“I can’t argue with that,” he said. “But be careful. Let’s give you something to ease the constriction. Have you been given wax wraith before?”

“Ora Shotai always gave me mahuan.”

“Let’s go with what you know works, then.” He went to the vast wall of medicinal jars at the far end of the room. “You’ve been like this all day?”

“The scullery master sent me here after bed check. I was coughing so much, it bothered the other drudges.”

“Ora Matias!”

Lilia heard fear in the cry. She was on her feet even before the woman entered. It was Ohanni, the temple’s dancing teacher. She carried a limp form in her slender arms. The body was lax, like a doll. But it was the blood that made Lilia’s stomach seethe.

The body was covered in blood. Soaked in it. One arm hung free. Drops of blood collected at the ends of the fingers, spattered the floor.

Matias stood frozen at the wall of medicinal jars, mouth agape.

Ohanni carried the body into the room. Behind her were two novices. Their aprons were rusty with blood.

It was only then that Lilia realized the body was Roh’s.

Ahkio leaned over the table in the Assembly Chamber at the top of Oma’s temple. He watched the gathered council and wondered which of them had murdered his sister, and to what purpose. He was a little unsteady, so he sat in the chair to the right of the Kai’s seat, the chair reserved for her heir, which he’d sat in only once, the day they returned from the Dorinah camps and Nasaka called the circle of Elder Oras and the temple’s Ora council – the same faces he saw now.

Gaiso frowned at him from the other side of the room but did not break in conversation with her assistant. Elder Ora Masura of the Temple of Tira waved to him from the hall. Masura was a splendid, regal old woman, and one of his mother’s many lovers. She came around the table and asked to take his hands.

He consented, only because he did not want to draw her suspicion; he was exhausted and angry, and he feared what he would say. She took his scarred hands in her smooth, cold palms and blessed him.

“It’s been a decade since I saw you last, hasn’t it?” she said. “I wish it were under better circumstances.”

In truth, it had been twelve years since he sat with these people. He could have gone a lifetime without sitting here again.

Gaiso dismissed her assistant and rounded on Ahkio. “Has the Kai passed, then? Is that why you’re here?”

“Are you questioning my right to be here?” Ahkio said softly.

Gaiso looked taken aback. “What did you say?”

“I’m so sorry, Ahkio. No one wanted this,” Masura said.