“And when you locate the perpetrator, what then?” The sacred flame had no temple. Returning to Draco wasn’t an option because the old temple had been de-consecrated and burned. The defilement was the worst possible act anyone could have committed, tantamount to an attempt to extinguish the Eternal Fyre, which struck at every Draconian.
“He will be executed,” T’mar said. “The penalty for attempting to douse the Eternal Fyre is death.”
“Bring the perpetrator to me.” She would look the defiler in the eye before she torched him. “If you find other humans, you may deal with them. This one, I wish to deal with personally.”
“Yes, priestess. I love my mate, but I do not love her people.” T’mar’s golden eyes burned with fury. “They have double-crossed us on multiple occasions and cannot be trusted. The desecration is a personal act of aggression against Draco and a violation of the recent treaty. The king will be furious. He will retaliate.”
T’mar was correct. The mercurial, fiery king would obliterate the problem once and for all. He would not be wrong to do so, and, although repulsed and enraged by the temple defilement herself, she couldn’t allow her daughters’ home world, H’ry’s planet—to which he would soon return—to be decimated. “Relay to K’rah, he may seek whatever political redress he desires, but it is the wish of the priestess that Earth be spared destruction.”
“I will,” he replied. “And I promise a new temple will be erected with the greatest haste.”
She expected nothing less. “After you get the information you need, burn this…site,” she ordered. It was no longer a temple, but a cesspool of human urine and malice. Torching was the only way to purify the ground.
“It will be done. In the meantime, I will arrange shelter for you.”
She nodded, picked up her hair to keep it from catching on the rocks, and strode toward her distraught acolytes. An odorous cloud of dismay and trepidation hovered over them. They had been dealt a terrible blow. Certainty and safety had been ripped away, and they would look to her for guidance. She wished she had some to give.
Chapter Thirteen
Henry crawled through the pool with smooth, steady strokes, appreciating the buoyancy of water yet weighted by concern.
Something significant, possibly catastrophic, had gone down since his arrival two days ago. J’leen had told him he would be treated well within the palace environs, but when he ventured out beyond his wing, he could almost smell the animosity. The dragons he encountered seemed to exude a bitter, caustic odor as soon as they spotted him.
Whereas she’d once been amenable to the idea of a tour of Elementa, J’leen had nixed the idea when he’d requested one.
Nor had he heard anything from Helena. Knowing she was busy, he’d avoided bothering her, but he needed to find out when he could return home. He’d begun to feel like a cross between a prisoner and a pariah. Fortunately, he did have the swimming pool. He would have gone stir-crazy if not for the outlet.
He touched the pool wall, noting the smoothness of the polished jewels, flipped, and swam for the opposite end. As he lifted his head to take a breath, he spotted Helena standing on the pool’s edge.
Finally!
He stood and waded toward her. “Hey! I hope you have good news for me.” He forced a cheery tone. He didn’t want to be an annoyance, a burden. As princess, she had bigger priorities than him. It was unreasonable to expect her to drop everything to deal with his request.
“That’s what I came to talk to you about,” she said with an odd catch in her voice.
Crap.
“There’s been a delay, hasn’t there?” He hopped out of the pool and snagged his towel from the lounger. He patted his face, swiped his chest, and then wound the towel around his waist.
“An incident occurred at the temple.”
His pulse skyrocketed. “O’ne! Is she all right? What happened?”
“She’s fine. Everyone is fine, but somebody defiled the temple.”
“Defiled it how?”
“By urinating in the sanctuary. A human.”
“I can see where they would find that offensive.”
“It’s more than offensive. They can’t occupy the temple now. A new one has to be constructed.”
“Can’t they clean it?”
Helena shook her head. “No. Nothing is more sacred than the Eternal Fyre. The space around it must be pure. For someone to urinate in the sanctuary is to defile the entire temple and the ground beneath it. The structure has been burned, and the ground scorched.”
He exhaled. “The priestess must be very upset.”
“She is. So is T’mar, King K’rah, everyone who came to Elementa, and all of those still on Draco. The Eternal Fyre isn’t a religious symbol, it is the physical collective of the fyres. The sacred flame is literally their life. If something were to happen to it, all the dragons would die.”
“And one lone priestess protects it?” More than ever, Henry was astounded. O’ne had said as much, but he hadn’t understood the significance. Or the reasoning. Draco had an indomitable military. “Shouldn’t there have been an army assigned to it?”
“The priestess is no ordinary dragoness. The Eternal Fyre transformed her, elevated her. She employs and radiates immense power. We humans can’t see it or feel it, but they do. That’s why they fear her, even the king.
He chuckled nervously. “You make her sound godlike.”
“That’s not wrong,” Helena said.
“Whoa. Wait a minute. You’re kidding, right? She’s not really a god.”
She shrugged. “Depends on the definition. She is a supernatural being. Her powers can’t be explained by nature or science.”
And he’d kissed her. Held her. Talked with her like she was a…a woman, a date. What had he been to
