Page 215 of A Vow of Embers

What kind of magic had been used in this house? We’d all heard a child’s cry. The door had been rigged with a trap that had knocked Xander out and then immediately set it on fire. There was a metallic scent in the air and I didn’t know if that had come from the smoke or somewhere else.

Whoever had set this trap was very dangerous.

I looked down at my hands, marveling that I had somehow escaped the worst of it. I wanted to test Io’s theory that I couldn’t be burned.Perhaps it had been a freakish coincidence. That I had somehow managed to avoid the flames while I was in the house.

But I knew that if I put my hand into the fire like I wanted to, it would hurt Xander. I wouldn’t let that happen.

His phratry came and constructed a makeshift litter to carry him back to the cart so that he could rest, with Io attending to him. We searched the village to see if anyone else was alive. I kicked at the red dirt, hating that I didn’t know where it had come from or who was doing this. I shared in Xander’s frustration at having an unknown enemy.

Why would they attack a defenseless village?

Tired of death and feeling hopeless and useless, I went to the cart and climbed in. Xander was sleeping. Io was reading her book while also watching over him.

“I know I promised not to drug him but I gave him a sleeping draught,” she said. “It was for a good reason. Otherwise he’d get back on his horse, and he needs the chance to rest.”

It was a fair assessment. That was probably exactly what he would have done. I was glad she had given him the draught. He looked much more peaceful now.

“I never learned the word for the goddess’s healing aspect,” Io said. “I wish I had.”

“Even if you did, that’s not your aspect. You might not be able to use it. Both Zalira and I said your phrase out loud and nothing happened.”

I wanted to reach out and put my hand on his chest. Both to reassure myself that he was still breathing and because I wanted to offer him some comfort. Let him know that I was there.

But I didn’t do it.

“What I don’t understand is why we can invoke the magic at all. Why we’re so much more powerful than life mages even though we don’t have an amulet,” she said.

“Maybe men weren’t meant to wield it and we were. They need an amulet but we don’t.”

“Why would that be kept from us?” she asked.

“Everything seems to have been kept from us,” I pointed out.

She nodded and returned to her reading while I watched the rise and fall of Xander’s chest. Pain continued to recede from my body and I saw the red fading from his skin as the salve continued to work.

Io made a strangled sound and I immediately inspected her brother. “What? What’s wrong with him?”

She took in several deep breaths and I saw that she had gone pale. “He’s fine. It’s ... Lia, I know why Suri found this book for me, why I’ve felt compelled to read it. I know what happens to the savior. I’ve never heard this part of the prophecy before.”

Her voice, her expression, filled me with a dread I didn’t understand. I told myself that I wasn’t the savior. It didn’t matter.

She read aloud. “In the days that Ilion turns its back on the goddess, when the people have become hard-hearted and rejected the goddess’s ways, a savior will rise. The savior will be flame-kissed and bear the mark of the goddess. The savior will protect Ilion and restore the goddess’s glory and her magic and defeat the enemies of the goddess.”

I nodded impatiently. I already knew all of this.

Her voice dropped to a whisper. “The savior will be blessed to wield the greatest weapon in order to destroy the goddess’s foes. After a trial of the elements, the savior will die, offered up as a worthy sacrifice to the goddess, and in return Ilion will be kept safe.”

“Die?” I repeated, the air solidifying in my lungs. It wasn’t about me. “I’m not going to die.”

Io was weeping. I carefully climbed over Xander so that I could hug her.

“It will be fine. I won’t die,” I tried to reassure her.

But she didn’t answer.

I thought about what the prophecy said. A great weapon? What was a trial of the elements? Was the savior meant to pass the trial or to fail? Would that be how the savior died?

I knew what Io believed, but in that moment, I wished that she’d never shared it with me. Much as I protested out loud, a part of me gave credence to the notion that it might be true. That the goddess had appeared to Io as a little girl and made her swear to protect the savior.