Souls of Aredyrah 2 - The Search for the Unnamed One (11 page)

Whyn headed out of the cell and into the
corridor. Mahon and his men waited a short distance away, their
soot-covered faces illuminated by the flickering torches held in
their hands. Whyn handed off his torch and ordered them to follow.
He then turned to Mahon. “Have the room sealed.”

“The body?” Mahon asked.

“Leave it,” Whyn said.

Whyn exited the catacombs and hustled up the
steps leading to the grand portico of the temple. As a child that
porch had terrified him. The tall black cressets had reminded him
of leggy spiders, and the pillars that lined the top step had
seemed like towering sentinels. As his eyes moved from one column
to the next, he felt as though his former enemies had become his
friends. It gave him comfort, even though he knew he would soon be
facing the Priestess with terrible news.

He shoved open the doors and entered through
them, hating the fact that he was entering the sacred place with
dirt upon his feet and the stench of smoke in his clothes. But he
could risk no delay. The Priestess surely knew something of what
had transpired in the catacombs, and with a valuable source of
knowledge now lost to her, she would be contemplating further
instruction for him.

He headed straight to the Room of
Transcension. Although he had not been instructed to go there, he
knew that was where the Priestess would be. An event of this
magnitude would warrant consultation with the Goddess, and this was
the one place where that communion could occur. He pushed open the
double doors that led into the room. They were covered with gold
and inlayed with depictions of Tearian history. The last time his
eyes had moved over those images was when he had been summoned to
the hearing concerning Reiv and the two Jecta thieves. It was
during that time that the Priestess had communed with Agneis,
goddess of purity and supreme deity of Tearia. And it was during
that time that Reiv and his two friends had been sentenced to fade
away in Pobu.

Whyn entered the room, not surprised to see
the Priestess sitting on her chair atop a tiered platform. She was
lined on either side by rows of towering statues, each a marble
replication of a god or goddess. At her back loomed the grandest
figure of all, that of Agneis, pale and beautiful. Whyn approached
the platform and stopped before the Priestess. He bowed from the
waist, keeping his head low. “Priestess, I come with news of the
fire.”

“Rise. Tell me,” she said. Her crystalline
eyes were as cold as the tone of her voice.

“Tenzy is dead and all contents of the cell
destroyed with her. I inspected it myself. Nothing survived. I
ordered it sealed.”

Whyn felt the ground rumble beneath his feet
as the Priestess rose from her chair. “Destroyed?” she shouted. Her
eyes grew dark, and a cold wind swept through the room, causing the
torches along the walls to flicker.

Whyn clenched his hands at his side. “The
witch must have set the fire herself,” he said. “Perhaps she
discovered something within the pages of the tome. I fear there is
no more evidence of it.”

The Priestess stood in a whirlwind of fury.
Whyn waited, tense and silent, for the sting of her anger to reach
him, but it did not. The wind died as suddenly as it had appeared,
and the Priestess was left staring at him, smiling.

Whyn worked to steady his pounding heart.
Perhaps the Priestess had communed with Agneis who had given her
comfort. Or perhaps her plan was so grand that even Tenzy’s
despicable act could not thwart it.

The Priestess sat back down on her chair and
draped her hands upon its scrolled arms. “Fire can be friend or
bitter enemy. Perhaps in this case it was our friend. The tome was
confiscated but days ago from a Jecta, a potter found making his
way back to Pobu from the hills. He was questioned of course. The
wretch claimed to have found it in a cave while searching for clay.
Evidence points to the truth of it, but we learned little else from
him. Unfortunately, the interrogators were overzealous in their
methods.”

“How is the tome’s destruction a blessing,
Priestess?”

“It is unlikely the potter knew its contents,
though why he would risk being caught with it is a mystery.
However, if it contained any evidence of the Prophecy, that
evidence is now gone. I do not care what the Prophecy says, for I
know it to be a lie, but had the information fallen into Jecta
hands, it could have been used against us. It is unlikely anyone
among them could have interpreted it, but even so, it was the gods
who willed us to find it. How else could one explain how easily it
fell into our hands? With all Jecta documents now destroyed in the
fire, and plans for the Purge underway, there will soon be no more
threat to Tearia.”

“Orders are in place for increasing our spies
in Pobu. The Guard is preparing for it as we speak.”

“You have spoken with Mahon, then?”

“Yes. He will do his duty.”

“He had no qualms regarding the issue of
Reiv?”

“His only concern was for me.”

The Priestess raised an eyebrow. “What of his
wife? I understand Brina has remained loyal to Reiv. What duty does
Mahon have toward her?”

“He has agreed to keep a closer watch on her.
I do not think we will have much to worry about in her regard. I
have spoken to her myself. She swears allegiance to me, though she
does not know of the plan to dispose of Reiv.”

“Can she be trusted? It would not do well to
have a member of your own family working against you.”

“I expressed great concern for my brother’s
well-being. She seemed convinced of my sincerity. When I asked of
his whereabouts, she told me she had learned he was working as a
weaver. I received word through an informant that Reiv is a Shell
Seeker now, but Brina found the idea amusing.”

“Amusing?”

“Reiv never cared for water so deep he could
not see his feet. In childhood he was doubly fearful of anything
that slithered.” Whyn laughed. “I doubt he would enter a place
crawling with sea snakes. More than likely he is a weaver as Brina
said.”

“Do you have spies in Meirla to be sure of
that?”

“Few. The Shell Seeker village is more remote
and tightly grouped. It would be difficult for a new member to
blend in this late, but Mahon is attempting infiltration, as well
as utilizing any spies in Pobu who may be in touch with the Shell
Seekers. I am sure it will not take long to learn of Reiv’s
whereabouts.”

The Priestess’s eyes narrowed. “Perhaps. But
just in case, I have another way of reaching him if he is in
Meirla.”

“Another way?”

“I have an ally in the sea. A terrible ally.
If Reiv does prove to be a Shell Seeker, she will find him and take
care of him. Of course, if this happens, we will be forced to
question Brina’s allegiance.”

“If Brina proves to be a traitor, what would
you have me do? Mahon would never allow harm to come to his
wife.”

“Of course he wouldn’t. That is why Crymm
would find himself receiving his first directive from his new
King.” The Priestess smiled cruelly. “Never fear. We will find the
Unnamed One. And you are right. It will not take long.

BACK TO ToC

Chapter 12: Stone Secrets

D
ayn lay atop
Nannaven’s roof, attempting to get some sleep. The moon and stars
were annoyingly bright, but that wasn’t what had him tossing and
turning on his bedroll. He had been sick three times that day,
though today wasn’t the first time the mysterious illness had
visited him; it had happened several times during the past month or
so, and he could no longer blame it on something he ate. Each time
it had felt the same: the earth would waver beneath his feet,
sending nausea to his gut and flashes to his brain. The first time
it happened had been the day of the Summer Fires Festival, and
Alicine had commented that his face looked noticeably green.
Another time he, Alicine, and Reiv had been confined to Guard
Headquarters. Dayn usually did a good job of hiding the sickness
when it descended upon him, but he had vomited noisily into the
straw that day, and there had been nowhere to run. As he recalled
the retching incident, he smiled at how Reiv had backed away for
fear of contamination. But Dayn’s amusement evaporated when he
realized that he might in fact be harboring some unknown plague.
The spells of sickness were happening more and more frequently now,
and his bodily discomforts were increasing with each
occurrence.

He pitched to his side, trying to push the
fear of an agonizing death from his mind. There were plenty of
other things to worry about, the argument he’d had with Reiv that
morning for one. Dayn turned his eyes to Alicine’s shadowy form
across the way. It was a wonder she could sleep at all, especially
since her relationship with Reiv had once again taken a twist and a
turn. Dayn sighed and rolled onto his back, cradling his head in
his hands as he gazed at the sky. He wouldn’t solve any problems
tonight—the issues would still be there in the morning—and at the
rate things were going, there would probably be a few new ones as
well. He focused his eyes on the stars. Maybe if he counted them he
could bore himself to sleep.

A muffled rap at the front door below alerted
him, and he sat up. The sound of Nannaven’s barely audible voice
could be heard, then the slow, loud creak of an opening door. Dayn
cocked his head, straining to hear whatever conversation might
drift his way. For a moment he thought to abandon his attempt at
eavesdropping. The last time he had listened in on a private
conversation, he had learned more than he really wanted to know.
But he eased toward the trap door anyway and bent his ear to
listen.

He glanced over at Alicine. She, too, was up
and wide awake. Dayn raised a finger to his lips, then motioned her
over. She crept in his direction and knelt beside him.

Leaning over the hole in the roof, they moved
their gaze beyond the ladder to the candlelit room below.

“What’s going on?” Alicine whispered.

“Someone’s here.” Dayn replied.

They paused and listened. The door could be
heard closing, then the voice of a young woman wafted up. Dayn
leaned in closer. Other than the words “tenzy” and “fire,” he could
make out little else.

He glanced at Alicine. “What’s a tenzy, do
you know?”

Alicine shook her head.

A shadow swept the floor beneath them as
Nannaven and a woman Dayn had never seen before passed into the
kitchen area. The woman was leading Nannaven by the arm, no doubt
to offer her some comfort. The women talked softly for a time,
little of it decipherable, until at last the stranger departed,
leaving Nannaven alone and crying.

“I’m going down,” Dayn said, moving to
descend the ladder.

“Maybe we should leave her be,” Alicine said.
“It’s her private business.”

Dayn paused on the top rung. “What if it’s
about Reiv?” he said.

Alicine nodded. “I’m coming, too.”

When the two of them reached the bottom,
Nannaven was sitting at the table, staring across the room. Her
red-rimmed eyes barely registered their sudden appearance.

Dayn stepped hesitantly toward her.
“Nannaven?”

Her gaze flickered. “Oh, children…did I wake
you?” She forced a smile and rose from the bench. “I was about to
make a bit of tea.” She hobbled to the nearby counter and fumbled
for a crock.

Dayn moved beside her. “Who was that woman
that was here just now?” he asked.

Nannaven glanced away. “That was Mya. A
friend. She came bearing bad news, I’m afraid.”

“It wasn’t about Reiv, was it?” Alicine
asked.

“No…no. It was about someone else. My
sister.” Nannaven wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, then
proceeded to scoop some tea from the crock and into a kettle.

Dayn noticed how badly her hands were
shaking. “I’ll make it,” he said. “You sit.” He took the kettle
from her and set it on the counter, then escorted her back to the
table.

Nannaven sat, while Alicine settled next to
her on the bench.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Alicine
asked.

Nannaven hesitated, then said, “My sister
Tenzy…I recently learned she was imprisoned in the catacombs
beneath the temple.” She shook her head. “Such a terrible place.
Once it was only for the dead. Now it is where prisoners are kept.
I had not seen or heard from her in years. Now I know why.”

“Do you know why she was there?” Alicine
asked.

“Yes, I think I know,” Nannaven replied. But
she said nothing more.

Dayn hung the kettle over what was left of
the fire in the hearth and took his place on the bench by the
table. “I heard something about a fire,” he said. “Is that how she
died?”

“Yes,” Nannaven replied. “There was a fire in
her cell.”

Alicine placed her hand on Nannaven’s. “I’m
sorry.”

“It is only through chance that I learned of
her,” Nannaven continued. “Mya’s husband, Eben, was recently
imprisoned there. You may have heard talk of it, though for your
safety I tried to spare you the details. It seems he stumbled
across something of value. I know this only because there were
witnesses to his arrest. I doubt poor Eben knew what he had found.
Unfortunately he did not survive the interrogation. I feel somewhat
to blame.”

“How can you blame yourself for that?” Dayn
asked.

“It was something he was not meant to find,
something I should have made better effort to hide.”

“What was it?” Dayn asked.

“It’s best you don’t know, Dayn,” Nannaven
said. “At any rate, Eben found it and died for it. I suspect it had
something to do with Tenzy. If it were not for word filtering back
from the slaves who put out the fire, I dare say I would never have
learned her fate.”

The kettle whistled and Dayn rose to retrieve
it. He poured them each a mug, but no one seemed interested in
drinking. Nannaven stared into her tea. For a moment Dayn wondered
if she was trying to read the leaves, then he asked, “Is my tea
that bad?”