For all that she wasn’t entirely bound, Mehr had precious little chance either. Before Mehr had even spoken, she’d known that the idea of escaping the Maha was at best a foolish girl’s fantasy. With eyes always on her, how could she possibly slip away from the temple without being noticed? How could she leave Amun here, knowing what the Maha was and how being bound to him felt?

And even if she did escape, how long would she survive? Without a map, without food or water or a robe to protect her from the sun, she would perish in short order.

But hope was insidious. It had its claws in her now, and it wouldn’t let her go.

Edhir has maps, she thought. And Hema works in the kitchens. She’ll have food. Water.

A way to look again at the maps of Irinah, a way to hide food and water, and find a robe to protect herself, and a way to set Amun free along with her. That was all she needed now.

She wanted to laugh. Ah, she’d set herself an impossible goal, hadn’t she?

“I’d hoped to work on your technique longer,” Amun said, after a long silence. “But you will need to be taught the rite immediately.”

“Tell me about this rite,” she said, pushing her hopes to the back of her mind. “For a start, what is it called?”

“I don’t know if it has a true name,” said Amun grimly. “But the person who taught it to me called it the Rite of the Bound.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

They returned to the same dim hall they had practiced in the evening before.

“We won’t perform this rite in the desert until the dreamfire falls,” Amun told her. “The daiva don’t like it.”

Mehr could well imagine how little the daiva cared for a rite intended to bend their mothers and fathers to mortal will.

Even though it was daylight outside, the hall was timeless nighttime. Lanterns flickered where they hung upon the walls. The light illuminated Amun’s face in fractured shadows. He turned to look at the doorway, where another mystic already stood, watching them.

It was no surprise to Mehr to see the man there. Wherever she and Amun went, mystics followed. The Maha had many eyes.

“Leave,” Amun said shortly. “We’re at the Maha’s business. We need to be alone.”

The mystic nodded and stepped out of the room. Mehr was sure he was still out there, hovering just beyond the entrance. But there was nothing to be done about that. She pushed her discomfort away and followed Amun deeper into the hall.

“You understand the basic forms,” he said.

“I do.”