by Guy Antibes
“Fine. If we need you, just tell us where we can pick you up when we head south,” Helen said.
Penny stood taking it all in with her hands folded in front of her.
“Can we get some water?” Helen asked.
“Across the courtyard, you will find a dispensary. We keep it stocked with water, wine, and basic food. Feel free to purchase what you will.”
Jack suspected the other compound did the same thing as they bought enough supplies to get them to the next inn. One more night and they would reach their next destination. They trotted out onto the road that began to flatten out as they left Passoran’s jumbles behind.
The terrain followed the same pattern on the other side. Trees amidst rocks led to pasture, and then farmland again. But the fields were dotted with farmsteads and woods between the fields. They passed small villages, and when the sun began to shine low behind them, they turned into the inn that Ferrio suggested.
When they entered the common room, the innkeeper called out to Ferrio.
“My uncle,” Ferrio said when he left them to hug the big man making repairs to a banister.
The priest and his uncle walked over to them.
“This is Uncle Latta,” Ferrio said as he introduced them. “He does much of the maintenance around his inn.”
A young woman walked from an archway on the other side of the bar and whispered into Latta’s ear.
“Do any of you know how to wield a hammer? I need to repair the stairs, but I’m needed in the kitchen.” The man eyed Ferrio. “My nephew is useless at such things. That is why he is a priest.”
“I can give it a try,” Jack said. “My father is a woodworker. He makes furniture.”
“Free rooms tonight if you can make the stairs safe again. We had a fight in the common room last night and…” Latta shrugged.
Jack walked over to the stairway and moved the rickety banister. “I may need some parts.”
“Just make it safe. I’ll have the village carpenter fix it, but he is out of the village helping his brother build a house for a week.”
“I can do that,” Jack said.
Another woman came out of the kitchen and assigned them rooms. By that time, Jack had found the weak areas of the banister and had begun to fashion patches that would keep the railing up for a bit. His work wasn’t pretty, but it would hold for a week unless there was another fight. The common room was filling up, but Ferrio had acquired a booth large enough for six, so they had room to spread out.
“Your key,” Ferrio said, presenting it to Jack. “Taking your possessions to your room was cheap compared to having to pay for a room.”
“Your uncle wouldn’t have let you stay for free?”
Ferrio shook his head. “There is more than one carpenter in the village. My uncle is a cheapskate,” he said with a smile on his face.
Latta approached their table. “Better than I could ever do,” the man said as he put plates in front of Helen and Penny. “This is Ferrio’s aunt, Meralda.”
The woman smiled and set plates down for Ferrio and Jack. “You do better work than my husband,” she said, looking at Latta with an expression of playful disgust. “Ferrio, make sure you see your mother as soon as you arrive in Fassira. She misses you.”
Ferrio smiled, looking a little embarrassed. “I will don’t worry. We will be separating soon after we enter the city.”
Jack noticed the priest didn’t tell his uncle and aunt where Jack, Helen, and Penny were headed.
“You’ll be staying with your mother?” Helen said with a smirk.
“I will. Her cooking is much better than what is served in the cathedral. I’ll give you her address when we leave here tomorrow.”
“We will find our own way to the mother church of the eagle sect?” Jack asked.
“You can’t miss it. The eagles have the only edifice in the city with a golden eagle at the top of its spire. All I have to do is point you in the right direction, and you will soon see your destination above the rooftops.”
“I can’t wait,” Penny said. She took a taste of the food and didn’t say another word.
If Ferrio’s mother cooked as well as his aunt, he could see why he would stay with her. The food was a bit strange, cooked in the Passoranian fashion, but it matched up well with Jack’s taste.
Chapter Twelve
~
T he gate into Fassira was on the other side of a long bridge over the river that ran on one side of the capital. Other than the tall wall for the gate, the rest of the city wall wasn’t particularly high. It dipped down in a few places where there were docks on the river. The boats that plied the waters were small. Jack didn’t know where the river ended up, but it flowed from north to south. Perhaps it went all the way through Kadellia emptying into the Bottom Sea that ran along the south coasts of Tesoria and Kadellia.
“Is there much trade with Kadellia on the river?” Helen asked.
“None to speak of,” Ferrio said. “There is another jumble that runs through the river making the area around the border unnavigable for twenty miles. Any goods from Kadellia are carted by land.”
“What is Passoran’s relationship with Kadellia?” Jack wondered if Kadellia was an enemy of Passoran like Tesoria and Corand.
“We aren’t friends, but we aren’t enemies. We tried to patrol the southern jumble, which acts as a border, but the Kadellians refused to help. The main trade road is farther east where the jumbles aren’t as large a barrier.”
Jack nodded. He stopped his horse as his attention turned to the expanse of low walls. There were guard posts at regular intervals, and he could see guards walking on top. His gaze turned to the skyline, and he spotted Grishel’s gold eagle soaring above the skyline on a thin spire.
“I can see where we are headed,” Jack said.
“So can we all,” Penny grunted and urged her horse on.
They entered the city without being stopped at the guardhouse on the other side of the wall.
“I gave Helen my address. I will be ready to leave in the morning or later. Tonight, I will follow my aunt’s advice, and tomorrow I will be at the cathedral to report. If you leave during the day, you might try that first.” He waved and turned to his right.
“We are on our own,” Penny said.
“I think we already were. Other than stopping at the inn, Ferrio did nothing to help us on our way.” Helen looked down a street at the golden eagle above the rooftops. “We will find the mother church.”
The route wasn’t as easy as Jack thought since the streets weren’t particularly straight in Fassira, but they finally entered a market square, and at the other end stood the large church. Jack had expected a small church from Ferrio’s description, but the mother church was at least as big as the cathedral in Virora.
They tied up their horses with Penny volunteering to stay with their mounts. Jack and Helen entered the church. There was no central statue of Grishel, but there was a nave at the end of the church with an eagle standing on a high plinth. There wasn’t a ledge for priests to walk around and preach. Eagle worship seemed to be different from hawk worship.
“Can I help you?” a priestess said, walking up to them. She wore a light brown robe open to reveal a white robe beneath. Feathers were sewn to shoulders of the brown robe looking like epaulets on the woman’s shoulders. No headdresses were in sight.
“I have come seeking information,” Jack said. “I’d like to travel to Ullori and talk to the monks there.”
“You are looking for Grishel’s Feather?”
Jack blushed. “How did you know.”
The woman laughed. “There is no other reason for someone to go to Ullori unless they are a priest or priestess seeking solitude and personal reflection. Not all travel to Ullori voluntarily.”
“A retreat to contemplate a priest’s sins?” Helen asked.
The woman’s eyebrows rose and fell. “If you will.”
“We understand it takes a pass of some kind to enter.”
>
“I can help you with that, but it isn’t up to us to let you in. The Prioress of Ullori must make that decision. She isn’t inclined to deal with treasure hunters.”
“I’m not looking for treasure. My master has been stricken with a magical illness and believes the feather will save him and the village in which he currently resides,” Jack said. “It is important that I retrieve the feather. I am willing to commit to returning it to the monastery.”
“Not many know of the recuperative powers of the feathers. Three exist as far as we know. One is here in the church and one in Ullori. The other is in possession of the Black Finger Society chapter close to the Ullori monastery.”
“One is here?” Helen asked. She obviously hadn’t listening too closely to Jack’s conversations with the clergy in Virora.
“It is one of our greatest treasures. I can show it to you, but you won’t be able to handle the relic. It is preserved behind a glass plate four inches thick.”
“I’m not in Fassira to steal anything,” Jack said.
The woman squinted at Jack. “Many have tried, but no one has succeeded. The latest was yesterday, as a matter of fact. A former priestess.”
“Myra Pulini,” Helen said.
“Why, yes! You know her?”
“She followed us from Bartonsee. Her two friends stole most of Jack’s possessions.”
The priestess looked at Jack. “Your possessions?”
Jack nodded. “She did. My sword and knife were chief among them.”
“Objects of power?”
“You have them?”
The woman nodded. “You didn’t tell me that you are a powerful wizard.”
“It didn’t come up. We’ve only been talking for a few minutes,” Jack said. “I did say my master is a wizard. His name is Fasher Tempest.”
The name evidently meant nothing to the woman.
“If you can make the objects work, I will return them to you. It seems they are keyed.”
“To me,” Jack said. “My wizardry notes?”
“Oh, those must be yours. You need to practice your penmanship. She left them here. Foolish woman. She spent the night in the church and let her companions in.”
Helen described all three to the woman. By this time two more priests joined their group.
“They know Myra,” the woman said to her fellow clergy.
“Thief would be a more appropriate name,” a priest said. “You wish to follow her?”
“I don’t understand,” Jack said.
“She is headed to Ullori. She will be worshipping in the monastery for a very long time.”
“What about her two companions?”
The priestess shrugged. “We let them go. They cannot enter the church again.”
“Is there a spell that will do that?” Jack asked.
The woman smiled. It sent chills through Jack. “Those who violate the eagle sect have a reminder burned into their foreheads.”
“We have no desire to violate the church. Jack even experienced a positive omen on the way from Virora,” Helen said. She related the incident.
The three eagle priests laughed. “Definitely an omen, if it is true. Follow me. I will introduce you to the patriarch, who heads our church.”
Patriarch! Jack thought. At least he wouldn’t be Aramore Gant. Jack stopped the priests. “Could you send someone outside to watch our horses? There is another in our party. A young woman my age, wearing a pink shirt and brown riding breeches. She goes by the name of Penny. I would like her to see the feather.”
“I will go,” one of the priests said.
Penny joined them, and the priestess took them through a side door out of the main part of the church. They stopped at an alcove. Two priests sat at facing desks. The pathway to a tall door split the alcove.
“She is in,” one of the priests said. “You can knock and go in.”
The woman did as instructed, and the three of them walked into a room filled with light through a wall of diamond-paned glass windows.
A woman, dressed like the rest, but wearing a white stole over her brown robe looked up from reading an extended flat scroll. “I have unannounced visitors?” she asked.
“Patriarch, this is Jack, Helen, and Penny from Raker Falls in Corand. They know Myra Pulini.”
The patriarch turned a bit red. “Myra Pulini isn’t a particularly nice person to know at the moment. We hope a period of contemplation and contrition in Ullori will help her achieve her dream of returning to the nest of Grishel. You have a story?” The patriarch put out her hand. “Take seats, please.”
Jack and Helen told the story, leaving nothing out. Penny described Myra’s accomplices.
“So you seek the woman?”
Jack shook his head. “I think her purpose was to lead us here.”
“Surely you know we couldn’t let you take our feather even if we willed it. The relic is sealed in its glass chamber,” the patriarch said.
“But there are two others,” Jack said. “Both of them are in or close to Ullori.”
“That would be a decision for the Ullori prioress.”
“Or we could retrieve the feather in possession of the Black Finger Society,” Penny said.
The patriarch laughed. “You really think you could do such a thing?”
Jack shrugged. “Without my weapons, I wouldn’t chance it, but now that I can prove to you that they are mine, I might have a chance. You see, I am a helper.”
“And?” the patriarch said drily. “Feathers can only be wielded by females. You have noticed that our senior clergy are women? The same practice continues with the heretics.”
“The hawk sect?”
“Precisely,” the patriarch said.
“Then Penny can wield the feather,” Jack said.
“You are a wizardess?” the patriarch said, turning to an astonished Penny.
“I am,” Penny said. “I’m not just a helper, though. I am Fasher Tempest’s apprentice.”
The patriarch raised her eyebrows, looking back to Jack, who shrugged. “She can wield it, and I can give her my power.”
“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that,” the patriarch said. “I can give you permission to visit the monastery, but I can’t predict what will happen after that.”
“We will have to work that out when we get to Ullori. Do we need a guide?”
“It might be wise to use one, although I can’t provide you with one. You are not on official business for the church,” the patriarch said.
“I only ask because we have a guide. His worth is questionable, but perhaps he can be of some use.” Jack said. He looked at Helen who pursed her lips, indicating there might be a conversation in the near future about the usefulness of Ferrio.
“You may show him the feather while I prepare the pass for the monastery,” the patriarch said to their escorts.
Jack followed the priest and priestess out of the office, trailed by Penny and Helen.
“You would have me use the feather?” Penny said to Jack.
“Not here and not now,” Jack said. “When we are back on the road.”
“He is right,” Helen said.
Penny, as expected, looked a little peeved.
They walked to the back of the eagle statue. The priestess pulled a little curtain revealing an eighteen-inch square window. On a purple velvet pillow was a feather. It was brown with a white tip, reminding Jack of the clerical robes.
Jack put his hand on the window. If he had that feather, he could immediately return to Corand and cure Tanner and Fasher. If the patriarch was correct about a female wielding the feather, then Penny and he could do the work. Jack didn’t know if the patriarch was correct in her assumption, but he would be more than happy to find out.
The feather began to move on the other side of the glass and raised a handspan from the pillow. Jack removed his hand, and the feather settled down.
The woman and man gasped. “It is a sign. Your experience on the road was certainly an omen. I
don’t think any of us believed you, but, but—” the priestess stared at the window.
“Yes, I saw what you did,” the priest said. He looked at Jack. “Grishel has answered your call.”
“Then I can take the feather?” Jack asked.
“No one can take the feather from there. It is sealed. But I believe you are meant to go south,” the priestess said. “Let us tell the good news to Patriarch Benna.
Jack looked at his hand as they walked through the church to the patriarch’s office. He didn’t feel any different. There wasn’t a shock or a burning when the feather rose. It just rose when he put his hand on the window and descended when he took it off. It worked the same way for all three times he tried. All in all, it was a pretty lame demonstration. He thought the omen of the two eagles was much more impressive and had a little style to it, especially Grishel’s touch of disdain for Ferrio.
He let the priests do all the talking. Even Penny got a little excited about it all, but in the end, after Jack demonstrated his objects of power, they were ushered out. Myra didn’t bring any of his clothes into the church.
The priest was talking to an attractive woman while he minded their horses. In less than an hour, they rode toward Ferrio’s house.
“If he can’t come, then we go on our own,” Jack said. “We know where the monastery is, and we even have a local guide available.” He patted his pocket.
“You don’t want him to come?” Penny said.
“Ferrio is a hawk-sect spy. All he did was point us to that.” Jack looked behind him at the gold eagle atop the church’s spire poking above the rooftops. “Everything else we’ve gotten has come through our own efforts.” He thought for a bit. “But I did enjoy our meals at his uncle’s inn, I’ll give him credit for that.”
Helen just smiled during the exchange.
“I think you are petty,” Penny said. “You should be more trusting.”
Jack glanced at Helen. “Tell her if I should be more trusting.”
“You both need to be less accepting of the people you run across. That is my opinion, and that’s the last thing I will say on the subject,” she said, waving them off.
