Page 161 of A Tribute of Fire

Maybe Iwasto blame. I put my right hand over my stomach. I felt like I was going to be sick.

“They have no distinctive marks and do not bear the seals of any noble or royal families.” Antiope sounded furious. I knew she would take each and every loss personally. “Their pockets were empty. There is no way to identify them or where they came from.”

“Should we contact the government?” someone else asked.

“There is nothing they can do that we cannot do ourselves,” Antiope said, immediately rejecting the notion. “We do not need their assistance.”

“We should ask the Locrian. She is here,” Nysa said, pointing at me. The women directly in front of me parted so that there was a clear opening between myself and the dais.

Maia looked concerned and Daphne just looked angry. The older woman stood. “We cannot hold Lia responsible for the actions of those men. She was severely harmed as well. None of us know what happened, and we cannot conjecture otherwise. We cannot turn our backs on one of our sisters.”

When Daphne sat back down, Theano got to her feet. The murmurs and whispers around me died completely. She announced, “The Locrian will be questioned.”

“I’ll do it,” Maia immediately offered.

“And I’ll assist,” Nysa said.

Theano nodded, her veil waving back and forth. “Maia will interrogate the Locrian with Nysa’s assistance. If any of you have any information that might prove useful, you must share it with us. The safety of this temple must be upheld at all times. We have lost too many of our sisters and will not lose any others.”

The women began to disperse and Maia headed straight toward me, with Nysa right behind her. My pulse beat unsteadily in my throat. Would they see through me? Would they think I was lying?

And if they did, what would they do with me? Three women were dead. This was not a situation that would end with extra cleaning duties.

Maia told me to follow her and led us to the auditorium. Nysa walked behind me, staring holes into the back of my head. I thought of Demaratus’s advice to control my emotions. It was especially important now. I was so close to accomplishing my goal. I hoped I wasn’t responsible for the attack, directly or indirectly.

There couldn’t be any real way to tell.

Even if those men had been hunting me, their actions were not my fault. I shouldn’t have to pay for their sins.

When we got to the auditorium, we walked down the stairs so that we could sit on the center dais. Both Maia and Nysa took chairs across from me. Nysa crossed her arms, while Maia leaned toward me with a kind smile on her face.

“What happened last night?” she asked.

I hated having to lie to her. Part of me knew that Maia might have real answers to some of my questions, but this was too big of a risk. Especially with Nysa here. Perhaps if we’d been alone I could have been more honest with her.

“Io and I were up late, unable to sleep. We heard a noise and went out to investigate. A man attacked Io, and I lured him away to protect her. We ended up in one of the offices upstairs because I was looking for a weapon. The man stabbed me with a knife and Io saved my life by putting his sword through his neck. She cauterized my wound and then she helped me get to the infirmary.”

“That is the same story that Io and the rest of their adelphia told me,” Maia said with a nod.

“Yes, it is very, very similar,” Nysa said. It was obvious she didn’t believe me. “It sounds rehearsed.”

It was.

I wondered when they had questioned the other members of my adelphia. Late last night? Earlier this morning?

“You are always so suspicious,” Maia said. Turning back to face me, she said, “You know how dangerous that was, don’t you? You shouldn’t have left your room. That’s why we have guards. You aren’t far enough along in your training to go against skilled warriors like that.”

“Zalira and Ahyana said the men came into our bedroom, too.” While I understood that Maia wanted to lecture me out of concern, we would have been in the midst of the fight either way.

“Yes, why is that?” Nysa asked. “Why would armed men enter your room specifically?”

“I don’t know. When that man was stabbing me, he didn’t confess his intentions to me.” I knew I shouldn’t be sarcastic, but as Daphne had pointed out, I wasn’t responsible for other people’s actions.

What had happened was a terrible tragedy, and I felt gutted that anyone had lost their lives. But I wasn’t going to let Nysa or Artemisia eject me from the temple.

Not when so much was at stake.

And especially not now that I finally had the treasury key in my possession.

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