Desert Rising (29 page)

“Well, I'll be glad when the Festival is over,” Sulis declared. “We'll be taken and no longer the ones everyone stares at and whispers about.”

Alannah laughed. “Sulis, I don't think you'll ever fit into a crowd. No matter which deity takes you, I have a feeling you'll have a very interesting and public ser­vice.”

“One forbid!” Sulis said with mock horror. She stood and stretched. “Let's go see what leftovers the cook is serving us pledges since the good stuff is being sent out to the acolytes at the tents.”

 

Chapter 19

I
T WAS THIRD
day of the Festival, and the pledges stared at one another over the breakfast table, barely able to make chitchat.

“I just know something's going to happen to stop us,” Lasha moaned, pushing her oatcakes around on her plate.

“We've gone over this a dozen times,” Dani said softly. “We each have the herbs we need. Put them in your flask before dinner, then mix them with water at your meal. We'll retire to Parasu's courtyard until dusk. Then we'll go to the Temple of the One and begin. There shouldn't be any trouble.”

“At least not until after everything is done,” Jonas said with a weak smile.

Sulis thought over the plan as she finished breakfast and took a book of scriptures to the courtyard to pretend to study. They'd chosen Parasu's courtyard because Jonas knew that the elderly acolyte who was in charge of the shrine while the others were away wouldn't make a fuss if they wanted to worship in the Temple of the One. The only challenge in their plan was trying to keep Joaquil from tagging along, but the girl had made herself scarce this week. Lasha had sworn she saw her entering Voras's shrine with the Templar, and Sulis noticed that Joaquil had a smug expression on her face at bedtime. Sulis wished her luck but worried that the Templar would be too busy with the ceremony to play his bed games with Joaquil today.

Beside her, she heard Lasha muttering under her breath the order they'd agreed to go in. “Tori first, Jonas, Shane, me, Sandy, Sulis, Luella, Dani, Alannah.” Lasha looked at Alannah. “You still haven't told me which deity you plan on supplicating yourself for,” she said in annoyance.

Alannah looked around. The day was cloudy and slightly chilly, so they were the only ones in Ivanha's courtyard. “I will ask the One to take me,” she said quietly.

“Alannah!” Lasha burst out in protest.

“I know—­I doubt she'll take me. I may have to wait many seasons before I'm worthy. That's why I agreed to go last. I can help all of you, then make my own plea.”

Sulis thought it sounded sensible, but Lasha still looked scandalized. Alannah shook her head when Lasha opened her mouth to protest again, and Lasha looked at her book of scriptures instead.

Later in the day, they unearthed their pouches of herbs from their clothing trunks and funneled them into their water flasks, before leaving their dormitory for what might be the last time. They met the others already seated in the dining room between Aryn and Parasu. The dining hall was deserted except for the pledges because most of the acolytes had already gone to enjoy the food of the Festival before the Great Convocation. The pledges were stuck with the leftovers from midmeal, but no one besides Dani could eat more than a few bites. Sulis measured a cup of water out of the jug on the table.

“Bottoms up,” she said, filling her flask.

Jonas grinned at her and followed suit. She grinned back, then looked around the table at her fellow conspirators, excitement beginning to replace nervousness.

“Shall we retire to the courtyard?” she asked Dani, and he gallantly reached out a hand to help her from the bench. She giggled as he held out his arm like a gentleman, and they traipsed to Parasu's courtyard, the others following. They settled on the benches, making idle conversation. Dusk wasn't long in coming, and they were soon on their feet again.

The elderly acolyte tending Parasu's shrine gazed nearsightedly at them as they came through the courtyard door.

“Now where are you youngsters off to this time of night?” he asked.

Jonas stepped forward and showed the scholar his prayer book. “Since we aren't permitted to attend the Great Convocation, we decided we should honor the One in his Temple by reading the scriptures there, Scholar Ranly,” he said smoothly.

The man's face lighted up. “Indeed, a lovely thought. It is a shame, a crying shame you can't go to the Festival. Well, there will be other Festivals for you, and honoring the One in the midst of this crisis is truly an excellent gesture.”

The man seemed so touched that Sulis almost felt bad for lying as they filed past him into the hallway.

When they entered the Temple of the One, Dani quickly took charge. “Luella, stand guard in front of this door, close enough to hear footsteps but not close enough to be seen by someone in the hallway. I'll guard the other entrance. The rest of you, form a semicircle and try to block the altar from an outsider's view.”

They arranged themselves to his satisfaction, holding their prayer books as though they were reciting from them.

Dani nodded in satisfaction. “Tori, get them started,” he said.

Tori didn't need much urging. She was already kneeling in front of the One's altar, her
feli
beside her. Sulis watched from beside Dani at the doorway as Tori drank her flask down in two gulps. Tori called out Parasu's name and recited the spell:

I am a flicker of soul

Uncalled, unchained

The wind blows me

The fire burns me

The water cools me

The earth grounds me

Into your hands I give myself for eternity

Fill this empty vessel and make it yours.

Sulis held her breath during the recitation. Tori's words were barely audible from where Sulis stood, and even then only because Sulis knew the words. At first nothing seemed to happen, but then Tori turned her face up to the dome of the Temple. Her ecstatic expression was lighted by the candles on the candelabra. She gave a small cry of fulfillment as her cloak flashed a brilliant blue. The color died to a more somber tone, and Tori staggered to her feet. Alannah helped her over to the wall, and she collapsed against it, smiling and hugging her
feli
.

Sulis felt a surge of triumph and saw it mirrored on Dani's huge grin. It had worked. It had actually worked.

K
ADAR BURST OUT
laughing, doubling over as he leaned against the vendor's cart. Ashraf and the vendor stared at him oddly.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “Just remembered the punch line of a joke.”

The man's eyebrows drew together. “Must have been a funny one. Haven't heard a shout like that in ages.”

Ashraf drew him away from the cart. “What the hell was that?” he asked urgently.

Kadar shook his head to clear it. “I'd say things are going very well for Sulis right now,” he said.

“But did you have to tell the whole city?” Ashraf asked.

“Sorry, wasn't expecting it. Laugh loudly, like I just told you the joke,” Kadar said.

Ashraf gave a great belly laugh, and the ­people watching them shook their heads and turned away from the youngsters having fun. They'd told the merchants along the main southern road that they were meeting some girls. It seemed to be a rather common meeting place among the city's youth.

“So, should we leave?” Ashraf asked after a moment.

“No, not until she's taken,” Kadar said stubbornly, wanting to be at least this close to his twin when her new ser­vice began. “Uncle Aaron's back from the far north to help out during the Festival, so Uncle Tarik won't miss us if we stay a little longer.”

They leaned against the wall and continued to wait.

T
HE
T
EMPLAR KIS
SED
Joaquil one last time, then permitted her to get up and get dressed. Her face was blank. She had excellent mental control, but a woman in climax had a mind easily captured, and she trusted him. She would remember seeing Kadar, the desert womans's twin, and getting a message from him. She would search until she found Sulis and delivered that message. Only if something went wrong would she know to go to the south entrance, where he would be waiting by the alley with a soldier he trusted.

He waited until Joaquil left, then slipped on his robes and bid his
feli
to stay at the Voras's altar. He put a long cloak over his outfit, hiding the colors, and walked out the south entrance into the dusk. His man met him by the street leading to the first-­circle homes, and they stepped back into the shadows to wait for Sulis to arrive.

“
I
SN'T THAT T
HE
Templar?” Kadar heard one merchant ask another. “Why isn't he at the Great Convocation?”

Kadar looked across the path to where the tall man had stopped after exiting the Temple. A second man had joined him, and they shrank back into the shadows as though waiting for someone.

“Not for the likes of us to ask,” the other merchant answered the first. “I think it's time to be packing for home.”

Kadar put a hand on his sword, uneasy about this development, and Ashraf tapped him on the shoulder.

“Easy there, old boy. He might just be waiting for another soldier before they head to the Festival grounds.”

“The Festival grounds are to the north of the Temple,” Kadar said between gritted teeth.

“Just relax. They can't make a move without us seeing it first,” Ashraf counseled.

J
OAQUIL WAS PUZZ
LED.
She'd looked for the other pledges in the dormitory, where she thought they'd be. They weren't there or in the courtyard. She thought about giving up on Sulis; after all, it was no skin off her nose if Sulis missed her brother. But she had promised Kadar. And he had promised her something in return. She hesitated; she couldn't remember what. But it really didn't matter—­any promise from the handsome desert man was worth the time spent looking.

She checked Voras's courtyard, then Aryn's. Not a single pledge was in sight. She supposed she would have to go ask the men where Sulis had gotten to though they weren't supposed to enter the men's dormitory at night. She hesitated, then entered Parasu's shrine.

The scholar glanced up at her as she walked quickly through to get to the courtyard.

“Your pledge mates have already gone to the Temple,” the man said in a kind tone. “You're running late, I'm afraid.”

She stopped. “The Temple of the One?” she asked.

“Of course. Didn't you know? They're honoring the One there since they can't go to the Great Convocation.”

Joaquil thanked him though inwardly she was furious. Once again her pledge mates were doing things together without her. Well, she wouldn't play their little games. She'd deliver her message to Sulis and go back to the dormitories. If they didn't want her, she certainly didn't want to be with them.

She flounced to the Temple of the One and surprised Luella at the door. The horse of a girl seemed actually to be guarding it. She saw Sulis across the way and hurried toward her, ready to deliver her message and go out the other door. But the scene at the altar caused her to stop short. Alannah was there, standing beside Sandy, who was kneeling. As she looked around, she saw the other pledges scattered along the walls, and their cloaks were colored. She gasped in horror. This was sacrilege—­they were holding their own Initiation Ceremony. The Templar had to hear about this.

She ran back to the first door, and Luella grabbed her arm.

“You're stayin' here,” Luella said.

Her need to report to the Templar was so great that she attacked Luella, punching her in the gut, then slamming her palm on the woman's nose. As Luella fell, Joaquil sprinted out the door and ran to the south entrance.

S
ULIS RAN TO
the door.

“It's fine,” she called to Alannah and Sandy, who had stopped and were staring at her in alarm. “She went out the south entrance. It'll take her a while to reach the Festival grounds that way. We've got plenty of time before she brings back the Crone or anyone who can stop us.”

Everything had been going so well. All of Parasu's pledges had been taken. They were slumped against the walls, where Alannah had escorted them. Lasha had been taken by Aryn, as she wanted. Before Joaquil had burst in, Sulis had been reciting the spell to herself to make certain she remembered all the words as Sandy knelt before the altar.

Sulis turned away as Dani helped Luella up.

“Taught her that one myself,” he said apologetically, as Luella wiped blood from her nose, wincing.

“I didn't think the snip'd attack me,” Luella admitted, taking a handkerchief Sulis gave her. “Should have been more alert.”

They heard a commotion at the south entrance, then a man's voice calling out. It sounded like the Templar. Sulis looked at Dani in alarm. A
feli
flashed by the Temple entrance, and they took fighting positions as they heard footsteps approaching the entrance from the south. Sulis unsheathed her dagger, and the other two drew their swords.

K
ADAR WATCHED AS
a pretty blonde in gray robes sprinted out of the Temple. The Templar stepped out to greet the girl and held a brief, low conversation with her. The man suddenly cursed and sprinted toward the Temple gate, his soldier following. They heard the sound of swords being drawn and the Templar calling out orders as he ran.

Kadar drew his sword at the same time as Ashraf, and they sprinted after the two men. When they reached the entrance, they found it guarded by the soldier who had been waiting for the Templar. The man had his sword drawn, and Kadar closed in on him, quickly exchanging the first sword blows.

S
ULIS STEPPED OUT
into the hallway with Dani and Luella to meet the Templar. His
feli
was with him, and he looked at their drawn swords with distaste.

“You would dare go against Voras?” he asked, staring at Dani.

The tip of Dani's sword wavered. Then he lowered it, placing it at the Templar's feet in supplication. Sulis and Luella backed to the doorway as Dani knelt at the Templar's feet, gaining time for the others. The Templar looked over at Sulis, and there was something inhuman about his eyes.