A Tribute of Fire (The Eye of the Goddess, #1)

by Sariah Wilson

I had been training with Demaratus for the last year in preparation for the selection that would take place in two days’ time. The Seven Sisters constellation had appeared in the sky a week ago, letting us know that the time had arrived.

“You race with armor now so that when it matters, you will be accustomed to a heavier load and you will be faster when you run without it. And it strengthens you to train with it on. A warrior who sweats more in training bleeds less in war.”

we respect the sacrifice that you are going to make for Locris. One for many.”

Stories of the greatness and power of the earth goddess, how she had blessed our lands for millennia, before everything was destroyed by the actions of one man. My ancestor.

“You will be the one to carry this legacy forward. You will keep the word. Someone in Locris must remember the old ways, how we worshipped the goddess, and find a way to regain her favor to restore our lands. Your older sister will marry and leave. Your brother will be beholden to the law and his people. But you? You will have a choice about your life’s path. And you should choose to remember what was and what might be.”

“You must always remember that all the answers you need are in the written word,” she continued. “In scrolls, in poems, in songs, in books. Find the right words and you will have your answer.” She had turned out to be right. A single line in the book had caught my attention and changed the entire course of my life. Only the eye of the goddess can restore Locris.

No woman of Locris ever cut her hair.

My actual name, Euthalia, was never used. I had hated it since I was a small child and had insisted on my nicknames. Princess Thalia for more formal occasions, Lia for my friends and family.

“It’s easier for women to believe in magic because we have the ability to make life and carry it inside us. We’re already magic. And it is a magic no man will ever understand.”

And as soon as I saw his face, my heart whispered, Oh, there you are. I’ve been waiting for you.

Furious, the goddess commanded the earth to open, and it swallowed Ajax whole in front of his fellow soldiers, burying him while still alive. The goddess then sent foul winds and thunderstorms to ensure that the Achaeans would take years to travel home as retribution for turning their faces away from what had happened in her temple.”

This belief that women were special enough to be pleasing to the goddess, but that we were ultimately easy to discard and unimportant. Strong enough to be slaughtered but not important enough to fight for.

Instead, shove a tribute of fire and steel down their throats!”

Courage can only exist in the same space that fear does.”

Please help me find a way to keep her safe.” He was silent for a long time. “I wish that I could. But I’m only one person.” “It only takes one person to change the world, one person to save a life,”

Three women stood in the middle of the room. They were dressed in green tunics, all different shades. The one in the center wore a veil that covered her entire face. The woman to her left looked to be only a few years older than me, while the one on her right was elderly, her silver hair in a long braid over her right shoulder. The veiled priestess repeated her words. “Your kind are not welcome in the sacred place. You need to leave.”

I would find the eye of the goddess, rebuild my nation, save my sister, and then I would come back here and burn this entire city to the ground.

“Why would you share that kind of confidence with me?” She tilted her head and looked at me as if I’d just asked a foolish question. “Because now you are my sister. And we have been waiting for you.”

In Locris basic education was given to all women, regardless of rank. Although I probably shouldn’t have been surprised that a city that hunted women for sport wouldn’t worry too much about whether girls could read.

“There’s a reason that gardening is my favorite thing. Putting your hands in newly dug earth? Coaxing life to grow from nothing but soil, water, and sun? There’s something so healing about that. It can mend hearts and souls. It helps you to realize that even a desolate land can be healed and made green again.”

I had honestly believed that once I reached the temple of the goddess, I would be safe. That it would be a sanctuary. I had never once considered the danger that waited here for me.

Why keep acolytes out unless there was something important, valuable, on the statue?

Sometimes you have to brush away the parts of your life that no longer serve you so that you can move forward.”

I needed to get a handle on my emotions, to pay attention to what was happening now, to behave with honor and follow the law—but with one marked difference. The battle to save Locris wasn’t over, so I couldn’t leave the battlefield or my fellow soldiers behind.

“The important thing to remember is that you must turn your will over to the goddess. Let her decide and take comfort in her wisdom.”

The only other path I saw was to be selected a Chosen, to become someone the high priestess trusted. A person who would have access to her office and possibly her keys. The eye was somewhere in this complex, or there had to be information about how to find it. But to become one of the Chosen would mean excelling in both training and my studies. Something that would take time. The problem was that it felt like I was trapped inside a giant hourglass and time was slipping away from me far too quickly.

“In the stories, the beasts that must be vanquished are always female. Have you ever wondered why? It is because men have always feared women’s destructive potential. Knowledge gives us power. Your power is a threat. Especially the women in this room.”

Would he respect the vows that I had taken? Or would he insist that the signed, contracted betrothal that predated my entering the temple took precedence?

“Is it my fault that you’re so fascinating that I have to understand everything about you?”

I had started out this morning thinking that I was completely alone. It was such a relief to discover that my sisters were ready and willing to stand by my side.

There were no written histories here in the temple that would contradict whatever Theano decided was doctrine. No religious texts that would say she was wrong. With a bitter taste in my mouth, I realized that she could make up any rule she wanted and there wouldn’t be any way to countermand her. She was the one the priestesses prayed to. The one treated like some living incarnation of the goddess. I couldn’t imagine that she would want there to be anything out there that could undermine her authority.

I’d been learning that—instead of relying solely on myself, I’d needed my sisters to help me succeed. That didn’t make me weak or incapable. It just meant that we were stronger together.

“Well, I think you all take it for granted but it’s special. Although to be fair, someone told me recently that I see ordinary things and mistake them for magic.”

It’s like we’re two flames, drawn to each other, meant to burn brightly together.” “That also means we can destroy one another.” “Yes, but it would not be a bad way to die,”