Page 89 of A Tribute of Fire

Grateful that she didn’t have a devious mind, I said, “Because I’m Locrian.”

“That doesn’t matter.” Io began brushing along the doorframe and little motes of dust danced in the early-morning sun, the beams shining through the open doors.

A pang of homesickness made my heart twist. I had seen the same thing every morning as I’d trekked over to the barracks, ready to begin my day. Dust bits sparkling in the light.

“Why don’t you hate me?” I asked.

She stopped sweeping to stare at me in disbelief. “Why would I hate you?”

“As we’ve established, because I come from Locris.”

“No Locrian has ever done anything to me,” she said. “You can’t help where you were born any more than I can, and either way, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is who you are.”

There was a lot that Io didn’t know. “I might be a terrible person.”

She smiled while shaking her head, then resumed sweeping. “You’re not a terrible person, and before you object, I’m an excellent judge of character. You made it to the temple. That speaks to your determination, fortitude, and strength. Your ability to persevere. We already have a reason to admire you.”

Io was including the rest of the adelphia in her statement, making me wonder if they’d spoken about me after I’d fallen asleep. “Or my terrible nature is the only thing that made it possible for me to get here.”

“I don’t believe that, and there’s nothing you can say that will convince me otherwise.” Her tone reminded me of Quynh, and how stubborn my sister could be about certain things.

Like forcing me to take her bracelet. I felt the outline of it in my pouch. I was grateful to still have this piece of her.

“Don’t forget that you fought Artemisia to protect me. Again, that tells me you’re a good person.” She took a few more long, sure strokes with her broom before she added, “It’s the sort of thing Suri would have done, had she been there.”

Curiosity filled me and I found myself saying, “What happened to her?”

I understood that it was none of my business, but I really wanted to know. Suddenly some kind of tiny monster dropped down right in frontof my face, hanging by an almost invisible thread. I yelped, preparing to swat it away.

“Don’t!” Io called out, hurrying over. She reached up carefully and let the creature climb into her hand and I watched in horror as she carried it outside, putting it on the ground and letting it go.

“What was that?” I asked.

“A spider.”

“Why does it have so many legs?” I demanded.

“It’s just how the goddess made it,” she said. “I don’t know why some people are scared of spiders.”

While she made it sound irrational, it didn’t feel that way to me. That spider had been ugly and threatening and deserved to be swatted away. I hoped to never see one again. “Why did you let it go outside?”

“Because all life is sacred,” she continued. “I serve in the temple because I want to help create and preserve life, not take it away.”

“What if you didn’t have a choice? What if someone you cared about was in danger?” Would she judge me for having done that? Look at me differently?

“Even then, I still don’t think I could.”

It was easy to make that kind of decision when it was purely theoretical and had never been tested. I swallowed my annoyance and went back to sweeping.

Io seemed to pick up on my shift in mood. “What were we talking about before? Suri?”

A petty part of me wanted to tell her we should just finish up our work, but my curiosity was too strong. “Yes.”

“You already know that Suri and I ran at the same time. She was first and I came in right after her. She was covered in bruises, both her eyes blackened. At first I thought one of the other racers had done it to her, but the bruises weren’t fresh. They were yellow and green, as if they’d happened weeks earlier.”

I stopped what I was doing. “Someone hurt her?”

She nodded. “That’s our guess. But I don’t know anything other than that to share. Suri doesn’t speak.”

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