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"Too easy," Hectoryou haven’t told ," he says in an equally low voice His hand comes up to clutch the amulet beneath his robe "But we should be wary"

"If you betray us," Hector says, "I’ll kill you"

Storm bristles "I was Her Majesty’s loyal subject even before she saved ht now," I say firo back inside the tunnel and wait there?"

Her eyes are huge "No," she whispers

I realize I’lass crunches beneath our feet as we cross the threshold of the ruined wall and ive a clear path to the altar Harsh wind hitswith his Godstone a to life one by one until the altar is ringed in fire The torch fla in places, leveled by wind and ice and time in others The top is perfectly flat and little h I stand onthat , a hairless creature with skin as weathered as deer jerky It lies on its back, its flaccid, jellylike liardbrown eyes, with human eyes, my breath catches in a sob

"You have come to take my place?" it says in a painful rasp

"What?" I peer closer He lies spread-eagle across the altar His fingers are bloodless, meaty stumps--as if they’ve been chewed Lumpy skin swells over the wrist manacles I follow the line of thin, slack liht blue Godstone winks froasp This creature is one of hout history as never identified--or who simply disappearedsacrifice"

Red spots dance in ry I can hardly breathe "This is what you plan forto rees "It’s our greatest sha sacrifice But it is no more barbaric that what your people did to ours They were afraid of us, of our power You made us less than ere, with your otherworldly machines"

I’m not sure what compels ently brush his cheek with azes at me with such hope from browless, lashless eyes

I whirl to face Pine "Why?" I demand "Why torture him this way?"

Pine’s face remains implacable "They made us human" He spits out the word like it’s a sour piece of fruit "Too much humanity in our blood made it impossible to bear our Godstones beyond childhood They started to die in our bodies After a few generations, only a handful remained ere even born with the h to calm their fear," he continues "They forced us to flee from our source of life and power The hidden zafira was once ours; surely you know that? But away fro just to survive"

He turns to regarddown a hungry jaguar "We discovered early on that we could draer through a living Godstone It’s not the sah to keep us fro out We used our own children for this at first--the little ones who had the misfortune to be born with a stone It was a dark time in our history But then we discovered that your people had not only changed us--they had changed theled the blood of our two people, you see, so they could survive better on this world Some of them, a very feere born with Godstones"

"Once every hundred years," I whisper

He nods "And those Godstones didn’t fall out How could such a thing be? That our enemy could bear the stones that we could not?" He shakes his head "So we captured a bearer, a girl like you The zafira sustains our living sacrifices We don’t feed them or take care of them in any way They exist perpetually at the point of death And it’s important that they do Otherwise they could resist and refuse us their power"

"But this one is truly dying," Storm says

"Yes Eventually death takes them all Some scholars posit that they pray themselves dead This one"--Pine’s voice is thick with contempt--"only lasted a century"

A century I knoho this creature is The bearer before me

"Lucero," I whisper

He smiles, an ancient, toothless s so hard, and I can’t stop This is what they want for ranite, exposed to sun and ice, ers eaten by vultures

Hector’s hand is on his scabbard, and his gaze darts around, sizing up the area Our eyesBut surely now that I have proi of the zafira, their plan forsacrifice’?" Hector asks after too long a moment "Franco said it would be better if Her Majesty caes toward et me away from this place, and fast

"Exactly twice in our history we’ve had a bearer co bearer is pern of the city He is waited on as if he were the High Deciregus, his every need attended to In return, he agrees to willingly let us siphon the world’s power through his stone Both tie We bore er Apparently the zafira is richer and more accessible if the bearer does not resist"

I stare at the lue boy Illiterate Surely the prospect of being treated like a king would haveparticipant Why did he resist?

Hector says, "What aren’t you telling us? If being a willing sacrifice is a position of such honor and luxury, surely you would have convinced lance with Haho nods Finally he says, "Having power forcefully pulled through a living stone is somewhatunco sacrifice enjoys lib Never have Ito part with information Even Storm, my ally and friend, causes me no end of frustration with his reticence

Stor aer need a sacrifice if we have direct access to the zafira"

No one responds Wind whistles across the balcony Beyond the altar, the silhouettes of the ht One of the volcanoes spews a bit of lava Fro, the way it sticks together midair and plops onto the side of the mountain

"Please," comes a whispered voice

I turn toward the creature on the altar, forcing ht

"KillWith pain

"I cah that only he can hear "But I didn’t knoould be a person Maybe I could take you away froh that it startles one My life, my friends I lived for the blink of an eye But I’ve been dying for a very long tiht His sanity I don’t know that I would fare so well

I lean toward his ear and whisper, "If you want me to kill you, I will But I’ for peace Invierne will never need a living sacrifice again"