“He should have been more careful.” He began to turn away.
“It burned a message.”
Leo froze. “What do you mean?”
The high priestess removed the blanket covering the young priest. A burn spread across his back. It was as if a hand had taken a dagger and carved into his flesh, shaping it into two runes. Leo peered closer. The one symbol he recognized was the feather of the Phoenix.
“Do you know what this says?”
“Daughter of Fire,” the high priestess answered, her voice hushed. Reverent.
Leo glanced up and saw the fervent look in her eyes.
“Daughterof Fire?” he repeated. The meaning slowly dawned on him. He looked at Saayna and then the poor boy. The runes seemed to smolder in the low light.
“The Prophet comes,” the high priestess whispered.
Leo felt something unspool within him. Disbelief perhaps, denial even, but deeper within, disappointment.Daughter of Fire.The next Prophet would be a woman. It would never be him.
After learning the nature of the flames, he had believed in the Phoenix and Her prophecy with a grain of sand. He went through the rituals and ceremonies because that was what he needed to do as king. Ravence was built on the back of an old religion. He had to cater to it. But this—this was something his predecessors had never prepared him for.
Leo looked to the high priestess.
“When?” he asked.
“I know only that the time draws near,” she said. “She will come for Ravence.”
His father had told him this as he slipped into old age and madness—a prophecy that warned of the Phoenix rising again.
“She will call forth a Prophet who will turn all of Sayon into a dry, brutal desert,” the old king had gasped, his eyes red and swollen. “She will burn everything in her path, including this kingdom. All gone in a single swipe of a vengeful god.”
“We struck a deal,” Leo said to the high priestess. “Alabore Ravence struck a deal with the Phoenix, and he was blessed with Ravence. Why would the Prophet take the blessing back?”
“The Phoenix is mysterious in Her ways.”
“Heavens be damned, Saayna!” He gripped her shoulders. She flinched, but her gaze was steady. “I’ve made my mistakes, but don’t let Elena suffer for them. Tell me, do you know what the Prophet intends? Where is she now? Has she already been marked?”
Saayna’s lips hardened, and she removed his hands with soft fingers. Slowly, she covered the young priest, moved to the wall, and with a wave of her hand, summoned a holo. A map of Ravence floated before them, along with pictures of the two runes. She plotted the symbols over Ravence, and Leo watched as the black lines cut through the desert, leading to Rani.
A map within a map.
“The girl has been marked,” the high priestess said. “She is here, in the capital, but she has not come into her full powers yet. That day will come. I can feel it. Soon, we will all have to answer for our sins.”
She turned to him, her eyes dark. “Especially you, Your Majesty.”
Leo disliked the undercurrent in her voice, but he forced himself to stay calm. He knew he could not trust Saayna. He sensed a lie dripping from her lips like rattlesnake venom, but he couldn’t place it. The Eternal Fire had spoken—that much he couldn’t deny. But was Saayna’s translation accurate? He glanced at her as she dabbed the boy’s forehead with a soft cloth. She would defend the Prophet; it was her duty. But it was also his duty to defend his kingdom.
For a split second, he wondered if Elena was the Prophet… but no. She could not hold flames. She could not withstand their heat. Rage welled inside of him.
Damn this Prophet! Damn the skies above!
He needed to hunt down the fanatic. He and his ancestors had brought peace to this wild desert. He would not let it burn now.
“Saayna,” he said, his voice measured, calm. “I’m placing you under arrest for treason. The guards will escort you out of this temple, and you will only return on coronation day. Until then, you will help me find this Prophet. Youwilldefend Ravence.” He looked at her and then the young priest. “Or else I will make sure he is the first to burn.”
Saayna nodded, her face composed. She seemed to accept her fate willingly. These religious fanatics were always like that. They gave in to the gods without so much as a squeak of protest.
“As you wish, Your Majesty,” she said.
