An Ember in the Ashes(111)

PART III: BODY AND SOUL

XLV: Laia

“If you wish to live, girl, then let them think you dead.”
Above the sudden din of the crowd, I barely hear the Augur’s panting whisper. Mystified by the fact that a Martial holy woman wants, for some reason, to help me, I’m stunned into silence. As her weight crushes me to the dais, the dagger Marcus has flung into her side is jarred loose. Blood seeps across the platform, and I shudder, chillingly reminded of how Nan died, in a pool of blood just like this one.
“Don’t move,” the Augur says. “No matter what happens.”
I do what she says, even as Elias shouts my name and tries to pull her off me. The messenger announces the Emperor’s assassination; Elias is sentenced to death and chained. Throughout, I remain still. But when the Augur named Cain announces the coronation, I stifle a gasp. After the coronation, the death cell prisoners will be executed—which means that unless the Resistance gets him out of prison, Darin will die tomorrow.
Or will he? Mazen says Darin’s in Bekkar’s death cells. Elias says Bekkar doesn’t have death cells.
I want to scream with frustration. I need clarity. The only one who can give it to me is Mazen, and the only way I’m going to find him is if I get out of here. But I can’t exactly stand up and stroll out. Everyone thinks I’m dead.
Even if I could leave, Elias just sacrificed his life for mine. I can’t abandon him.
I lay uselessly, unsure of what to do, when the Augur decides for me. “You move now, you die,” she warns, pulling herself off me. When all eyes are on the tableaux beside us, she lifts me up and staggers toward the amphitheater door.
Dead. Dead. I can practically hear the woman in my head. Pretend you’re dead. My limbs flop, and my head lolls. I keep my eyes closed, but when the Augur misses a step and nearly falls, they fly open of their own accord. No one notices, but for a brief moment, as Aquilla swears her fealty, I catch a glimpse of Elias’s face. And though I’ve seen my brother taken and my grandparents killed, though I’ve suffered beatings and scarrings and visited the night shores of Death’s realm, I know I’ve never felt the type of desolation and hopeless-ness I see in Elias’s eyes at that moment.
The Augur rights herself. Two of her fellows close around her, the way brothers flank a little sister in a rough crowd. Her blood soaks my clothes, blending into the black silk. She’s lost so much that I don’t understand how she can muster the strength to walk.
“Augurs cannot die,” she says through gritted teeth. “But we can bleed.”
We reach the amphitheater gates, and once through, the woman sets me on my feet in an alcove. I expect her to explain why she chose to take that dagger for me, but she just limps away, her brethren supporting her.
I look back through the amphitheater gates to where Elias kneels, chained.
My head tells me I can do nothing for him, that if I try to help him, I’ll die.
But I can’t bring myself to walk away.
“You are unhurt.” Cain has slipped away from the still-packed amphitheater, unnoticed by the tittering crowd. “Good. Follow me.” He catches the look I cast at Elias and shakes his head.
“He is beyond your aid right now,” Cain says. “He has sealed his fate.”
“So that’s it for him?” I’m appalled at Cain’s callousness. “Elias refuses to kill me, and he dies for it? You’re going to punish him for showing mercy?”
“The Trials have rules,” Cain says. “Aspirant Veturius broke them.”
“Your rules are twisted. Besides, Elias wasn’t the only one who violated your instructions. Marcus was supposed to kill me, and he didn’t. You still made him Emperor.”
“He thinks he killed you,” Cain says. “And he revels in the knowledge. That is what matters. Come, you must leave the school. If the Commandant knows you survived, your life is forfeit.”
I tell myself the Augur is right, that I can’t do anything for Elias. But I’m uneasy. I’ve done this before. I’ve left someone behind and lived to regret it every moment after.
“If you do not come with me, your brother will die.” The Augur senses my conflict and presses. “Is that what you want?”
He heads toward the gates, and after a dreadful few moments of indecision, I turn away from Veturius and follow him. Elias is resourceful—he might still find a way to avoid death. But I won’t, Laia, I hear Darin. Not unless you help me.
The legionnaires manning Blackcliff’s gates seem not to see us as we pass out of the school, and I wonder if Cain has used Augur sorcery on them. Why is he helping me? What does he want in exchange?
If he can read my suspicions, he doesn’t let on, instead leading me rapidly through the Illustrian Quarter and deep into the sweltering streets of Serra.

His route is so convoluted that it seems for a time as if he has no destination in mind. No one looks twice at us, and no one speaks of the Emperor’s death or of Marcus’s coronation. The news hasn’t yet leaked out.
The silence between Cain and me stretches until I think it will fall and shatter on the ground. How will I get away from him and find the Resistance?
I dash the thought from my head, lest the Augur pick it out—but then, I’ve already thought it, so it must be too late. I look askance at him. Is he reading all of this? Can he hear every thought?
“It’s not really mind-reading,” Cain murmurs, and I wrap my arms around myself and lean away, though I know doing so won’t shield my thoughts any better.