The Fire Sisters (Brilliant Darkness 3) (16 page)

“What do you propose we do with them, Sister?” Adar asks. The word
sister
seems to hold more weight when Adar addresses Alev. I cock my head. Could they actually
be
sisters?

“Hmm
… 
Their daughters are here, are they not?” Alev asks. “Keep them all. We will have the girls and gain three new Initiates. The women will work hard to remain near their daughters in the Cloister. It is a compromise, Sisters, but one that benefits all. Grimma, are you willing to take them on?”

“I am.” This woman sounds older, with a gravelly, no-nonsense voice. “For the future of the Cloister.”

There’s a silence as the group—and Adar, I hope—consider Alev’s words. From the more settled murmurs around us, they hear wisdom in them. My heart slows a bit. At least they’re not talking about killing us right now.

“If you remain,” Alev says, her voice coming from a few paces in front of us, “you will become Initiates of the Cloister. The training is strenuous. Total commitment is expected. As for your daughters, we entrust them to the Teachers to raise. The girls do not join the community until they are old enough to become Initiates themselves. But you will see for yourselves that they are healthy and well, valued daughters of the Cloister. You will know they are safe. You, too, will be protected. In time, you may be allowed to join us as Fire Sisters.”

I’m heartened by Alev’s assurances that the children will be cared for, but she only mentioned their
daughters
. What about Thrush and Darel?

“If we suspect you plan to take your daughters by force, or you mean harm to us or to the Cloister, you will be killed,” Golnar says, still from her place somewhere in front of us. “The Sisters do not tolerate disloyalty or betrayal.”

Kai makes a small scoffing noise. I don’t know anyone else heard it.

What Alev proposed is exactly what Peree said might happen, and what I suspected myself. If the Sisters won’t release the children, this is the best possible option for us. We’ll have to find some other way to get the children out of the Cloister. I never said this would be easy or safe.

I answer before courage fails me. “I understand your terms. I will stay.”

Amarina and Kai agree.

“Very well,” Adar says. “Grimma, I offer you three new Initiates. If they don't please you, I give you leave to kill them. Now take them away.”

“You may go,” Grimma says. I assume she’s talking to the guards. “I will take the Initiates from here.”

The hands drop off my arms, and my bonds are severed with a quick slice. I hear ropes being cut on either side of me, then footsteps moving back toward the building, where the rest of the Sisters remain. I’m a little surprised this woman, who sounds of middle years, would dismiss the guards so quickly—for all she knows we’re trained assassins. She must be confident in her ability to defend herself.

“I am Grimma, your trainer. Let me have a look at you, then.” Her steps circle us. She stops behind me, lifting the back of my hair up. “Could do with a good washing, but no vermin.” She comes back around to the front and squeezes my bicep and thigh as if feeling the muscle there, or lack of it. Then she pokes me lightly in the stomach. “Need to build some bulk… and I’m not sure you’ll be much use to us as a fighter with those Sightless eyes.”

Somewhere to my left, Kai snorts. My teeth clench, but I say nothing. I refuse to let her irritate and distract me now, not when we’re so much closer to our goal of rescuing the children.
I think.

Grimma moves on. “Tall, strong, good solid stock. Are you trained with any weapons?”

“No,” Kai says.

My eyebrows knit. Kai’s a hunter; she must be at least passable with a spear and knife. Peree’s been training her with the bow and arrow. And she told us the Sisters themselves trained her to use weapons when she was Gathered.

“Pity,” Grimma says. “We’ll see how you go tomorrow in training.”

Her feet move again, to my other side. Amarina is up for inspection. “A few years on from the others, but young enough yet to be an asset. I see some confidence and strength of will.” She walks in front of us. “What are your names?”

We tell her.

“As Alev said, if you are dedicated—and you don’t do anything foolish—you have the chance to be initiated as Fire Sisters. A great honor. The Sisters are respected and feared across the land.”

By whom?
I wonder. Other than the group that attacked us, and the sick ones, we haven’t seen a soul. Are these women so full of themselves?

“I will train you, supervise your chores, and teach you our ways,” Grimma says. “Until you are initiated, you will be under constant watch. You may not travel about the Cloister without myself or another Sister as escort.” She pauses. “I understand you are here for your daughters, but for your own sakes, do as you’re told. Disobedience and dissent are not tolerated. Do you understand?”

An icy chill shivers through me—disobedience and dissent is all I’ve been doing lately—but I agree.

Grimma claps her hands together. “Fine. I’ll take you by the laundry to get fresh linens, and then on to your quarters. Come along.”

Amarina holds my elbow to guide me, following our trainer’s sturdy steps.

“We take our meals in the great hall,” Grimma says, “where we just were. The kitchens are behind the hall—the long, low building there. The laundry is down the hill ahead of us. You can see it below, in the trees, with the wash buckets and drying lines outside.”

As we walk downhill, I catch the buzzing sound again, behind us and to our right. Curiosity gets the best of me. I hope Grimma doesn’t mind questions.

“What is that sound?” I ask.

“Our jewel wasp enclosure.” Her voice holds an affectionate note. “We tend the wasps there, minding their nests, in order to extract their venom.”

A sick feeling grips me. “Why?”

“Ah, fascinating stuff, really. In nature, the female jewel wasp uses her venom to paralyze beetles. Although the beetle
can
move independently, it won’t. The venom gives control of the beetle’s body to the wasp. It will follow her anywhere.”

Grimma stops her explanation to greet someone, and then goes on.

“When the point of a knife or spear is dipped in a concentrated amount of the venom and applied to particular parts of the neck, it gives us that same power over humans.”

The sting.
That Sister pricked me with
wasp
venom? My mouth curls with disgust as I touch the almost healed puncture wound on my neck.

“What happens to the beetle?” Kai asks.

“It follows the wasp, happily, to her burrow, where she lays an egg inside its body. The larva feeds on the beetle’s flesh, eventually killing it.”

Amarina and I make identical noises of disgust.

“An unpleasant business to be sure," Grimma says, "but the survival of the wasp’s young is secured.”

“At the expense of another life,” I say.

“The life of a beetle is not worthy of concern.”

What about human lives? Do the Sisters feel the same about them?

We reach the bottom of the hill and move into a darker area, as if we’re walking under the branches of trees. The light and shadow within the Cloister are difficult for me to interpret, maybe because of the drifting smoke from the Eternal Flames.

I know we’ve come to the laundry by the fresh scent of lavender flower soap. I reach to find the building. The walls seem to be constructed with rocks, like the library in the old village near Koolkuna. Is the Cloister as old?

“Our homes are there, among the powder trees," Grimma says.

“Powder?” I murmur to Amarina.

“The white trees,” she answers.

Grimma must have overheard. “Powder trees thrive along the coast. In full winter, when they are bare, they look as if they are covered in snow. They are what gave the Shivering Sea its name. Now then, if you look through that gap in the trees, you can see the training grounds. You’ll be spending plenty of time there. The gardens are laid out in levels up the side of the mountain at the north end of the Cloister. The design reduces wind erosion and retains moisture.” She sounds proud of the Sisters’ ingenuity.

She leads us inside the cool confines of the laundry, loading us up with a set of clothes and bed linens, including a soft sheath that she tells us is to wear while sleeping. The cloth they use feels thick and of good quality. As we leave, I catch a barely audible sound from somewhere beyond the laundry. It echoes in the trees for a moment. I stop mid-stride, listening.

“What, Mirii?” Amarina asks.

“I heard children’s voices.”

She grips my elbow. “Where?”

I point.

“Our daughters have their own quarters,” Grimma says. “Not to worry, they are well guarded and protected.”

That’s
exactly
what worries me.

“Why are they kept apart?” Amarina voice is tense.

Grimma hesitates. “The Teachers require their full attention to gift them with the training and knowledge they need to join us as full-fledged Sisters one day. It is the way we do things here, and you’d best accept it.”

“What about the boys?” I ask.

“Boys have no place in the Cloister,” Grimma says.

“What does that mean? What will happen to the boys taken from our village?”

She doesn’t answer. I guess she won’t share all the Sisters’ secrets in the first hour. But if boys have no place in the Cloister, then why were they kidnapped—Gathered, as the Sisters call it—from Koolkuna at all?

We walk back up the hill, this time in the direction of the wall that must border the sea. The salty breeze slaps my face again at the top. I hurry past the furious noise of the jewel wasps.

Grimma leads us into another building a minute later. Steps rise to the door here, too, although not so many as at the great hall. We move inside, and I catch the distinctive smell of vinegar beneath the constant, caustic scent of the Eternal Flames. Marj cleaned everything with the stuff.

“Your quarters,” Grimma says. “I will leave you here. Normally, you’ll spend the afternoon at your chores, but I’ll give you this time to rest and prepare yourselves for the start of your training tomorrow. Bread and water are on the table. A well outside provides water for washing up. You are free to spend your time as you choose until our evening meal, so long as you stay here. Guards are posted outside. If you need something, let them know." She pauses. "And now, I recommend catching up on your sleep.”

She laughs, a gruff but not unpleasant sound, before closing the door firmly behind her.

After she goes, the others walk around the room, their feet falling on what sounds like stone floors again.

“At least it is clean and tidy,” Amarina says.

Kai grunts. She’s barely said a word since she agreed to come to the Cloister. Why
did
she come? And why did she react the way she did when the Sisters were deciding our fate? I sigh. Kai is a puzzle I don’t seem to be able to solve. Or get rid of.

I reach behind me to find the nearest wall, also made of stone, and then make my way methodically around the room, committing the position of any furniture I come across to memory so I don’t run into it later.

Based on the echoing sound of our voices, the space is larger than any shelter at home or even in Koolkuna. I discover a hefty round table and chairs, a set of well-built wooden shelves that stretches far above my head, and a broad opening in the wall that leaves what smells and tastes like soot on my fingers. It’s dark and cold now, but it seems as if fires might be lit inside it. Interesting—and smart.

A group of chairs sits in front of the opening. The chairs have soft coverings that I guess are filled with bird feathers; I find a tiny one when I run my hand across the seat. The shelves hold a few pots, jars, and baskets made of clay or woven wood. One basket has an assortment of smooth rocks in it. The bottom shelf contains a neat stack of chopped wood.

“Mirii, our beds are in here,” Amarina calls. “Bring your linens, and I’ll help you make yours.”

Feeling my way along the wall toward her voice, I find a wood-framed doorway to another room. Inside, I run my knee into some kind of pallet—long and low with a lumpy but soft covering. After a week of sleeping with a thin bedroll on the hard-packed earth, this is going to be a dream. We make up my pallet, and I lay my new set of clothes and bedclothes on it.

“They’ve brought our packs,” Amarina says. She puts mine in my hands.

I dive into it.

“They took the weapons out,” Kai says.

At least I still have my odds and ends, the little things I brought to remind me of home… wherever that is now. But I’ve lost Aloe’s cane—again. I sigh and sink onto my bed.

“I’m taking Grimma’s advice and getting some sleep,” Kai says. “So be quiet.”

I turn toward Amarina—away from Kai—and make a face.

“Come have some refreshment with me?” Amarina asks.

I follow the walls back to the front. Only two rooms then, but generously sized. At the table, I feel for the bread and water. Amarina carves the loaf while I pour, and we sit in the group of chairs beside the hole in the wall.

The bread is thick, textured and hearty, with a grainy flavor. I tear in. We haven’t had much to eat since the possum stew breakfast yesterday morning. Good bread and water goes a long way toward settling my stomach.

Our quarters are quiet. The stone walls block outdoor noise a little too well; I can’t hear much of anything outside. Kai’s breaths stretch out, becoming even, as she falls asleep in the other room.

“I’m glad you’re here, Amarina,” I say, keeping my voice down.

“You, as well.”

I take stock of Kai’s breathing again. Her breath catches a little in a soft snore.

“Why do you think
she
came?”

The older woman is silent for a moment. “She probably has her own reasons. She has a history with the Sisters, after all.”