From Across the Clouded Range (7 page)

Di Valati Alsance smiled. “Ipid, I
think that the Order itself has guided you today. I think this
serves the best interests of Dasen, Tethina, their community, and
the world. That is the very definition of alignment with the Order.
I would be a poor rector if I did not accept your generous offer to
fund our continuing studies, but that will not sway me. Here is
what I will tell you: Tethina must write a letter to me in her own
hand to express her reasons for seeking further understanding of
the matronly side of Order at Liandrin University. I will read it
and consider whether to admit her. If what you tell me of her shows
through in that letter, I can see no issue with her acceptance.
Given the reason for the exception, I can see no reason to keep
Dasen and Tethina from studying here though they are joined.
Normally, I would suggest that they complete their studies prior to
the distraction of partnership, but in this case, I think it is
important that they are bound formally together before Tethina
enters this world.

“
However, your final
request I must deny. Study of the Order, as Dasen can attest,
requires great focus and concentration. It requires emersion. That
is why I require all students to live within the grounds, in simple
rooms without access to servants – excepting, of course, the maids
that ensure the honor of our female students – or their accustomed
luxuries. Luxury and materialism have no place in study, and I am
afraid if I allow two students to skirt these rules, I shall never
be able to enforce them. As such, I will provide Dasen and Tethina
with a small apartment within the university where they can live as
is proper for a couple joined in the Holy Order but without the
luxury or escape of this manor.

“
Finally, I must insist
that as long as they study here, they delay the creation of a
child. Though the creation of children is as integral a part of the
Order as the rising of the sun, it would be too great a distraction
for them and their fellow students. If Tethina should become
pregnant while she is studying here, I shall bless and honor the
child, but I will also insist that she and Dasen leave the
university.”

Ipid nodded to each of the
requirements then smiled, reached across to the rector, and shook
his hand to seal the deal. “Petr, you reputation is well deserved.
I believe you have seen the Order’s will and can find no fault with
your requirements. Dasen will need to miss the remainder of the
term and return with Tethina for the beginning of the winter
session. Is this agreeable?”

Dasen’s mouth opened and closed
several times as his father and Di Valati Alsance spoke. He could
only stand and watch as two old men planned his life. They did not
even acknowledge that he was in the room, much less ask his
opinion. “Doesn’t anyone want to know what I think of this plan?”
he finally yelled. “It is my life you are discussing.”

Ipid glanced up as if he had forgotten
that his son was in the room. When he saw Dasen’s defiance, his
face hardened. He drew himself up. Dasen squared his shoulders for
a stand-off, but it was Di Valati Alsance’s soft voice that cut the
silence. “You are quite right, Dasen. Though it is consistent with
the Order for your father to make these decisions, I will not
accept a student, especially in these circumstances, who does not
agree to our rules. Do you find fault in how your father and I have
read the Order in this matter?”

Dasen had not expected
such a measured response, and it threw him, but only for a moment.
Di Valati Alsance made it sound like he had a choice, but it was no
choice at all. Either way, his father would see him joined to
Tethina. He had come into this willing to pledge his life to the
Church, but without the di valati’s support, the Hall of
Understanding was a fantasy. He could still give himself to the
Order, become a counselor in some village, but what would that gain
him? So he was trapped as surely as a firefly in a jar. The only
path that allowed him to continue his studies was to be joined to a
girl he had not seen in twelve years, a provincial girl who would
weigh on him like a millstone. And even that only bought him two
more years. How much of that would be spent tutoring Tethina,
coddling her, dealing with her inadequacies, preparing her for a
life that she should never have? How much would this hurt his
relationships with his fellow students, who would be out for her
blood and his for that matter? And if she caught a baby? Well, he’d
make sure
that
didn’t happen.

Thinking through it all,
Dasen felt himself wanting to scream.
All
I want to do is study, to understand the Order. Why is that so
hard? Isn’t that the purpose of every life? The highest possible
calling? It’s all a lie!
He ground his
teeth. He would do what he must. A lot could happen in two years.
He’d deal with Tethina but not let her cost him this last
opportunity. She could stay locked in their rooms for all he cared.
This was his father’s idea, he could deal with the damage it would
cause.

Ipid cleared his throat. “So what will
it be, Dasen? Can you deny the Order’s will in this?”

Of course I
can
, Dasen thought.
How can ruining two people’s lives possibly be the Order’s
will?
But he said, “I don’t know why you
bothered to ask. You haven’t left me with any real choice. Might as
well ask a mouse if he wants to be eaten by a cat or an owl. When
do we leave for Randor’s Pass?”

To Dasen’s surprise, Ipid sighed. Was
that sadness in his eyes? “I am sorry, Dasen,” he finally said.
Dasen could not believe or accept it. “I had hoped that this
accommodation would please you. We will leave in the morning and
travel directly to Randor’s Pass. I am sure that by the time we
arrive you will have seen the Order working in this.”

“
Tomorrow?” Dasen replied
in shock. “How am I supposed to be ready by then? I am in the
middle of a significant project. I have had records brought in from
all over Liandria. I can’t just leave them. What is so urgent that
we cannot wait a week?”

“
It will be tomorrow,”
Ipid stated plainly. “I will send Elton to help you prepare your
things. You will sleep here tonight so that we do not have any
confusion in the morning. Now you should be on your way. I hope to
see you for dinner tonight.”

Ipid turned to Di Valati Alsance,
began thanking him for his assistance and apologizing for his son.
Dismissed, Dasen turned toward the door, then a thought struck him.
He turned back to his father. “Rynn will accompany us as my
witness. You can pick my partner, but the Order gives me the right
to a witness of my choosing. The Church accepted that even before
the Reinterpretation. It will be Rynn. I assume you can make the
proper arrangements.”

Dasen turned and strode toward the
door with his father still sputtering behind him. It was a small
revenge – Ipid hated Rynn – but more than that, Dasen felt a small
flicker of hope. If anyone could make the most of a bad situation,
it was Rynn.

Chapter 3

Milne could smell Tethina before she
even strode through the back door of the house and rushed into the
main room. Her unique, somehow metallic, smell, like a copper penny
held too long in a sweaty palm, swept over her. Teth followed,
smeared black with dirt, except where it ran maroon with blood down
her knees, cheek, and along one arm. Fine, auburn hair that barely
reached her long neck was plastered across her forehead. Sweat ran
from her hair down her narrow nose to her thin pink lips then
dripped from her sharp chin. Her best silk shirt was a muddy gray
tatters, soaked with sweat and torn across the front so that the
cloth she had wrapped around her small breast showed through. The
too-short grey pants she wore were torn at the knees and caked with
dirt. A stream of dried blood marked her thin ankles and stained
the top of her soft brown shoes. If not for the beaming smile and
sparkling green eyes, Milne would have thought she had been
attacked.

“
I did it, Milne,” Teth
proclaimed with a whoop. “I beat them, beat them all. Five first
place coins and it should have been seven.” Her heavily tanned,
sinewy arms rose in triumph showing the coins, sparkling silver in
the fading light. She walked with a slight limp, but each stride
was from the toes, quick and easy like a great cat on the prowl.
“The boys are steaming mad. I’m heading into the forest. I’ll let
them cool down for a few days before I show my face again. Is my
pack still up in my room?” Teth swept past with barely a glance at
her smiling aunt. Milne knew that she should not encourage her, but
she couldn’t help it. Teth was everything she had ever wanted to be
at that age. And that was just the problem.

As she hit the stairs,
Teth saw the man sitting in the other chair by the fire. She pulled
up short. “What’s
he
doing here?” she asked without acknowledging the counselor.
“I didn’t break any laws by competing. Even the governor admitted
that there were no rules forbidding women, and if he starts in
about the matronly side of the Order, I won’t even bother getting
my things.”

“
I know we’ve had our
differences, Tethina,” Counselor Torpy said calmly, “but I’m not
here because of anything you’ve done. Your aunt asked me to come.
She has something to tell you. She . . .”

“
That’s enough,
Counselor,” Milne cut in. She had little more love for Counselor
Torpy than Teth. She eyed him. He was only a few years older than
her, but she thought of him as old. A brown robe covered his slight
figure tied with a finely woven belt that he had made himself. The
neck remained open far enough to show the small rising sun pendant
that unnecessarily denoted his position in the village. His
delicate hands were folded in his lap, revealing only a few of the
liver spots that marked them. His head was completely bald; in
fact, he had not a hair on his body: no eyebrows, whiskers, arm or
chest hair, no eyelashes for the Order’s sake. His nose and chin
were both long and sharp so that he looked most like a small,
plucked bird.

Teth took a cautious step
from the stairs and chewed her lip. Her arms formed a barrier
across her chest. Her legs spread, knees slightly bent as if
preparing to wrestle a bear. “What is it, Milne?” she asked, honest
concern entered her voice. “What could be so important that you’d
invite
him
here?”

Milne took a deep breath and looked
toward the counselor. He smiled and nodded, extended a hand and
placed it on hers in reassurance. That gesture increased Teth’s
guard tenfold. Her eyes bounced between them. Her mouth pursed, her
breath quickened noticeably. “I have two things to tell you,” Milne
finally said, “but I’m afraid if I tell you one of them you won’t
stay to hear the other, so I’m not sure where to start.”

“
Just tell me, Milne. Is
it Ipid? Has something happened to him?”

Milne coughed, a deep, racking spasm.
She caught it with a red handkerchief so that no one would see the
blood flecked across it. “Ipid is fine,” she rasped when the spell
had passed, “but he sent a letter.”

Teth’s look of concern over the cough
turned to wariness over the letter. Milne longed to be that young
again, to have the luxury of being obsessed with herself. She held
Ipid’s letter out to Teth. She already knew what it would say, knew
the reaction it was likely to solicit. Teth approached and took it
with a caution typically reserved for vipers. She slowly opened it,
unfolded the paper, took a deep breath, and began reading. Her
first reaction was to snort at Ipid’s overly sentimental greeting.
Then she grew quiet. Milne watched her fingers curl around the
paper, crumpling its edges. Her eyes narrowed, her nostrils flared,
her teeth clenched. The explosion was coming.

And Teth did not disappoint. In a
flash of motion, she transformed the letter to scraps. “I won’t!”
she screamed. “He can’t make me. And to Dasen, of all people, that
sniveling bookworm. He wouldn’t last one day in the forest,
probably doesn’t even remember what a tree is. He’s no better than
some pathetic counselor.” She looked directly at Counselor Torpy as
she said the last, clearly meant the insult for him as well. “I
won’t be joined, and I, by the Order, won’t live in a city. He can
take his money and go to the Maelstrom.”

“
Teth, please,” Milne
tried to interrupt.

“
No, I won’t listen,
Milne. He can’t do this. I won’t let him.”

“
He certainly can,”
Counselor Torpy interrupted. “He controls your paternal custody. It
is within his rights under the Order to find your
match.”

“
I don’t give an Order’s
damn what his rights are! I won’t be joined to some sniveling boy,
who never makes it out of his library. I won’t spend my life
trapped in a stinking city, having tea with a bunch of worthless
stuffed dresses, acting like some vapid, pointless piece of
furniture. By the Order, I won’t be joined at all until I’m good
and ready. And when I am, it will be to someone who has earned the
right.” She advanced on the counselor, and he retreated into his
chair as if seeking to hide in it. Teth’s temper and
unpredictability were renowned. Counselor Torpy had seen and handed
out punishment for the results many times.

“
I’m leaving,” Teth
continued. “I can’t stay here. Send him a letter telling him no.
Tell him if he shows up here with his brat son, they’ll never find
me. None of you will ever see me again.” She turned and ran toward
the stairs. Milne could tell by her shaking hands that she was
barely restraining her emotions.
So she
already knew
, Milne thought.
Deep down, she knew this was coming. That, at
least, will make my task easier
.