by Vela Roth
“Is a veiled moon considered a bad omen among Hesperines, as it is among Tenebrans?” Cassia asked.
“We celebrate all phases of the moons, although each holds a different significance for us. Don’t you think that tonight, it looks as if Hespera is winking at us?”
“Imagine that. I’ve never had a goddess as a coconspirator.”
The branches soon became too thick for them to see either of the moons, and darkness wrapped still closer beyond the reach of Lio’s spell. Cassia slowed her pace, following his lead. But she would not meet his gaze. The tension in her was not all worry. He wondered how much effort it cost her not to look at him.
Did she not realize she could look? That looking cost them nothing?
Lio guided them along one of their usual ways, and before long they passed the fallen rubble across the path, beyond which they seldom went far. But tonight he would lead her much farther. He took a fork in the trail, and the deer track plunged them into ferns and the shelter of even older trees.
The thick underbrush and narrow gaps between the tree trunks pressed Lio and Cassia closer together. He listened to her heart flutter and tried not to smile at the frustration he sensed in her. His senses attuned to the flush of her skin and the tension low in her belly. She was so aware of him, here within reach. It had never been so hard for him not to reach.
As they approached a weeping willow whose fall of branches blocked their way, he steadied the basket on his back with one arm and extended the other to push the tree’s bare limbs aside for Cassia. She slipped right past him, her body within a finger’s breadth of his, and ducked under the shelter of his arm.
“Is it very far?” she asked.
“I’m afraid so. We should head a little to the left, past that holly bush.” He sent his spell light ahead of her to mark the way.
She set off in that direction, putting still more distance between them. Knight stalked forward, on the alert, shouldering through leaves and fronds and making way for her. Every now and then, he fidgeted and cast a glance at Lio’s spell light.
Following behind Cassia, Lio could look at her without consequences. As she waded through the underbrush and low shrubs, holding her skirts in both hands, a glimpse of her ankle appeared and arrested Lio’s attention. What a pity her stocking prevented him from confirming his theory about the full extent of her freckles.
It was a cold Tenebran night, but Cassia was rosy-cheeked and trying to catch her breath by the time the ruin emerged ahead of them. Lio watched her approach the white marble structure where it stood in its sanctuary of thorns with an honor guard of ancient ash trees. She halted before his sacred place, and he marveled. At that moment, the most powerful aura in his senses was Cassia. Her determination and worry, certainty and doubt were their own kind of magical beacon.
“Do you know why something so strong and beautiful lies in ruins?” he breathed.
She gave her head a shake. “People build things, they die, then all they labored so hard for is forgotten.”
“This will never be forgotten.”
She cast a startled glance over her shoulder at him, then at Knight, whose hackles were on end. “You can’t mean…”
Lio joined her before the ruin and put his free hand on the capstone of the arch over the doorway. He rubbed his thumb across the faint impressions of the glyph there. Although the lines were eroded, his own Gift responded in recognition to the magic in the glyph stone. “Many shrines were abandoned during the Ordering. The cults that once lovingly tended them died out. Not this one. This cult was driven out, but they survive. In fact, we do not die.”
He heard her feet move, felt her body heat draw nearer. “This was built to honor Hespera.”
Lio nodded, letting his hand rest on the glyph stone as if the joy and welcome in that magic could seep through his skin.
“I can scarcely believe it.” Cassia lowered her voice. “I thought all your people’s sacred sites were completely destroyed this side of Orthros.”
“This one nearly was.” Lio ran his hand along one of the remaining pillars. “A blast of war magic did this damage. But that mage, whoever he was, must have been in a hurry. Or under duress. He didn’t do a thorough job. Then, much later, some other mages did some sort of cleansing ritual.” He sighed. “Kyrian, I think, for the evidence of their spells feels like your gardening dress after you’ve been at the temple.”
“But some of your people’s power is still here?”
“Oh, yes. It cannot be purged that easily.”
Cassia stepped back and heeled Knight close to her, folding her hands in front of her. As if to give Lio space and time.
He hadn’t known she had any respect for anyone’s gods. But she had called the Mercy by its name, and now she stood patiently and waited for him as he paid his respects to a lost Sanctuary of his Goddess.
He focused on the grooves in the worn capstone that had once been the cup and thorn of the Goddess’ glyph. He brought his thumb to his mouth and pricked it on one tooth, then smeared his blood on the symbol. The ruin’s power rushed to life and breathed into him.
After a moment, Cassia cleared her throat. “Is it acceptable for me to come inside?”
“Of course. Everyone is welcome in Hespera’s safe places. Although the Order of Anthros now maligns her as chaos and violence incarnate, she was once known to all as the goddess of Sanctuary and Mercy. People saw darkness as her gift of protection and blood rituals as a reminder that we must all make sacrifices for the good of others. In the Great Temple Epoch, wanted criminals and honorable warriors sought her blessings side by side, and her mages turned none away.”
“I begin to understand why her worshipers became a target.”
“Yes, Cassia. You understand well that such things rarely have to do with genuine devotion to the gods or a true commitment to the common good, and all too often with more pragmatic motivations. The Orders of Anthros and Hypnos and the lords and princes who colluded with them had many reasons for vilifying the Cult of Hespera, but most were political.”
“Sheltering folk they wanted to hang wasn’t popular, I take it.”
“I would not want to oversimplify a complex history. But I often think to myself they cast my Goddess from the pantheon for the crime of loving everyone.”
“Do not regret that fate, Lio. You are fortunate not to belong to the world Anthros rules.” She looked into the ruin’s shadowed interior. “You should rejoice in your freedom.”
“Join me,” Lio said.
Her gaze swiveled to meet his.
“I made sure the structure is safe. No chance of a cave in.” He ducked under the archway and into the antechamber of the shrine.
Before Cassia could follow, Knight whipped around her and halted in her path, his back and his hackles to Lio. The hound let out an altogether different kind of warning growl. At her.
Lio stood very still. “Cassia, he never bares his teeth at you!”
“See how different his body language is? He isn’t threatening me. He’s putting himself between me and the threat.” She gave Lio a rueful smile over the beast’s back. “He’s trying to protect me from myself.”
Lio hesitated to answer, wary of trespassing on her bond with the animal. “Protect you from me, you mean.”
“Hmm, on closer consideration, it does seem possible that entering a profane shrine with a notorious heretic of the male variety might endanger my reputation.”
Lio couldn’t find it in himself to laugh. He had thought he’d earned her guardian’s tolerance. If Knight revoked it tonight, the hound might prove the greatest threat of all to their plan.
Cassia spoke to Knight in their training tongue, her voice adamant. She pointed to the ground at her side, snapping her fingers. Petite Cassia and enormous Knight faced each other, both standing tall, neither breaking the stare.
Cassia’s tension transformed, and her new unease was an erratic current in the Blood Union. Although she stood resolutely on one side of an
invisible line in the soil, her hound on the other, Lio could feel how off balance she was.
“If I can get him to enter the shrine, will your spell effect him?” she asked. “Can you take him with us to the temple?”
“It will be a challenge.” What an understatement. Attempting to use his magic on Knight was the part of their plan Lio had been dreading most. But he kept his tone gentle. “He is bred, born and raised to resist Hesperine magic. That is his nature and one of his greatest strengths. But it does mean it will require an immense effort on my part to bring him with us.”
Cassia didn’t answer right away. Her unease trembled, ready to overflow. Finally she asked, “Is the strength of the spell you would need to take Knight with us more likely to draw unwanted attention?”
This was difficult for her, and Lio owed her answers as honest as her questions. “The great expense of power would definitely be a greater risk, although I believe the shrine would still be enough to cover us. However…enduring my magic is likely to be extremely distressing for Knight. I suspect it will feel as uncomfortable to him as Anthros’s magic does to me, and it is likely to antagonize him. Like any good dog following his instincts, he may lash out at the perceived threat.”
Cassia squared her shoulders, and her shaky emotions stilled as if she gripped them in an iron hand. “He will stand watch for us here. He understands staying at the end of the row and guarding for me, even when I have to walk to the other side of the garden.”
She held Knight’s gaze and began to speak to him, alternating between Vulgus and their private tongue, from loving praises to firm commands.
At last Knight ducked his head, lowered his tail, and went to Cassia’s side.
She knelt down and wrapped her arms around her dog. The spell light cast a sheen in her eyes that hadn’t been there a moment ago. “Doon. Yes, dearest. Right here. I know it’s hard for you, but you cannot go with me this time. You must be a good dog and stay. Doon. It’s all right. I’ll be just through that door. You must do me a great favor and guard outside, so no one comes in after me. Hekna glaan.”
Centuries of breeding, ancient magic and a lifetime of training bound Knight to Cassia’s service to the death, but Lio had no doubt her debt to her beloved hound was just as powerful. Had the two of them ever been out of each other’s sight since the day Knight had bonded to her?
Lio left the basket of herbs inside the shrine and went outside, approaching Cassia and Knight slowly. The hound looked up at him. Lio looked down at the hound.
No sign of teeth. Promising.
Lio knelt on the dog’s eye level and eased himself near Union with Knight. Instead of a mind filled with placid welcome, what greeted Lio was a solid wall of wariness. The dog tensed all over and flared his nostrils. He was indeed far more intelligent and aware than an average animal.
Lio halted where he was, holding the path to Union open, but going no farther along it. “Good evening, Knight. You know me. Lio. Your lady’s willing champion, remember?”
The dog stood still, his ears cocked.
“You can understand me just fine without any help, I can tell. But to reassure you, I’ll put everything I have on the table. See?” Lio spread his hands. He attuned himself to a powerful heartbeat and deep breaths that brought thousands of smells. Then he let Knight hear his heart and smell what he smelled.
“Do you feel that, Knight? You’re a liegehound. I know that you and I can’t ever achieve real Union. I don’t want to make either of us uncomfortable by trying. But if we could, and you allowed me a few moments to experience the world inside that hard head of yours, I know I’d find all my senses focused on only one person. I would feel like nothing mattered except keeping her safe. If you spent a moment in my equally hard head, you’d see exactly the same thing.”
Lio heard, in the absence of the sound of Cassia’s breathing, that she was holding her breath.
“So you see, Knight,” he concluded, “we are of one mind in any case. If you stay here by this door and guard it all night to make sure your lady can feel at ease, then I will stay at her side and protect her with all the power I possess, until I return her to you. Together, you and I will see to it no harm comes to her. Can you trust me to do that?”
Knight got up off his powerful haunches. Lio made himself as still as only a Hesperine could, not even breathing. The dog’s massive head drew closer, closer, filling his vision. Two wet nostrils flared, then blew a breath in his face. Raw meat. Muddy paws. Savory treats and Cassia’s fingers.
Knight proceeded with his examination, sniffing Lio all over. Lio lifted his arms slowly, the better to let the dog nose at his sides. Finally Knight drew off.
The dog turned his back to Lio and the ruin, faced the dark forest, and planted his rump in the foliage with an air of finality.
Cassia got slowly to her feet. She took one step backward toward the shrine. Knight looked over his shoulder at her, tensing as if to get to his feet, but he stayed where he was.
“The greatest diplomatic feat I have ever witnessed, Initiate Ambassador.”
“If I do say so myself, I believe we are the only people in history who have ever persuaded a Tenebran liegehound to guard a shrine of Hespera. The Goddess must be smiling to have such an unusual and capable protector tonight.”
Cassia cast one long look at Knight, then turned away.
Her safety was now entirely in Lio’s hands.
A Heretic in the Temple
Lio followed close behind Cassia with his spell light and his hands out to offer assistance in case she stumbled. “Be careful. Last night I did my best to clear a path in here, but there’s still a great deal of rubble.”
She picked her way through the shrine’s antechamber. “You mean you can’t move ancient stones as big as me with your eyes closed using a single wiggle of your little finger?”
Lio chuckled. “My magic is more akin to that of my mother, who is a master theramancer, a mind healer. It’s my father who’s the architect. Even before he was a Hesperine, he was a lithomagus, a mage with an affinity for stone. As I’ve said, I don’t take after him in many ways.”
“Of course. Just as I am ignorant and unphilosophical.”
Lio grinned at Cassia’s back. “Wait here, if you will. I’ll go ahead into the Ritual Sanctuary to ensure the way remains safe.”
“Very good. I’m sure Knight will question you upon our return to be sure you adhered to his rigorous safety standards.”
“I hope I can count on you to be my character witness.” Lio retrieved the prized basket of rimelace and swung it over his shoulder again before he took a Hesperine step into the ruin’s inner room. “Everything is as I left it. Come ahead. I think someone of your height can make it through the doorway without difficulty.”
Cassia ducked under the broken column that leaned across the doorway and joined Lio in the Ritual Sanctuary. Her gaze traveled over the slivers of tile on the floor, a mosaic night sky now shattered into fragments, and the two intact pillars at the back of the shrine that, strong and undamaged, still flanked the alcove that would once have held the votive statue of Hespera. “I’m sorry your goddess’s shrine is in such a sad state. What a wretched welcome to Tenebra.”
It was so unlike her to express concern. Her words touched Lio more than he could say. If he dared say, he suspected she would withdraw again. Best not to call attention to her sympathy. “It gives me as much solace as grief to discover a place where Hespera’s magic still dwells on this side of the border. It is so good to find a piece of home.”
“Her sacred thorns outside are growing strong.” Cassia stepped into shadow and went to stand by the wall. She examined the dry, blackened vines that clung there. “So why aren’t these?”
“I wish I knew.”
Carefully avoiding the thorns, Cassia touched a hand to one of the few shriveled leaves that still dangled from the stalks, but it crumbled in her hand. “They’re too damaged for me to identify them. Do you suppose they were ros
es?”
“That would be my first guess.”
“What a shame. I suspect it would take a garden mage to rescue plants this far gone.” How wistful she sounded.
“I mourn the roses. But the magic here lives on. I could ask for no better cover for my spell than a site already infused with Hespera’s power. I can only thank the Goddess that Amachos has not recognized this place for what it is.”
“I suppose the Anthrian and Kyrian magic used here stand out to the Royal Incompetent’s senses, and his Honored Masterfulness doesn’t notice the heresy lurking.”
Lio laughed. “That is my theory. What poetic justice, that the very spells that destroyed this place and sought to purge Hespera from her own Sanctuary now disguise its true nature.”
Cassia turned away from the dead vines, folding her hands. “Tell me what to expect. I am no stranger to discomfort. I only wish to be prepared.”
“Do not concern yourself with tales of mages suffering from traversal. With a Hesperine’s power to assist, magical travel is not as taxing for a human. The more power the Hesperine employs, the more comfortable the mortal’s experience.”
“Well, I am in luck, then. You’ve power to spare, by the sound of it.”
“And so do you. You are a strong woman. Children and elders require extra care, and if a human is ill or injured, it can be unsafe to step at all, however…”
She grimaced. “No wonder heart hunters and their hounds are such a threat to Hesperines. You cannot simply step away to escape if you are trying to rescue fragile mortals.”
“I’m afraid so. Heart hunters stoop to using children or injured humans to lure us out. But not to worry, as your liegehound is quite chivalrous. And you are not fragile, Cassia.”
She lifted her chin. “I am ready, then.”
