Page 71 of A Vow of Embers

I was confused. She had been training with healers for a while now. “Aren’t you already doing that?”

“Yes. I have an affinity for understanding how plants can be combined to help heal people. Daphne would have been the best guide for me. To be honest, Tryphosa doesn’t seem interested in teaching me. Some of the best healers in the land are here at the palace and they have books about healing, which will be very helpful.”

Finally, someone else who understood the importance of things being written down.

She let out a sigh. “That’s not the entire truth. Tryphosa isn’t just uninterested, she said she thinks I lack the right skill set to become a healer. But she’s wrong.”

I smiled. It was just like Io to pursue something because someone told her she couldn’t do it. “When did Tryphosa say that?”

“The day after you left the temple. We didn’t want to be separated from you, and with what she said, it gave me the push to ask if we could join you. Honestly it seemed to be what Maia wanted—two days after you left, our lesson was on the vows that we had made in the temple. She had us repeat them, reminding us that we were boundto one another. The fifth day after you’d gone seemed like the most auspicious time to ask to join you.”

“You really think the healers in the palace can teach you more than anyone at the temple?” Tryphosa might lead the healers, but there were other experienced healers who could have been Io’s mentor.

She sat down in a chair. “After what happened to you with the dagger in your shoulder, I have to become better. I was always focused on the wrong part of healing—the kinds of salves and medicines I could create. Tryphosa told me that I could have killed you by pulling that knife out. I won’t let something like that happen again.”

“Are you worried that I’m going to get stabbed?” I meant it as a joke, but she took it seriously.

“I am. But this time I’m going to know how to save your life.”

We both turned at the sound of something breaking in the washroom.

“Sorry!” Zalira called out. “We’ll clean it up!”

I shook my head and sat down in the chair next to Io’s. She reached out and took my hand, her face serious. “It’s hard to explain, but I feel this urgency. This compulsion, like this is what I need to learn. Does that make sense?”

“To me? Yes. Because I feel exactly the same way about stabbing your brother.”

This time I got her to laugh and I joined in. It had been so long since I’d laughed.

“Speaking of Xander, I think it’s time he and I had a chat,” Io said, standing up. She glanced out toward the balcony and said, “He’s probably training right now. Should we go interrupt him and make him live up to his promises?”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea,” I said.

She had a mischievous and determined look in her eye, and for one small second I actually felt a little bit sorry for Prince Alexandros.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Io gathered up the adelphia, explained her plans, and we followed along after her. The thought occurred to me that it felt significant that she knew where my own husband was this time of day and I did not, despite the fact that she had only just arrived.

“Where does everyone at the temple think that I am?” I asked her.

“As far as I know, no one’s asked,” she said sympathetically, and I tried to ignore the slight sting that caused. I shouldn’t have been surprised that my absence hadn’t affected anyone outside of my adelphia, but it did bother me. “Maia said she will tell them that we’ve all been sent on a special assignment and that we might be gone for months, but that we also might be able to stop by on special occasions.”

“Such as?”

“There will be a new tribute race soon for Ilionian girls. We will be taking five new acolytes.”

An entire adelphia formed all at once. The men who had snuck into the temple specifically to find and kill me had murdered priestesses and acolytes, who now had to be replaced.

Not wanting to dwell on the guilt I felt over those deaths, I instead thought about how I wouldn’t be there to teach the girl who arrived last about her new responsibilities to clean the temple. I was sure they would find someone else to take over.

I was very easy to replace.

We arrived at an open-air gymnasium. There were columns and a roof, but no walls. When I made a comment about how that seemed foolish, as it would allow bad weather in, Io said that her brother preferred it that way so that the soldiers could train in various conditions to prepare them for battle.

It was a clever choice, but I didn’t tell her that.

The gymnasium was full of men in various states of dress. Io pointed out the prince and his phratry, but they would have been impossible to miss.