kruppa already inside the temple. The inferno roiled at his approach. That was his first warning. When Samson reached for the fire, he could feel it resist his desire, and a quick, anxious alarm thumped through him. The flames rustled, but when he turned to listen, he found their song indecipherable, spoken in a low hissing language he did not understand.
Speak to me, he commanded.
The tiny inferno did not respond.
Samson swallowed back his panic, but his throat felt painfully dry. Kruppa was busy unfurling the scrolls, talking rapidly.
“—the diary entries make no sense. Nomu’s timeline, her comments—gosh, even hersyntax—it’s a mess. She never names the inferno as theEternal Fire and seems to stop writing after the arrival of the Sixth Prophet. But then I started considering what your mother said, Elena, and I—”
“Kruppa, desert be blessed, slow down,” Elena laughed, though Samson noted how her eyes darted about uneasily. Did she sense the fire’s resistance too?
Behind his back, Samson curled his fingers. He imagined a flame darting out of the inferno—right into his hand. He concentrated on that image, the sensation of heat spidering down his palm, and pulled.
The inferno hissed and held. He glowered at it and commanded again. The fire only spat out sparks, as if cursing him.
A sick, cold sensation ran down his throat, like inhaling salt water in his dreams. Why was the inferno resisting him? No flame could ever deny him. He was a god of Agni, blessed by the Great Serpent. He wasthewielder of the Eternal Fire and its pets, but the small temple fire remained in its hold, resolute. Samson wrestled back his dread, but it had threaded into his bones now and he could feel it throb through his veins in time with the inferno’s crude, indecipherable song.
Great Serpent, what is happening?
“Don’t you see, Blue Star? There are three.”
Samson turned, broken from his thoughts, and found both Elena and Kruppa watching him.
“Three what?”
“Three manifestations of Agni.” Kruppa held up a scroll. “‘I have felt the deep grief of the inferno. It is dark and bottomless, but not because it suffers alone. The grief is made of three. Three powers who have loved and betrayed and lost each other. Three sisters. Our god is but one.’” She looked up at him, shaking the scroll. “This is proof! Our Phoenix does exist. She is one of the three powers.”
“I would not call that proof,” Samson began.
“What proof do you have of your own god other than faith?” Kruppa shot back.
“Your Eternal Fire bends tome,” he snapped. “Iwield it.Ican control it because it was created by the Great Serpent. What more proof do you need?”
“But it’s written here that one of the three—”
“Enough!” Elena cried.
They fell silent. Her face grew pinched, as if she were considering something, orlistening. Samson watched her and the flames and wondered, with a sick jealousy, if the flames were only speaking to her.
He stepped forward. “Elena, what is the fire saying to you?”
Her mouth twisted. Her voice was flat, hard. “It tells me nothing. It has always told menothing. The Eternal Fire barely ever speaks to me, unlike with you, Prophet.” She spat out the last word. He did not know if he should feel relieved or infuriated at her response.
Elena took the scroll from Kruppa and read it again. “‘Three powers who have loved and betrayed and lost each other. Threesisters.’” She looked between them both. “She must mean goddesses.”
“Like the Phoenix!” Kruppa cried.
“Like the Great Serpent,” he said.
“Like the Goddess Mother,” Elena said softly, almost to herself. Her eyes met his. “The third Agni is the Yumi’s Goddess.”
“That’s absurd,” he said. “There are other goddesses throughout our world. Tsuana’s horned shark, Nbru’s great huntress—Ayona has two! People even worship the fucking moons. You can’t just create gods out of nothing and claim them to be all-powerful.”
“Nor can you claim someone’s faith to be blasphemous,” Elena said.
“Elena, we are gods of Agni,” he said. “We are real.You can feel your fire running through your veins. How can you deny that?”
