Helene’s not dead. She can’t be. She survived initiation, the wilds,
border skirmishes, whippings. That she’d die now, at the hands of
someone as vile as Marcus, is unthinkable. The part of me that is still a
child, the part of me that I didn’t know still existed until this moment, howls
in rage.
The crowd in the courtyard pushes forward. Students crane their necks,
trying to get a look at Helene. My mother’s ice - chiseled face disappears
from view.
“Wake up, Helene,” I yell at her, ignoring the pressing crowd. “Come
on.”
She’s gone. It was too much for her. For a second that never seems to
end, I hold her, numb as the realization sinks in. She’s dead.
“Out of the way, damn you.” Grandfather’s voice seems far away, but a
second later, he’s beside me. I stare at him, shaken. Only a few days ago, I
saw him dead on the nightmare battlefield. But here he is, alive and well.
He lays a hand against Helene’s throat. “Still alive,” he says. “Barely. Clear
the way.” His scim is out, and the crowd backs away. “Get the physician!
Find a litter! Move!”
“Augur,” I choke out. “Where’s the Augur?” As if my thoughts summon
him, Cain appears. I thrust Helene at Grandfather, struggling not to wrap
my hands around the Augur’s neck for what he’s put us through.
“You have the power to heal,” I say through gritted teeth. “Save her.
While she’s still alive.”
“I understand your anger, Elias. You feel pain, sorro — ” His words fall
upon my ears like the incessant caws of a crow.
“ Your rules — no cheating.” Calm, Elias. Don’t lose it. Not now. “But the
Farrars cheated. They knew we were coming through the Gap. They
ambushed us.”
“The Augurs’ minds are linked. If one of us aided Marcus and Zak, the
rest would know. Your whereabouts were concealed from all others.”
“Even my mother?”
Cain pauses for a telling moment. “Even her.”
“You’ve read her mind?” Grandfather speaks up from beside me.
“You’re absolutely certain she didn’t know where Elias was?”
“Reading thoughts isn’t like reading a book, General. It requires study
— ”
“Can you read her or not?”
“Keris Veturia walks dark paths. The darkness cloaks her, hiding her
from our sight.”
“That’s a no, then,” Grandfather says dryly.
“If you can’t read her,” I say, “how do you know she didn’t help Marcus
and Zak cheat? Did you read them?”
“We do not feel the need — ”
“Reconsider.” My temper surges. “My best friend is dying because those
sons of a whore pulled the wool over your eyes.”
“Cyrena,” Cain says to one of the other Augurs, “stabilize Aquil la and
isolate the Farrars. No one is to see them.” The Augur turns back to me. “If
what you say is true, then the balance is upset, and we must restore it. We
will heal her. But if we cannot prove that Marcus and Zacharias cheated,
then we must leave Aspirant Aquilla to her fate.”
I nod tersely, but in my head, I’m screaming at Cain. You idiot. You
stupid, r epulsive demon. You’re letting those cretins win. You’re letting them
get away with murder.
Grandfather, unusually silent, walks with me to the infirmary. When we
reach the infirmary doors, they open, and the Commandant emerges.
“Giving your lackeys warning, Keris?” Grandfather towers over his
daughter, his lip curling.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You’re a traitor to your gens, girl,” Grandfather says, the only man in
the Empire brave enough to refer to my mother as a girl. “Don’t think I’ll
forget it.”
“You picked your favorite, General.” Mother’s eyes slide to me, and I
spot a flash of unhinged rage. “And I’ve picked mine.”
She leaves us at the infirmary door. Grandfather watches her go, and I
wish I knew what he was thinking. What does he see when he looks at her?
The little girl she was? The soulless creature she is now? Does he know
why she became like this? Did he watch it happen?
“Don’t underestimate her, Elias,” he says. “She’s not used to losing.”