I sat on the edge of his narrow bed, took his hand, and waited while his pain subsided. He seemed more manly now; his months in the army had toughened him. The vitality was there still, the charm, the engaging boldness. But there was something else as well: a depth to him, a sincerity, that was not there before. He turned his head again and looked at me, his green eyes dancing.

“So, Elsha, you have achieved the impossible. Today you will be Firewoman.”

“I would never have achieved it alone,” I said. “With all my heart, I thank you for your part in it. It was a great victory.”

“It was only the first, Elsha. There will be many others, not all won on battlegrounds. The hardest battles will be fought in men’s hearts, against their prejudices and beliefs. I know. I’ve fought there myself.”

He gave me a brief grin, then closed his eyes. I stood to go, but he found my hand, and gripped it.

“Elsha, there is something else. About the Book of Hamash.” His face became white and strained, and he passed his tongue across his lips before he spoke again. His lips were white. “I cannot say how much it angered me. We based our civilisation, our lives, on that lie. And when people like me questioned it, saw that you Quelled were not what they said you were, they called us heretics and shoved us off to the army and hoped we’d get honourably killed. I’m ashamed to be Chosen, ashamed–” A fit of coughing wracked him and he sweated with the agony of it.

“Don’t distress yourself,” I said gently. “There is no blame in you, any more than there is blame in me. We were all taken in The fault lies with men long dead.”

“But it must be put right! It isn’t enough that you change laws, Elsha, that you ease the lives of the Quelled. Your ancestors were of royal blood. You owned a peaceful kingdom. You have a right to true freedom, and to claim back all your land, your houses, your–” He coughed again, and sweat poured off his face.

After a while his distress eased, and he said, almost jokingly, “Have you seen the irony, Elsha? By the same power that you reform laws and improve the lives of the Quelled, you keep them in slavery.”

“I have seen it,” I said. “I have seen a terrible circle, from which there is no escape. We’re all trapped in it, Quelled and Chosen alike. The world is trapped. And even a firelord cannot wipe away dust from the sky.”

“Maybe it is already going,” he said, very low. “The skies are changing. I’ve seen. Some of our dawns and evenings are red. Amasai says the firestones are different; they give off less smoke. I think the dust is gone, and the clouds that remain are our smoke.”