“And what if my Agni comes from a goddess, like yours?” she said.
Silence stretched between them. Samson held her gaze as his heart jackhammered hard enough to rattle his teeth. His throat bobbed, caught.
“You told me that your Agni came from the Great Serpent,” Elena said. “What if mine is connected to the Yumi’s Goddess? When I first learned how to wield the flames, it was Ferma who told me about the Mother. We should go to Moksh and seek out the Yumi—”
“No,” Samson said, finally finding his voice.
The flames swelled, and he felt their heat prick his skin as if to bite. He stepped away from the inferno and into the cool shadows. They curled around him, his old friends.
“A trip to Moksh will take days, and we both need to be here. Syla could contact us at any moment. Jantar could launch a counterattack whenwe’re gone. We could lose Magar, Elena.” He broke off as a coughing fit overtook him. A dry ache rattled down his throat and chest. Silently, he cursed the Eternal Fire.
“But if we have the Yumi with us, then I can sway the council. No one would dare to cross the Yumi.” Her mouth set. “I could go alone.”
“The Yumi won’t listen,” he rasped.
“They will listen, especially when I show them my Agni.”
He imagined it then: Elena standing on the shore of Moksh and turning the black sands to glass with her vicious, fervent desire. He saw her returning with the Yumi, a powerful army of rage and death sweeping through Ravence, through Jantar, forcing the world to bend. And he saw himself, faded, withered. His Agni so weak it emitted only one faint spark. He would be made to watch as Farin retreated from Ravence and tightened his hold on Seshar, as Elena celebrated her freedom while his continued to be a plaything of kings. Seshar would be forgotten, as always.
He stepped out of the shadows. The heat returned, but he ignored the fire’s scathing sparks. He felt the flames twist, felt the Eternal Fire hum and the gods listen.
“We finish your training first. If you can wield the urumi with flames, then you will be ready to face the Yumi.”
“But why would the Yumi care if I can—”
“You want to convince them with your Agni? Then hone it first.”
The flames hissed in warning, but Elena could not hear them anyway. She nodded, once.
Kruppa clutched the scroll to her chest, watching them with uncertainty. “If you think you share the Goddess’s Agni, then who shares the Phoenix’s?”
Samson gave a wry smile. “No one alive, Priestess.”
He held out Elena’s urumi, but the queen crossed her arms. “You’ll have to do one thing for me first.”
He bit back his annoyance. “Do what?”
“Celebrate Laal Joon with me tomorrow afternoon. Magar never got the chance to honor the founding of Ravence. And now she can do so with her queen and Prophet.”
She smiled, and it sent an uncomfortable, dangerous sensation through him, simultaneously provocative and miserably infuriating. He hated howmuch heneededher Agni. How much he craved it. Her Agni bloomed so painstakingly close, so tantalizingly within his reach.
“Tomorrow, then.”
The temple fire crackled as if laughing, but whether in delight or cruelty, he could not tell.
CHAPTER 15
ELENA
Gods may change, names may die, but the fact of their essence remains: The divine shall always betray, and the betrayed shall always pray.
—fromThe Legends and Myths of Sayon
Crimson powder speckled the late-afternoon air, brushing her cheeks, her hair. Elena turned in to the haze as a young girl laughed, red handprints dimpling her smile as she grabbed another fistful of color. She streaked past, quick as wildfire, shrieking as her friends gave chase.Chim, chim, chim.Anklets tinkling, braids flying. Elena caught a fleeting last look as the girls rounded the corner into the city square. She could still hear their laughter, bouncing off the sandstone walls, fading.
A sudden thickness clogged her throat. She used to race through the palace halls, sneaking up on Ferma, her mother, her father, to cover their cheeks with crimson powder. Ruby. Scarlet. Maroon. Endless shades of red. By sunset, she, her parents, and the palace staff had been transformed into flames of a great inferno, burning in a glorious blaze.
Laal Joon!she’d squeal.
