Rook

by Robin Roseau

  “Go on.”

  “There is a temple,” I added.

  “Yes?”

  “And living quarters.”

  “What else?”

  “Kitchens, I suppose, and the other things people need to live.”

  “And?”

  “And a school,” I said. “And library.”

  “So what is the difference between an abbey and a boarding school?” Ralalta asked.

  “An abbey has a temple, and only the priestesses and acolytes live there.”

  “Is the temple open to anyone, or only the people who live there?”

  “Everyone who wishes to worship our Prestainamatta may visit the temple,” I replied.

  “So what would be the difference between building an abbey or locating a temple on the grounds of one of our boarding schools, assuming there were priestesses to teach of the Goddess?”

  I stared for a minute then finally admitted, “Almost nothing. The students would be exposed to a wider variety of other students. For those learning to speak Framaran, that has been critical.” I paused. “But not everyone living at the abbey is a student or teacher.”

  “But you agree, the requirements of a boarding school and an abbey are similar.”

  “Yes,” I said. “Where are you going, Your Majesty?”

  “What are your short term needs, High Priestess?”

  “Short term. Provide housing for our new acolytes, including any more the Goddess sends us. Food. Clothing. Education.”

  “Let us solve the first: housing,” said the queen. “This is not a permanent solution, but it resolves the immediacy. As we speak, Lady Malta is making the remainder of this wing available for your exclusive use.”

  “Your Majesty-”

  “There is enough space for your existing charges,” she said. “But you will outgrow the space I can provide in the palace, if our Prestainamatta continues to claim more girls. You will need to implement another solution, but it does not need to be this day or this month. You have time.”

  “That is very gracious, Your Majesty.”

  “Along with this, of course, we can feed all of you, but I would ask that you offer your acolytes to Lady Malta for an hour a day, and perhaps more when we are preparing for a major festivity.”

  I looked over at Larien, and she nodded. “Two hours,” she suggested. “Anywhere else, we would spend no less than two hours, and perhaps four each day, seeing to the needs of the abbey.”

  I looked back to the queen, and she nodded.

  “Clothing is easy to handle,” Alta said.

  “I think,” I said slowly... I turned to her, then to Larien. “Vestments.”

  “Yes?” Larien replied.

  “Should the vestments of a priestess from Framara be identical to the vestments in Alteara, or should they be similar, but different?”

  “The vestments of our order have gone through cycles,” she replied. “They are updated with the times. I don’t think I was a priestess at the last update.”

  “You weren’t,” said Hallámierté, speaking Altearan. Terél had been translating for her and Radí. “It happened two years after I was sworn as a full priestess.” She looked at me. “Your grandmother worked with a designer in Lopéna. They were similar to the old vestments, but brought up to date with recent styles.”

  “I’m the wrong one to lead this,” I said.

  “Leave this to Larien and me,” Alta said. “Your Majesty, would you like to be consulted?”

  “You know, Alta? Yes, I would. Thank you.” Then the queen looked into my eyes.

  And so I nodded. “They’ll need other clothing, too,” I said.

  “Let us handle this,” Larien said.

  “Thank you,” I replied. “So that leaves their education.” I turned to the queen. “I imagine you have recommendations.”

  “Yes.” And then she told me.

  * * * *

  We were still talking when there was a knock at the door. A moment later, it opened to admit Lady Malta. When I saw who it was, I said, “Girls, this is Lady Malta. She is the castle chatelaine. If she tells you to do something, it is with the authority of the queen. What can we do for you, Lady Malta?”

  “Your Majesty, have you told her?”

  “Yes.”

  “Very good,” said Malta. “Yalla, you now have this half of the floor beginning at the central staircase. Workers have removed everything from the new rooms, and we need to know how you wish to arrange things. Would you be able to handle this now, while the workers are available?”

  “Of course,” I said. “Let us go look.” I stood, and everyone else with me. Ralalta and I swept from the room together, the rest following, with Juleena and Alta in back, shepherding the girls.

  I appreciated their help.

  The doors at the end of our corridor were flung wide open, although the ever-present pages were still stationed there. I wondered if I should move them, but I decided that was the best place for them. “Malta, we can keep the pages here, yes?”

  “Wherever you want them,” she said.

  “Thank you.” And so I nodded at the two girls as we stepped past and through the doors.

  I had been traveling this particular corridor since returning eight years ago, but now it felt different. It was mine, and for a moment I was overcome. I came to a stop midway between the doors we had just passed and the ones ahead. They were open, and beyond them, the central staircase. The guards normally at the doors behind us were now at the further doors.

  “You won’t need as many guards now,” I said.

  “Let me handle that, Yalla,” Malta replied. She gestured. “Six doors on a side, but only four rooms.”

  “Will you show us, Malta?” I didn’t wait for a response, but I turned. “No one gets her own room. Think about what arrangements you like and which rooms appeal to you, but Lady Malta and I will make the final decisions. We will consider your desires, but you may not get what you want.”

  Then I turned back and took Malta’s arm.

  We started with the rooms on the right, the side facing the ocean. This was the same side as my quarters and the temple, and it was my favorite.

  None of the rooms were small, but two of them were twice as big as the others, with two doors to the corridor instead of one. The girls were looking all around, and their excitement was palpable. I believe that was when they realized, at least for a while, they were going to be living in the palace.

  I switched to Arrlottan and looked at Ralalta. I spoke slowly. “Mother, please find a chance to comment on the location of your rooms.”

  She glanced at the girls and nodded.

  And then Malta led the way across the hall. The room nearest the stairs was one door, but the next two were two doors wide. We moved into the first of them, and Ralalta stepped to the windows.

  “This is similar to the view from my quarters,” she said, using her “I will be heard” voice.

  “It is?” Tyreen prompted.

  “It is,” Ralalta confirmed. “The view of the ocean is lovely, but I believe a queen should look out over her subjects and the land she governs.” She gestured. “I love this view. I like looking down into the courtyard. It’s nearly directly below us here. But you can look over the wall and see the city beyond. Come look.”

  The girls all clustered around her, and the queen pointed out some of the visible sites. Even the adults looked.

  After that, we finished our tour. I collected everyone in the hallway. “We are not going to fill all these rooms,” I declared. “I believe we should use three of the large rooms with up to six girls in each. The last large room can be a common room. Two of the smaller rooms will remain free for expansion, and the other two will be study rooms. Lady Malta, is this possible?”

  “Yes, High Priestess.”

  “Larien. Terél. Comments?”

  “This is a good plan,” Terél said with a glance at Larien.

  “Your Majesty?”

  “This is y
our space,” she said. “Use it as you feel is best.”

  “Thank you.”

  “High Priestess,” Terél said. “You can leave the rest of this with me.”

  “Very good,” I said. “I wish us to meet in the temple once the girls are settled.”

  “Terél,” said Ralalta. “Please settle Tyreen and Gressa promptly and then send them to us in the parlor.”

  “Of course, Your Majesty.”

  With that, Ralalta collected my arm and pulled me from the room, Alta, Juleena, Larien, and Hallámierté following along behind us. We made our way back to the parlor, and Ralalta pulled me to the sofa beside her. The others took seats, and I turned to the queen. “You had more you wanted to say?”

  “There is a topic we haven’t addressed. You have noticed the ink stains upon the hands of your newest acolytes.”

  I grinned. “Oh, I certainly noticed they were all scribe guild apprentices.”

  “You wouldn’t necessarily know this, but twenty and four is old to remain an apprentice. Even ten and eight is a little old.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Perhaps we should ask about that.”

  “Perhaps we should,” agreed Ralalta.

  * * * *

  It was only a few minutes before there was a knock, and my call to “Enter” went unheeded. Eventually Larien got up to admit Tyreen and Gressa. “You wanted us, Your Majesty?”

  “Come in,” she said. She gestured to the sofa across from us, with space open specifically for them.

  “The protocol for private rooms is to knock and wait,” I said. “The protocol for public rooms is to knock, pause, and then enter. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, High Priestess,” Tyreen said.

  “Good. Sit.” I waited until they were settled, and then I said, “I imagine you are a little offended you will be sharing your room with children of six years old.” Neither of them said anything, either to confirm or deny my assertion, so I continued. “I considered other options, but until you are able to have this conversation in either Altearan or the Words of the Goddess, I want all of you together. And I expect you both to set good examples.”

  “Of course, High Priestess.”

  “Good. Tyreen, you were an apprentice scribe?”

  “Yes.”

  “I do not know how to ask this more delicately. Why are you still an apprentice?”

  “My master said I wasn’t ready to be declared a journeywoman.”

  “I see,” I said. “Gressa?”

  “I was preparing to stand for journeywoman when my hair changed,” she explained.

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “The different guilds do it differently,” Juleena explained. “But for some guilds, an apprentice who wishes to become a journeywoman presents herself before a panel of master craftsmen and women. They determine whether she is ready to represent the guild as a journeywoman. The process repeats, but is more formal, for full admittance into the guild as a master.”

  And then Ralalta added, speaking Altearan. “Sometimes a master holds gifted apprentices back so she may continue to require their services as an apprentice. It is a corrupt behavior, but the guilds are self-regulating, and I only become involved when someone presents a complaint. Even then, I nearly always have a talk with the leaders of the guild and ask them to police themselves.”

  I considered what she had said then turned back to the women on the other sofa. “Gressa, do you believe you would have been accepted?”

  “Yes,” she said. “My master was quite confident.”

  “When would you have stood before this panel?”

  “Soon. My master was scheduling a trip here for us.”

  “So you would have done this in Marport?”

  “Yes, High Priestess.”

  “My name is Yallameenara,” I said. “You may use it if you like.” I paused. “I don’t know how this works. But I think I would still like Gressa to stand before this panel. Can that happen?”

  “Yes,” Ralalta said. “It can. But her old master deserves to be there.”

  “Gressa, are you ready now, or do you require further preparation?”

  “I think I’m ready.”

  I smiled. “Good. Your master? Man? Woman?”

  “A man,” she replied. “My mother’s uncle.”

  “Oh,” I said. That would make him elderly. “Is the trip difficult for him?”

  “No. He comes to Marport two or three times a year.”

  “Did we take his only apprentices?”

  “Thera was apprentice to Great-Uncle Henrid’s sister-in-law, Emereldine. Master Henrid has another apprentice, his grandson. Emeraldine’s son and daughter are both apprentices to her.”

  I nodded. “Okay, good. Gressa, I want you to stand for journeywoman scribe.”

  “I’ll handle this, Yalla,” Larien said.

  “Unless it is inappropriate, I want to attend,” I added.

  “I’ll see to it,” Larien said.

  I turned my attention to Tyreen. “Were you a good apprentice?”

  She looked down and didn’t answer immediately. “My master said I was not.”

  “Did you try?”

  She looked up. “I worked very hard, and I’m a good girl.”

  She was twenty and four, but she thought of herself as a girl.

  “Your master was upset to see you go.”

  “Yes. She berated me.”

  “It wasn’t your fault the Goddess claimed you,” I said. “Larien, I wish a favor of the scribe guild. I want to know if Tyreen is misplaced as a scribe, or if her previous master did her a disservice. I find it unlikely the Goddess sent me a poor choice, so you know what I feel is most likely.”

  Larien nodded, and Juleena said, “If you have trouble achieving cooperation, we’ll visit them together.”

  “Thank you, Your Highness,” Larien said. “I’m sure it will be fine.”

  * * * *

  I kept my priestesses and acolytes, releasing Juleena, Alta, and Ralalta with a promise to see them soon for dinner. I wondered what I would do about that. At The Heart of the Goddess, I ate with my priestesses.

  But I moved everyone to the temple. While still in the corridor, I set my back to the doors and looked at everyone. “Behind me is the temple to our Prestainamatta, which means the Goddess close to my heart. Once I open these doors, you will immediately see a statue of the Goddess. We will go in and all kneel for a minute or two. Some like to kneel on one knee and some on two. You may do what you wish. In the future, you may wish to offer a silent prayer, or when there are fewer of us, you could offer your prayer aloud.”

  I paused, looking around. “I know this is strange for most of you, and you may not even be sure whether you wish to kneel to our goddess. You may not hold her close to your heart. But you will offer your respect.”

  Again I paused, letting that sink in. “I will give us all time to make a silent prayer, and then I will make a prayer aloud. When I am done, I will rise, and we will gather together and discuss the future. Before we step in, are there questions?”

  “Is she real?” Thera asked.

  “Do you have another explanation for your hair?” I countered.

  “Noooo,” she said slowly, fingering the tresses. “But...”

  “Yes, she is real. She is visible only to the high priestesses: myself, Mandi, and Nissi. But she offers evidence of her existence.”

  “We flew!” Mandi said. “We went to her home, and she hugged us, and then we were flying!”

  “Flying?” Thera asked. I could hear the doubt in her voice.

  “That is how she greets me,” I said. “We hug and kiss, and while we are hugging, simply from the joy, we find ourselves floating high in the air.”

  “The rest of us have all seen it,” Larien said. “Princess Juleena and Queen Ralalta have seen it.”

  Thera didn’t look convinced, but she nodded. “You said she loves me. She doesn’t even know me.”

  “And yet, she
loves all her priestesses.”

  “You said I’m only an acolyte.”

  “We are all priestesses, but you have much to learn.” She didn’t look convinced, but she set aside any other questions.

  “All right. When I pray, it will be in the Words of the Goddess. You will not understand, but I will tell you what I prayed after. Here we go.” I turned and set my hands on the doorknobs. I pulled the doors open and then swept in.

  Every time I entered the temple, I was filled with emotions, and this time was no different. I moved in, coming to a stop right in front of Yahamala’s statue. Then, slowly, I knelt, just like I often did. Behind and around me, the girls jostled a little, and they weren’t as graceful about it, but they all knelt.

  “This is only a statue,” I said, “but it is exactly in her likeness, and she made it herself. She says she hears the prayers made in this room. We will now all be silent.”

  I bowed my head.

  I didn’t typically pray this way. If I were going to pray to her, I did it aloud. And so I thought about what I wanted to say, and I thought about the changes, and the things that must happen. I thought of how much my Prestainamatta expected from me, how much she needed me to do.

  I really wished she’d been able to come with me. I could have used her right now.

  But I was quiet for a minute or two and hoped the girls had good thoughts. Finally I said, “I will pray now. This is in the Words of the Goddess.”

  I set my hands together and looked up into the face of the statue. “Yahamala,” I said, “Our Prestainamatta. I love you so much. You have left quite a surprise for me, and I wish you were here to help me look into the hearts of these girls. I am sure they are nervous, unsure what the future will bring. They must miss their old homes, their friends, and their families, and they now must trust me to take care of them. And so I hope you can help guide me, and give me your strength and your wisdom, so that I may lead them to your love.”

  I grew silent, and then I waited a moment. I was about to rise when I felt the Goddess enter me. I felt her magic stir, and then extend from me.

  “Clasp hands,” I whispered. “Everyone find a hand to clasp.” I reached to the side, and I found each hand clasped by two girls. I looked around. As more took hold, I felt each of them, everyone touching me through this chain. And I felt the magic grow and begin to spread outward.