I took the package from the young priest’s hand and untied it. It was a firestone.

The priests all unwrapped their packages and threw the contents on the ground. Theirs were all stones, ordinary stones. I alone held firestone.

Victory soared in me. Then I saw Maelmor’s face, and knew my battle was hardly begun.

“So you can divine, handmaid,” he said, through clenched teeth. “We each carried a stone, but we did not know who held the firestone. Diviners sometimes read men’s minds, and our own thoughts could have given you a sign. It was the hardest test I could devise. You passed. I will await confirmation of the Firelord’s death. An envoy has been already sent to the bridge you told us of. When his death is confirmed we will hold his funeral feast. Twenty days after that we will hold the ordination of the new diviner.”

“I will stay here at Kasimarra until then,” I said. “There is much I want to do I have heard of your great libraries here. I will require–”

“The libraries are forbidden to you,” he said “You will be permitted to stay in the diviner’s apartments. You will hold no authority anywhere in the temple.”

“I will go where I like,” I said. “I am Firewoman.”

“You’re not Firewoman yet, harsha. Even if the Firelord’s death is verified, there are still twenty days until the inauguration of the new Firelord. A lot can happen in twenty days.”

He shouted an order then, and all the priests turned and began walking back to Kasimarra. I was abandoned there, with only the wail of the wind and encroaching dark for company.

For the next few days, I lived in relative peace at Kasimarra. To occupy myself I explored the vast temple complex, roamed in the dim and deserted corridors and halls, lost myself in the maze of passages, tunnels and cellars, and climbed the towers and the windswept balconies. I discovered huge, hanging terraces that jutted far out from the temple walls, suspended somehow in the howling spaces high above the ravines, their wind-worn stones filled with dirt and ancient roots of plants. They intrigued me, those great abandoned terraces; I could not guess the purpose of them, or how the soil and remains of bygone plants had ever been carried so high on the gales.

I stood in the doorways of the sanctuaries where the people of the Chosen worshipped daily and took part in elaborate temple rituals; and I decided that their religion was to do more with the prestige and power of the priests than with the love of God. I came across treasuries filled with precious gems, fine garments, jars of gold and priceless works of art.