He sheathed his sword, strode down the long lines of priests to the temple doors, and opened them. I glimpsed the crowd beyond. It was overwhelming. People lined the road, the walls on either side, the terraces and rocks beyond, the valleys, the stones, the paths. They clambered on the roofs of the houses, out of windows, and hung from balconies and towers and every high place, to get a glimpse of the Firelord. The tumult was deafening. Trumpets blared, cymbals crashed, and drums throbbed. People screamed, cheered, applauded, and sang. When they saw that it was the high priest and not the Firelord, they fell utterly silent. He closed the doors behind him, and we heard his voice, raised and powerful, but his words were muffled.

Then there was another sound, anguished and terrible. It was the people wailing for their diviner.

I lifted my head and stared at the rows of priests. Some of them were weeping silently, tears coursing down their still faces. But some, dry-eyed, were looking at me, and their look was worse than grief. It was the look of deepest hate.

19 The Test

19

The Test

THEY LET ME STAY in a lower temple room that night, on a mat with one blanket and no fire. The next morning, they took me outside. Two hundred priests were to test my divining power. Maelmor was one of them. They took me to the mountainous area beyond the city. A bitter wind was blowing and ice made the ground treacherous. The very air was treacherous. They blindfolded me when they took me out, and made me walk a long way over stony places and up and down steep valleys where the wind howled and the force of it nearly knocked me over. The blindfold did not trouble me; eleven years in the mine had taught my feet discernment, and though I stumbled sometimes, I did not fall.

I felt unnerved and on the edge of chaos. All night I had stayed awake, meditating, reasoning myself into a state of calm. I had almost managed it. But this morning the hostility of the priests clashed with my fragile peace, and jarred my feelings. I felt out of harmony with myself and with the earth. It was a feeling incompatible with divining.

At last we stopped, and I heard the crunch of stones as the priests gathered behind me I felt someone move close, and my tension grew. I sensed evil in the air and remembered the blindfold put on me when I was a child … before the branding.

“You will divine,” said a voice, close. Maelmor’s. “You have until evening. I decide when the test is finished. If you find firestones, you will live. If you do not, you will die. This is the only test. There is no second chance. You may begin.”