Scarlet From Gold (Book 3) (35 page)

“I would like for you to do that again for me, this afternoon,” Marco explained.

Abrianna raised an eyebrow.  “Really?” she asked skeptically.

“There’s someplace I want to go, and I want to look like a woman to go there,” he answered sketchily.

She looked him up and down.  “Annie,” she spoke to the seamstress who had resumed her seat by the window, “here’s a project for you.  Take young Marco here and dress him up in a nice dress, nothing too flirty, and then come get me.  I’m going back to the front of the shop.

“We’ll have you taken care of in a jiffy,” she smiled at Marco, then left him standing with Annie the seamstress coming over to examine him.

Annie addressed the unusual request as though it were something she dealt with every day.  “Do you want something for a festival or party, or what kind of setting do you have in mind?” she asked matter-of-factly.

“I want to go to a temple,” Marco answered.

“That changes things,” Annie spoke to herself more than Marco.  She left him to go look at a rack of dresses that hung nearby, then came back with three candidates.

“Try these on,” she commanded.

Marco looked around for a place to change into the dresses, even though he remembered with a sinking feeling the lack of privacy he had endured during the modeling fiasco.

“Come along now, let’s get going,” Annie prompted him.  “I haven’t got all day.”

And so it was that an hour later, Abrianna stood in front of Marco, examining him critically.  She reached over to his neck to adjust the hair of his wig.  “That’s the best we’re going to do.  What do you think, Annie?” she asked the seamstress.

“A very nice-looking young lady,” Annie said with a straight face.  “Very passable.”

Marco took a deep breath.  “Thank you ladies,” he said.  “Now just a couple more things,” he said as he hitched his dress up high and buckled his sword belt on underneath the fabric, then tied a small bag to the belt and let it dangle down around his legs.

The two women looked askance.  “That’s going to be awkward,” Annie said.

“This whole thing is awkward,” Marco answered with a grin.  “Thank you both for your help.  This is the only way I can think of to go where I want to be.”  He left them to walk out to the front of the shop, then walked out through the main door, out into public view.

He stopped to look around.  No one was staring at him, despite how obvious he felt.  He looked down at himself again, unable to believe what he had resorted to, and prayed that it would work.  And then he noticed the shiny golden hand that stuck out from the end of his sleeve, and he shuddered at the sight.  He had only a few coins available, but it would be enough to buy a pair of gloves.

He went down the street to a millinery shop, and stepped inside.  “May I see a pair of gloves?” he asked the sales lady, who had to bring him four pairs to finally find a pair of gloves that would fit his hands, and he made the woman gasp when he pulled his skirt up to retrieve his coins from the small bag he had tied to his sword belt, but he walked out of the shop with gloves on his hands and a story that the sales lady repeated a dozen times the rest of the day.

By early afternoon Marco was on his way to the Temple of Ophiuchus in the Lion City.  The temple was located on the edge of the city, and Marco had never paid attention to it when he had lived in the city, though he knew where it was.  He walked slowly, and when he reached the temple he walked completely around it, examining the few building features he could see, trying to get an idea of the layout of the compound behind the high walls.

He stopped in a small, discreet park and pulled the bag of supplies out of hiding, then began to mix another allotment of the memory-erasing potion he had used so effectively to hide the location of the merfolks’ village.  There was a potential for the same potion to prove beneficial again in the next few hours, he hoped, as he finished mixing the ingredients together and placed the container of the memory-erasure potion back into hiding, then walked around to the main gates of the compound.

He knocked on a door, which silently opened after a few seconds pause and allowed him to enter a small hallway that was open overhead without a ceiling.  It was a long, unadorned chamber between two bare walls, and led to another door, one that stood slightly ajar.

Marco cautiously walked down the aisle, then stopped at the door, and slowly pressed it open, revealing a bare room inside with another door on the opposite wall.

“What’s the matter child, don’t you trust us?” a woman’s voice sounded overhead, and Marco looked up to see a lady wearing a white gown, her hair covered with a white veil, watching out a window on the third floor.  “Go in.  Go into the room and I’ll join you in a moment,” she gestured, to prompt Marco to move along.

Knowing that he was watched, and knowing that he had already set his plan into motion, Marco stepped across the threshold, and in his mind he heard the sound of a gate closing behind him, committing him to going forward with the wildly speculative plan he had developed.

There was a table and a pair of chairs in the room he entered.  The walls were gray, and there were two windows, one at either end of the room, letting in the light of the dying day.  Marco heard the sound of steps overhead, then nothing, and then the other door opened, and the mature woman from the window stepped into the room, carrying a candle.

“Welcome to the Temple of Ophiuchus,” the woman spoke.  “Please have a seat, and tell me why you have come to see us.”

Marco took a deep breath, and told himself to remember to keep his voice as soft as possible.  “I want to live a better life, and I want to feel safe among other women, without men around,” he answered.  “I have heard that you offer a sanctuary here.”

“We are a sanctuary,” the woman agreed.  She appeared to relax.  “We are usually seen as the sanctuary of those who are sick and desperate and frightened.  We do everything we can to cater to those people.  Our Order is known to bring them miraculous cures and answers to prayers.  We love the works we do to heal and comfort those who are sick and injured.

“But you are very astute, or very desperate, or very lucky,” the priestess said, “to think of us as a sanctuary, a safe place, a home for women who do not wish to suffer the indignities of the world.  We would welcome your return to us to begin the process of exploring and considering the suitability of our life,” the woman said.  “It is not for everyone,” she emphasized the word “not”, “but it is suitable, attractive and healthy for many of us.  Perhaps you are one of us,” she said, “or destined to become one of us.”

“May I stay here tonight?” Marco carefully asked, keeping his head lowered.  “I would like to sleep here, some place safe, tonight.”

The woman examined him with a pitying expression.  “We have some empty cells, and I’m sure we can find a space for you tonight,” she said, making Marco smile with satisfaction.

“I’ll have a girl show you to your chambers.  We’ll have dinner tonight soon, and then prayers, and in the morning we can start to discuss your options for the future.  What is your name, my girl?” she asked.

“Marcia,” Marco answered.

The woman stood up.  “Please stay right here, and someone will be in to see you,” she promised, then left Marco alone in the room, pleased at how his plan to infiltrate had progressed.

Minutes later the far door opened, and a young woman, only a few years older than Marco, opened the door.  “I am Penelope, and I’m here to show you to your room for the evening,” she said.

Marco tried to note their passage as she led him on a circuitous path through the temple grounds, but soon lost his way among the various buildings they passed through as they walked silently to a large stone building.

“Your room is on the fourth floor,” Penelope said apologetically as they began to climb the stairs.  “We have many openings there because most folks prefer not to have so many flights to climb if they can avoid them.”

She showed Marco to a plain, square room with a simple bed, a desk, a chair, and a cross on the wall.  “We’ll gather for the evening meal in half an hour, and then chant prayers after that,” the girl explained.  “I’ll be back to lead you to dinner soon.”

“I’m not really hungry,” Marco offered.   He was very hungry, but sought to avoid being around the other women as much as possible for the evening.

“Oh you must come!” Penelope said.  “Everyone goes, because it’s mandatory to go to prayer service afterwards.

“They say,” she lowered her voice almost to a whisper, “that one sister was so sick when she came to prayer that she died!  Isn’t that devoted?” her eyes sparkled with appreciation of the dead sister’s sacrifice.

“Okay,” Marco agreed.  There was no point carrying on an argument he wouldn’t win.  After Penelope left he pulled his sword off and hid it under his mattress, and did the same with his alchemy materials so that he could walk more comfortably.  Shortly afterwards, Penelope returned to lead him to the dining hall.

“What’s this building?” Marco asked several times, trying to learn the layout of the campus behind the walls, and listening to Penelope’s patient answers about the various structures.

“Where does the Lady Laris live?” he asked, shortly before they reached the dining hall.

“It’s over the other direction.  I’ll show you after we finish prayers,” Penelope said, and then they entered the dining hall.

Over a hundred women were seated or standing in line to get their meals when the young pair entered.  “There’s the Lady there,” Penelope pointed.  “Shall we go introduce you?”

“No,” Marco said hastily.  “I’m a little shy.  Let’s just get our meals and eat.”

Penelope dutifully led Marco through the line where they received bowls of hearty soup and chunks of bread, then sat down with a trio of Penelope’s friends.

“What do you do here?” Marco asked Grace after the introductions were made.

“I’m in training to become a healer.  I’m going to go to the enchanted isle next year for training,” she said.

Hope was in a similar position, while Joy intended to remain at the Lion City temple and tend to visitors and patients there.

“Which would you like to do?” Penelope asked Marco.

“I hardly know.  The Isle sounds like a marvelous place.  Has Lady Laris been there?” he asked, looking over at where the Lady sat a table with a half dozen others.

“They say she has.  She met with the high priestess, Lady Iasco, I heard,” Penelope replied.

Marco studied the women with the Laris impostor.  They looked hard and unpleasant to him, and he saw their eyes shifting around, looking at others in the room.

“Are those her friends with her?” he asked.

“Those are brand new sisters who just arrived from the Isle this week.  She’s spent a great deal of time with them since they arrived,” Hope said.  “I think there are some hurt feelings at the way she’s stopped talking to everyone else, and the way she gives all her orders through those new sisters.”

Marco avoided making eye contact with anyone at the leader’s table after that, and quietly followed Penelope and her friends to the chapel after the meal.  When all the other women were in the chamber, the singing began, a series of songs – some were familiar to Marco, but most were not.

“You’ve got such a deep voice,” Grace told Marco when he did sing along with one of the songs he was familiar with.  He kept his voice as quiet as possible after that.

“Let’s get you back to your room via the scenic route,” Penelope said an hour later, after the last notes of the song exultations to the Lord were finished.

“This is the Lady’s residence,” Penelope pointed out as they came around a corner and passed by a small brick building.  It was small only in comparison to the large institutional structures that comprised the rest of the compound; by itself, the building would have been a large home in the city, larger than Master Algornia’s shop and home.

They continued on their way, and reached the building where Marco was expected to stay.

“I’ll see you in the morning; do you need a guide to breakfast?” Penelope asked.

“No, I’ll find my way,” Marco assured her, then he ran up the stairs as quickly as he could manage while wearing the dress, and hastily entered his temporary lodging, then shut the door behind him.  Marco felt under his mattress in the darkness of his room that had no lantern or candle, and when satisfied that his belongings were still in place he sat down at the head of the mattress, leaned against the wall and shut his eyes.  He felt able to relax at last, no longer worried about someone who suspected his secret.

He didn’t dare take the wig or dress off for the evening, because he didn’t think he could put them back on correctly by himself, so he sat upright and dozed, thinking about the dangers that awaited him in the morning.

His eyes were closed, and he rested, until he heard a soft knock at the door, and it swung open, allowing Penelope to enter, carrying a small candle.  “There’s something I have to tell you Marco,” she whispered, as she closed the door behind herself.  “I’m not who I seem.  I’m here on a secret mission, sent by the Lady Iasco to spy on the Lady Laris.

“I’m not even using my own real name; my name is Ellersbine,” she told him making his head spin is astonishment.

Marco awoke from his sleepy state, and realized that he had been dreaming.  It was dark in the room and it was dark outside, so that there was no telling what time it was.  His neck felt stiff from letting his head lean against the wall, and he stretched and rolled his head around for a few moments, then closed his eyes and fell back into the same light drowse.

He had several dreams that night before he opened his eyes and saw that the sun was rising in the east.  The sunrise marked the start of a new day, one that he expected was going to be tumultuous, and one that he hoped would prove successful.  Marco had felt disturbed when the Lady Iasco had named him to act as a virtual ambassador to the Lion City and Nappanee; it was not anything he had any experience with, but he was willing to try anything if the Lady asked, and she had asked.