Page 172 of A Tribute of Fire

Io nodded, looking worried. “It takes years to achieve the lowest rank of priestess. I don’t even know how long it would take someone to become a high priestess.”

“That’s not possible. Do you know how old that would make Theano?” While I’d heard of some people living to be in their eightiesor nineties, it was extremely rare. “And shouldn’t she, I don’t know, sound older?”

To me she had the voice of a younger woman. She always seemed to move with ease, and nothing in her gait indicated that she might be older. The whole situation was unsettling.

“It’s all confusing,” Io said. “And today you gave us even more things to be confused about.”

“I’m sorry about that,” I said.

“Don’t be. I would much rather know the truth than be living my life under a kindly meant lie.”

“Speaking of lies of omission,” Ahyana said, “are we going to tell the priestesses about the red dirt? Maybe they’d know what it means.”

My heart rate slightly increased. “We can’t. Because then I would have to tell them about the pirates and how people are trying to kill me and they’d kick me out of the temple for putting everyone in danger.”

“They wouldn’t do that,” Io said, dismissively.

“They already tried. The night I arrived Theano wanted to put me out onto the street.” I didn’t tell them that the only reason she’d allowed me to stay was that I’d claimed the rights of the Aianteioi.

Io gasped angrily. “They what?”

“It’s in the past,” I told her. “It doesn’t matter now.”

“You told me about the locked door and I knew about the shaved head and the black tunic, but you never told me they tried to throw you out!” She stayed indignant on my behalf and talked about it for a long time. While the moon was bright overhead, the forest canopy blocked out the light. It had become so dark that it was difficult to see even our hands in front of our faces.

“I can still find the path,” Zalira said, “but I’m afraid that we’ll trip and hurt ourselves. We should make camp.”

“Yes,” Io agreed, her exhaustion evident. I felt bad because she was so much shorter than the rest of us that it made sense she would have a more difficult time keeping up with Zalira’s long strides.

It still felt like a mistake, though. I wanted to keep marching all the way back to the temple. Something didn’t feel quite right.

We gathered some branches and twigs while Ahyana took kindling out of her knapsack. Suri used a flint and stone to create a fire that Zalira breathed to life. It caught quickly and we all ate some fruit and honeyed nuts.

It made me think of the pasteli that Jason had deliberately packed for my benefit and I couldn’t help but smile at the memory.

After we finished eating I volunteered to take the first watch. I sat on a fallen tree so that I could better survey the area. My sisters settled into their bedrolls and quickly fell asleep.

Except for Zalira. She came over to sit next to me on the log. “Not tired?” I asked.

“I am,” she said. “Even more so than normally. Like tracking is somehow sapping my energy.”

There was something I’d been wanting to ask her all day. “How is it that you know exactly the right way to go?”

The fire snapped when she fed it another log. “It’s difficult to explain. In the ground, I can sense where the water used to be. There was an emptiness there earlier that was easy to follow. Now that it’s flowing again, it’s like I can hear and feel where it is.”

“That’s like magic,” I said.

“Women don’t have magic,” she immediately responded.

“What if we do? What if we have magic that’s different? Maybe we can’t make a flower bloom on command but we can track underground water and talk to birds and make healing potions and find hidden things.”

Zalira smiled slightly, as if she didn’t accept my proposition. “What would your power be?”

“So far? Staying alive.”

She laughed softly and then said, “I don’t think it’s magic. I think it’s just what happens when you serve the goddess.”

“Well, I think you all take it for granted but it’s special. Although to be fair, someone told me recently that I see ordinary things and mistake them for magic.”

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