Page 145 of A Tribute of Fire

But there was an entry for “various, unspecified gems.”

That seemed promising. It meant that I was going to have to figure out a way to get into the vault and search through those various, unspecified gems and find the eye.

No one had been chosen as key bearer since I’d arrived more than a month ago. Theano still wore them on her belt.

But I would bet that she had extra keys to the vault. She didn’t strike me as the type of person to not have a backup plan. What if something happened to her? Or the keys were lost? She had to have a spare.

Her locked office seemed like the perfect spot to keep it.

That was the plan, then. I would figure out a way to break into her office and search for the spare key.

While avoiding the guards and not getting caught.

Easy,I thought sarcastically.

I let out a sigh and continued to flip through pages. There were a bunch of entries about court cases where priestesses were called to testify, about festivals planned and paid for by the king, list after list of supplies provided to the temple. All boring and useless information.

It was the very last page that caught my attention. The first entry stated:

Danae, priestess, married to Solon, dowry provided by the temple of the goddess, 60 minae

That made no sense. A priestess was married and the temple had provided a dowry? A significant one at that.

The next entry was just like the first.

Arsinoe, priestess, married to Theophanes, dowry provided by the temple of the goddess, 60 minae

That was a fortune. Given the treasury inventory I’d seen, it didn’t surprise me that the temple had those kind of resources, only that they were provided to priestesses as dowries.

When we were sworn to celibacy.

The rest of the page was the same—priestesses listed by name and the men they’d married and the substantial dowry given to each one.

Priestesses used to get married? How old was this book? And when had things changed to the way they were now?

Why had they changed?

I was so confused.

“What do you think you’re doing? Why aren’t you working?”

I nearly dropped the book when the guard assigned to watch over the stairs in the temple came out to scold me.

“I’m sorry,” I said, sliding the book back into my knapsack. If she took it from me, I would be in a horrific amount of trouble. She hadn’t seemed to notice the book, though—her attention was focused more on the fact that I wasn’t sweeping. “I forgot my broom.”

“Go and get it then.”

I nodded and hurried toward my dormitory. I wanted to tell someone what I’d discovered, but who could I trust with this information?

When I got to my room, all my sisters were gone. They must have been at breakfast. Kunguru was in the window and cawed at me. I took the book out of my bag and slid it underneath my bed. No one here stole—I probably could have left it out on my table without having to worry about it being taken.

But I did have to worry about someone finding it and the questions I didn’t want to answer. I’d been trained to be suspicious. What if there were inspections of rooms that took place while we were out? I didn’t want an older priestess accidentally coming across it.

When I was done, I went over to pet Kunguru. He made a happy sound at me.

“Watch over the book,” I told him.

He hopped around on the windowsill. Almost like he was patrolling.

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