Page 162 of A Tribute of Fire

“I’m satisfied with her explanation,” Maia said.

Before Nysa could object, Maia raised her hand. “Daphne has already told me that she will vote the way that I do, that Lia is not to blame for what occurred. Regardless of how Theano votes, we will have the majority.”

Nysa glared at both of us and got up so quickly that she knocked her chair over. I wasn’t sure what I had done to earn her anger, other than being born in a different land from her. She had no reason to hate me but she seemed to anyway.

She stormed out of the auditorium, and once she was gone, Maia’s whole demeanor changed. She was furious.

“Do you have any idea how reckless you and Io were last night? Do you understand what could have happened? We have rules for a reason, Lia. You can’t just disregard them out of curiosity!”

While I wanted to interject that I hadn’t, now did not seem like the right time to say so.

Maia lectured me for a good half hour but she seemed to accept my story about what had happened. She even commended me for protecting Io but was angry at me for putting myself at risk.

I nodded and it didn’t take much for me to look repentant. I did feel bad about the whole situation. I didn’t know why those men had been targeting me specifically and I didn’t want to be the reason that harm was brought to the women in the temple.

It seemed like the best thing to do would be to attempt to enter the treasury as soon as possible. If I found the eye, I could be on my way and then there wouldn’t be any more attacks.

I was just going to have to convince my sisters to join me—given the condition I was in, I didn’t think I’d be able to do it alone.

Maia finished and told me to go back to my room. I nodded meekly and did as she asked. Groups of varying sizes talked to one another as I exited the administrative building.

Their eyes were on me. It felt like the first day of being here all over again. Outcast and despised. Blamed for bringing death and destruction to the temple.

When I got back to my bedroom, my sisters weren’t there. Were they at breakfast? Being questioned by somebody else?

The high priestess, maybe?

I let out a shaky breath. I wasn’t sure that Io would be able to hold her own against Theano.

When I lay down on my bed, I turned to my side so that I could reach the edges of the book.Various, unspecified gems,I told myself.

But my fingers brushed against nothing. I stretched my hand out, thinking I must have pushed it back farther than I’d realized.

It wasn’t there.

Starting to feel panicked, I stood up and, with my right hand, pulled the bed away from the wall completely.

The book was gone.

Like I’d never even had it.

Who had taken it?

My sisters would have told me if it had been them. I could see Zalira hiding it for safekeeping if she’d come across it during the struggle last night, but she hadn’t said anything.

I would ask them when they returned.

The hollowed-out feeling in my gut only worsened. Somehow I knew that my adelphia didn’t have the book.

It had been stolen.

I thought of the guard on watch who’d caught me reading it. I had assumed that she didn’t notice it because she hadn’t said anything, but what if I had been wrong? What if she had reported it to someone in charge?

Theano would want to keep that book a secret. She was the spokesperson for the goddess. She passed along the rules and regulations that we all followed. If there was proof that priestesses used to be married, that the temple had provided them dowries, she would be the first person who would want to destroy it.

It would go against what she was teaching us. What someone like Maia was so certain was true.

There were no written histories here in the temple that would contradict whatever Theano decided was doctrine. No religious texts that would say she was wrong. With a bitter taste in my mouth, I realized that she could make up any rule she wanted and there wouldn’t be any way to countermand her.

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