“Yes, I thought of that too…” Rae trailed her fingers in the water, blurring her own reflection. A flame-orange fish came to nibble at them.
“You believe her, don’t you?” Tam said, reading the message beneath Rae’s silence.
“It sounds ridiculous, but I think I do.”
“Why?”
It took Rae a full minute to come up with an answer. “It’s as soon as she spoke of this prophecy, this ‘Oracle of the Lamb,’ everything I’ve done in my life suddenly fell into place. Like every choice I’ve made has been leading me to this moment.” She shook her head. “Do you know what I mean? Have you ever felt that way?”
Tam licked her lips. “The day I met you.”
Rae reached up to tuck a loose curl behind Tam’s ear, her fingers lingering on the weaver’s cheek. “What do you think? Am I a fool for wanting to trust her? For thinking I might have some grand destiny?”
“All great men are fools,” Tam replied. “They have the audacity to believe in their own potential so deeply that they actually reach it.”
Rae grinned wryly. “So, you’re saying Iama fool.”
“Oh, absolutely,” Tam agreed. “And you have the potential to be agreatone.” She leaned forward, placing a single kiss on Rae’s lips. “I am with you, Raetawy. If you think this is the path forward, I will follow wherever it may lead. If putting your trust in the priestess saves lives, then you must take the risk. We don’t have many options, and time is running out.”
At the mention of saving lives, Rae felt a chill come over her. She thought of her father down in the belly of the palace, and the attack on Sakesh that the king had promised as retaliation forNefermaat’s abduction. “Do you think they’re all right—Menk, Mamet Mut, and the others? Do you think they got the message in time?”
“I pray they did.”
Rae stood. With the decision made, the urgency of the situation descended upon her. “I must talk to Nefermaat again so we can figure out how to prevent Sakesh from enduring another day of slaughter.”
Tam rose as well, then cast a sidelong glance at the guards in the main hall. “I’ll cover for you here. Just…be careful.”
With a nod, Rae snuck through the dark to the gardener’s entrance and made her way to the riverbank.
***
She found Omari alone at the moonlit encampment, sharpening his knife by the riverside with a smooth gray stone. His broad back was hunched over the task, and he reminded Rae of a bull standing alone against the night. When she emerged from the reeds, he straightened. “You came alone?”
“Tam is covering for me at the palace,” Rae replied. “Have you received any word from Menk?”
Omari looked down at the knife and slid the blade over the whetstone. He shook his head.
“Where are Kay and Buto?”
“Fishing. We need to trade for more supplies at the market tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, I need to talk to you.”
“Yes, I need to talk to you too. I must see Nefermaat first.”
Omari stopped sharpening. “Why?”
Rae swallowed. A nervous prickle at the back of her neck told her not to tell Omari about her intentions, not yet. “I just need to see her.”
“Do not let her speak,” Omari said. “She’ll curse you.”
“Not with her hands tied. Spells require an object and action in addition to words to work.”
Omari narrowed his eyes. “You’re an expert on magic now?”
“I was her servant. I paid attention. That’s all.”
Omari spit on the ground and resumed his sharpening. “Well, I wish you luck getting anything useful out of her. As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one thing she’d good for now.”
His tone was ominous, but Rae was too focused on speaking with the priestess to question him. “Look, we can talk more in a minute.” She ducked into the small tent.
