“That sounds a lot like blasphemy, coming from a Patriarch of the Astorian Order,” the other voice said shockingly.
“Oh, shut up, you fool. This is just the way of things. Divinity requires faith, but this entire ordeal with our new hand defies that logic. Proof is not something we are used to receiving from the High Priestess Astor on behalf of Claire Agon,” Markus said, using the formal titles for their divine figures. “Besides, she wasn’t supposed to have survived the expedition.”
“A most unpleasant outcome. Our man inside the group was unable to execute his duty. He died before he had a chance, it would appear,” the other voice said unnervingly.
“You’ll have to find some other way to pressure the prefect. He won’t comply with your plans while you lack leverage over him,” Markus said.
“Well, when will she wake up?” the other man asked.
“Whenever we’re ready. She is heavily sedated, and my healer is using a strong pharmaceutical compound on her.”
“Does anyone suspect?”
“No. Everyone thinks the beast’s poison is the cause of her coma. We allow one or two of the more gossipy servants in to clean and wash her, and they spread the word of her condition without us making it obvious,” Markus said.
“And her leg wound? I heard it was severe.”
“Maybe it was, but whatever magic is in that pendant helped it to heal much faster than we would have expected.”
“I can most assuredly say that it is not magic!” the mysterious voice said, dripping with sarcasm.
“Well, you should know, but this whole plan of yours is unraveling far too quickly. This is not something that you can hide forever, either,” Markus said.
“Just keep her sedated until I receive word.”
“While you’re waiting on that word, try to remember that you can’t touch her while she resides in this temple. You are fortunate I even allowed you to see her,” Markus said.
“A necessary step to assure my superior that she is indeed alive, but silent for the moment. We must adjust. I should have word tonight and will return tomorrow morning to direct your next actions. In the meantime, should she awaken, or anything unwarranted occurs, you know where to find me,” the other man said.
“It’s hard to miss that brothel of an inn that you’re staying at, and there won’t be any directing. I still speak for the order in Tannis, and I’ll do as I please!” Markus practically shouted.
“Quiet, you fool! No one can know I was here. Just do your part, and I promise your precious little order will be spared,” the other voice hissed back.
There were soft footsteps before she heard Markus one last time. “Not that way, you idiot! Go out the back, then round by the kitchen, and out the rear gate. Blast it, man—for such talented people I swear to Agon that you can be too dense sometimes.”
The footsteps paused, and then picked back up again before fading. She heard two sets of them, so she assumed Markus went to ensure the mysterious man left by the correct path. Olivia finally let loose a large breath, not realizing that, while she had listened, she had almost forgotten to breathe, and her breaths were too shallow. She felt constricted, but finally, mustering enough courage, she opened her eyes.
She saw the vaulted ceiling of the temple’s inner sanctum. She was on the center slab that was used in many of those ceremonies that her master and mentor had talked about. Around her were the many benches that acolytes could sit on to meditate and contemplate their duties.
Her body no longer felt cold, the way it had when she first woke up. Her heart was pounding, and she was starting to breathe heavily. She clenched her fists to ensure her limbs would obey her commands. She sat upright and looked around. The entire place was empty, but there was a small cart with several cleaning supplies and a few vials of assorted liquids.
Olivia felt a sudden dread come over her. Her entire life started to seem like some sort of great lie. She thought she was going to get sick, but she stifled the urge to vomit and instead swung her legs down onto the floor, which they barely reached, while remaining seated on the marble slab.
She was dressed in new clothes, white and soft to the touch. Fine cotton, but not silk, she noted, typical for an acolyte in the temple to wear. She felt at her neck; the pendant was still there and it felt warm. She was barefoot, and wore ankle-length pants; her blouse was wrist-long. She suddenly felt panic as she realized she wasn’t wearing the armor that her father gave her, nor were any of her belongings on her, other than the pendant.
She thought for a moment, fighting back yet another wave of nausea and panic. Where would they be? she thought to herself. She moved quickly towards the back entrance, where there were several small alcoves hidden from view by a set of heavy curtains draped across each one. She went to her usual one by the door on her right and threw open the concealing drape. Nothing! Panic and sorrow welled in her throat as she thought about how upset her father would be for learning that she had lost his gift to her or, worse, allowed it to be taken from her.
She absent-mindedly clutched at her pendant with her left hand. Why my left hand, she thought. Because the order taught that the right hand was the power hand and the left hand the healing hand. She looked across the rear doorway at the other side, where more alcoves were located, also hidden by large curtains.
Of course! She was still thinking like an acolyte and had her sense of direction mixed up. When one entered the inner sanctum, the left side was reserved for the acolytes and only a hand or master would use the right side. That was their privilege and their right as members of the higher order.
She quickly crossed the walkway to the other side of the sanctum, passing the first alcove, which had white drapes on it with the emblem of not only the order but also the star above the gauntleted hand, indicating the alcove belonged to the patriarch. She knew from experience that this first alcove belonged to Markus.
She reached the second and peeked in. There were her items on a built-in stone ledge, and set over a headless and armless bust was her chain mail. Olivia breathed a sigh of relief as she slid into the alcove and closed the curtain behind her. She found everything there except for the leather pants that she had worn on the expedition. She thought those were probably ruined when her leg was pierced by the sharp stinger of that foul beast.
Olivia took a moment to sit and think. What was it that Arabella had said to her when they had last spoken? Did they speak or was it a dream? Even now the images were fading, but she could hear her voice clearly in her head: It is time now for you to return to your companions. They are waiting for you, Arabella had said.
No, she couldn’t have been referring to Markus or that mysterious stranger, so who was waiting for her? She clutched at her pendant again and closed her eyes, despite the urge to do something quickly. Soon her breathing slowed, and she felt calm; a tranquil feeling of peace came over her.
Olivia opened her eyes. She grabbed her thickly knit socks and put them on, and then tucked in her blouse and tightened her trousers, before grabbing her mail and pulling it over her head like she would a silk blouse. She was amazed at how easily it went on. Next she grabbed her pouches, three of them, and attached them to her belt, which she then slung around her waist and cinched to fit it tightly. She clasped the mail around her groin and neck and adjusted it slightly so it wasn’t tugging on her shirt. She knew it would be better to have a set of leathers on underneath, but, as her father had said, it wasn’t necessary, and she felt the familiar tug as the mail adjusted to her size.
She sat and pulled her boots on, and then finally she moved to her sword. It was a nicely made blade, slender than most and not quite as long. She knew it was actually made for a noble man’s teenage son, but how her father came by it she did not know. Unfortunately, she had lost her shield in the swamp. She sheathed the blade, and, taking a moment to adjust her chain mail, she opened the curtain and returned to the sanctum.
There was no noise, so she decided to head out the same doo
r that she thought the other two men had taken. She really had only two choices: the front entrance, used by visitors, or the rear entrance, used by staff. A visitor had to have been invited in order to enter the sanctum, but usually a large enough donation allowed for that and the visitor’s family. This was a little too commercial for Olivia’s tastes, though she thought she understood the necessity.
Out the door and down a short hallway she went, passing several doors before she came to the familiar “tee,” where she turned left, heading towards the kitchen. She passed another set of doors and took a right, entering the kitchen, which was empty, exactly as Markus had promised the other man. She crossed it and then exited by the door that the cooks used to empty the trash at the rear of the building.
Olivia held her hand over her brow to shade her eyes from the intense sunlight. Well, she thought, it really wouldn’t be intense, but her induced coma, coupled with having been indoors, where it was dimly lit, made her eyes sensitive to light. She closed the door and then reopened it just a crack to see out.
There, across the rear grounds, she spied the small back gate. Markus stood there, waving his hands wildly at someone on the other side whom Olivia could not see. It appeared as if their conversation, or argument, or whatever it was, had not finished inside, and they had picked it up at the rear gate.
Olivia understood that the temple grounds, much like the inner sanctum, had only two entrances or exits. The front main entrance was made of two large ironed gates attached to the reinforced walls circling the temple grounds, and the rear gate, which was much smaller and door-sized, was used by staff to enter and exit in relative peace and without much fanfare if need be. Most of the servants used the smaller rear gate to bring supplies in from the town center.
She would have to wait to leave, as Markus stood at the rear gate. He had a key, but so did she. It was still in her pouch, and she reached in to pull it out and look at it to make sure it was real. Whoever was conspiring with her master obviously didn’t think things through very well, relying too much on their apothecary drugs to keep her imprisoned.
She shut the door and headed back to the servant quarters, where she heard some chatting between two of the kitchen ladies whom she recognized. They were talking about various pie-making recipes and apparently waiting for permission to return to the kitchen.
Olivia silently crept by them and headed towards the front of the building, where the great hall and library were situated. She used one of the rear stairwells to reach the second-story balcony that housed even more books and formed a complete circle around the domed library. She didn’t know what day it was, but light streamed in from the many open windows and doors situated along the balconies’ edge.
The entire facility felt utterly deserted, though she knew Lily would be at her desk below her. She moved towards the windowed doors at the entrance to the second-floor balcony and looked down into the open courtyard below.
She saw many people milling around. Some had set up blankets and were lying or resting on them in the shade of the few trees that grew within the temple grounds. She looked closely at them and realized that many of them were from her expedition. Yes! There below was Commander Fulbert, talking to a couple of people whom she did not recognize. She felt for a moment as if she was being watched, and she looked around the area further.
There! She spotted Felix, leaning against a tree and looking straight in her direction, but she was standing very close to the wall by the windowed door and looking diagonally, so she didn’t think he could see her. He left the tree and started walking towards the building’s entrance.
She felt panicked a bit and moved back then, all the way across to the east side of the opened windowed doors. A nice breeze was in the air, and it rustled the sheer silk curtains as they hung from the doors, partially pulled back and held to the walls by stanchions.
She heard Lily speaking and then boots on the stairs.
“You must be registered, sir, before entering the library unchaperoned. These aren’t just any books, you know!” Lily’s voice drifted up from below, and Olivia moved down one of the aisles, peering through the top of the books on a shelf at her eye level.
Felix had taken the stairs two at a time, bounding up them and leaving Lily to huff, puff, and complain loudly. He stopped at the top and walked down an aisle towards the front, where Olivia had been standing, but she was now on the opposite side of where she was before. When he reached the end of the aisle, he should have looked to his left to where she had been, but instead he cocked his head for a second and then looked to his right.
Olivia ducked slightly and felt foolish hiding from the ranger, though she remembered him saying that he didn’t work officially for her father. How he had known that she had moved to the opposite side of the library balcony was beyond her, but she crept down the aisle towards the front, expecting to peek around the shelves and see him farther away.
“Well, hello!” Felix said, stepping out from the front and looking down Olivia’s aisle. His face had a smile and his eyes twinkled. “I can’t believe you’re still alive after what happened.”
His smile quickly vanished; he looked around to see if anyone could overhear him, and then stepped towards her. “What are you doing skulking around up here? Everyone has been waiting for you.”
Olivia stood upright, feeling more than a bit silly at her antics, yet she could not shake the feeling she had when she had heard her master speaking with that stranger. “Felix, come here for a moment,” she finally said as she pulled his arm back towards the inner balcony, which overlooked the library proper, and stopped where she felt they were somewhat secluded halfway down her aisle.
“Why are you acting like this?” Felix asked suspiciously, also looking around. “And why are you dressed for combat?”
“I need your help, Felix. Something isn’t right, and I can’t explain it right now,” she said, ignoring his questions.
Felix saw a tinge of fear cross Olivia’s face. “What do you suggest?” he asked.
“Can you get us out of here unseen? There are only two exits, and both are either guarded or blocked right now,” Olivia pleaded.
Felix thought for a moment, before deciding. “I don’t know what trouble you fear, but I will help you, Olivia of Tannis. I have to retrieve my pack in the courtyard. Do you know the garden in the rear? I have been there only a couple of times, but if I remember correctly the walls of the villa there are secluded and lower than the main walls,” Felix said.
“Yes, I know them well,” Olivia said.
“Good, then meet me there in ten minutes and I will see what I can do.”
“Make it five minutes!” Olivia said. “And thank you!” She smiled.
Felix left quickly, and Olivia used the rear stairs again to navigate to the back of the building. She opened one of the many doors and looked across the rear grounds to see that Markus was still at the gate, but appeared to be much calmer this time. Perhaps she should have simply waited for him to leave, but the fear of being discovered was too great and she didn’t plan on anyone discovering that she had awoken.
Waiting didn’t seem prudent anymore, and as she crossed the rear grounds towards the garden, she hoped Markus wouldn’t turn around and look in her direction. She felt exposed, but after a few minutes she reached the waist-high gate to the garden, which was never locked. After opening it, she went inside, closed the gate, and leaned tightly against the wall, looking out for signs that Felix would arrive.
She looked around; the entire garden area looked empty. The garden was a separate enclosure, filled with trees, bushes, and flowering plants and dotted with a rock-paved walkway that meandered in a circle, punctuated with an occasional stone bench for sitting. Vines covered the walls of the garden, which mimicked the walls of the actual temple compound. Anyone in the area would be visible, so she felt relatively certain that she was alone.
In fact, that was something that started to bother her the more she thought about it
. Where was everyone? Certainly the temple had been understaffed this last year as calls for conscripts and servants came from the monarchy in pursuit of this war, but not to the extent that she had found just creeping around the temple building proper and the grounds themselves. No, make no mistake—Markus had all but emptied the facility, and she had no idea why.
After some time she started to have doubts about Felix’s intentions, as she couldn’t see him; all of a sudden she felt a hand on her shoulder. She jumped around and found herself looking straight at him. “Don’t do that! You nearly gave me a fright my heart could not survive,” she said, letting out a big breath. “How did you get here before me?” she asked.
“I didn’t. You arrived first. I retrieved my pack, left the temple grounds, came around the backside, and scaled the wall. You did say you wanted to leave unnoticed, did you not?” he asked.
“Yes, thank you. Sorry—I wasn’t expecting you to arrive from behind me,” she said.
“Come with me—this way.” Felix motioned.
Soon they had gone to the very rear of the garden; along the rear west corner were two small metal loops that had been inserted into the wall, both hardly noticeable. Felix used them to quickly scale the ten-foot wall and lay on top of it with his right arm extended.
Olivia took his arm, and he hoisted her to the top, where she sat feeling exposed, but elated that she would escape the temple unseen. That thought made her sad, as she had many good memories of the hallowed grounds and shouldn’t have had to do what she was doing.
Felix used some rope, which he had already tied and used to scale the outer wall, to come down. Olivia followed, using the knots tied every foot apart to help her, though she realized she was descending much less gracefully than Felix had done.
The temple was located on the east side of town, and the wall they had just exited over was the northeastern-most wall of the compound. There weren’t any houses or dwellings on this side of the temple, the entire area being a large grassy plain with an occasional tree here and there. Once outside, Olivia said nothing, but motioned away from town to the east. Felix nodded, and then the two quickly ran towards the small line of brush about a mile off that delineated the town area from the surrounding countryside.
The Black Dragon: A Claire-Agon Dragon Book (Dragon Series 1) Page 11
