by Viola Grace
Lieta poured her enthusiasm for life into her dancing. This was something that everyone did equally, no matter their talent.
She spun, jumped, landed and laughed while kicking up her heels and moving with energy until she was pleasantly tired.
The music slowed suddenly and Muraz pulled her against him. The robes were thick enough for decency but thin enough that she could feel the heat from his body. Her hands were flat on his shoulders and they were both sweating. The torches were being extinguished and the moonlight painted them with cool colours. When she yawned and swayed against him, she felt his silent chuckle through her palms.
Lieta looked up at him and smiled. “Yes, I know I need to get some sleep.”
“If only for the sake of the musicians. They don’t want to disappoint you and they are exhausted. It has been all hands to the harvest.”
She paused. “Right.”
Lieta eased herself out of his arms and nodded to the brothers and sisters still playing the instruments. They stopped with relief. Fingers were stretched and lips were massaged.
With a smile, she pulled out a new trick, formed particles of light in her hand and blew them toward the musicians where they clung and glittered on faces and hands. “Thank you.”
Each bit of light carried gratitude with it and they would feel it until the morning.
Muraz asked, “What was that?”
“A thank you. We don’t use money as you know by now. I met a woman whose child had been taken apart by a madman and she thanked me with light, so I kept the skill, though I could not heal her loss.”
She began walking into the abbey proper with Muraz at her side. She clarified her position. “I accept you as my shadow, as part of your probation. You are not my mate, nor my friend.”
He nodded and led her to the open door in the couples’ quarters.
She poured water into the washbowl and splashed it on her face before leaving and using the restroom down the hall. She returned to the bedroom and he was already in bed, his robe folded neatly on the chest next to the footboard. He politely turned his back as she unwrapped her sash and folded her own robe.
She slid between the cool sheets and pulled them up over her shoulders. Muraz turned until he faced her. “Your people here love you. There is not one element of fear when they speak of you.”
She smiled and shifted to lie on her belly. “Why would there be? I was raised with them. I have guarded them since I lost my first tooth.” She inhaled and the cool and familiar scent of the pillows was relaxing. They had brought her pillow from her room.
“Why don’t you have any personal effects?”
She sighed and turned her head toward his. “Because I don’t need them. I currently am collecting clothing, though. I don’t know what else to do with it.”
“I apologize about your gown. They are teaching me to weave, so I will make you a replacement.”
She looked at the hand resting on the covers. Imagining it doing any weaving was very amusing. “Good. I will forgive you when I have that gown.”
“Incentive to learn quickly. Good night, Lieta.” He leaned in and kissed her forehead.
“Good night, Muraz. Stop glowing. I want to get some sleep.”
He laughed and shut down his glow. She didn’t know who had shown him how to do it, but it was the same glow she was named after.
She slept surprisingly well.
Lieta had never been in this position before. She opened her eyes and moved slowly, trying to pry herself away from Muraz without waking him.
“You crawled on top of me at false dawn, but you seemed comfortable, so I didn’t move you.”
She felt his voice as much as heard it. She couldn’t help it; she was plastered on top of him with her head on his shoulders and the rest of her resting on the rest of him.
“I apologize. It was not my intent to ruin your sleep.” She casually looked around but the sheets were out of her reach.
“I will close my eyes if that will help.”
She looked up at him and he was grinning. He was fully aware of her conundrum. Finally, she sighed and pried her body from his, rolling to the side and landing on the cold bed with a bounce.
She stood and shivered, cleaning her skin with a wave of power.
“Will you show me how to do that?” He got to his feet and stretched without a morsel of humility. He should be proud; he was lovely.
Sighing, she walked around the bed and took his hands. She ran the cleaning cycle from her body to his and his body took it up in reaction. She saw the wave move up his arm, fluff his hair and leave his skin softly shining.
“Good morning, Muraz.” She pulled her hands away and opened the chest, sending their robes sliding to the bed.
Her plain gown was there and she slipped it over her head with a relieved sigh. With quick motions, she tied her hair in a knot at the base of her neck.
He put on an acolyte robe and smiled. “What are we doing today?”
She smiled at the normality that clothing brought. “I will speak to Sister Esrai about the progress of the harvest and look to bringing in our herd. You will enjoy that. It is a delicate procedure that is rather invigorating.”
“I look forward to your instruction.”
“Oh. You won’t. Trust me on that. This is going to get rough. Make sure to eat your breakfast. You will need all the help you can get.” She grinned and walked through the halls with her shadow.
She was going to put him through his paces and enjoy every moment of it. He was going to be sore tonight.
Chapter Eight
Wrangling the beasts down from the high mountains was always her duty. Lieta enjoyed it on several levels.
“So, we fly up to the high mountains and we herd the goats down to the valley floor where we shut them in, separating the females with suckling kids from the others for the winter. The females and kids will be slowly herded across the valley to the abbey dairy for the winter. This keeps them safe, lets the males and the unbred females mingle and gets us some cheese to begin ripening over the winter.”
“Why leave the other goats where the winter could get at them?” Muraz was concerned and it was nice to see.
“The goats have thick hides and can weather the winter with ease. The females with kids provide milk for a few months after their little one is weaned, and that is the milk we use. The small ones are safe for their first year and the following winter they will be with their herd, as will their mothers.”
“So the cheese on the table…”
“Was made last winter. It is an abbey speciality. We send it out in the spring on our trading caravan.”
“So, the abbey is kept busy all year round? Where is the dairy?”
She laughed. “I will show you. Are you ready to fly?”
“You actually fly? I thought my mind was making that up as I blacked out.” He smiled.
She lifted her empty plate and took it to the washing bin where Sister Venila was waiting to scrub it. The pregnancy was moving along well. Venila did her chores and spent the rest of the time learning the skills prized at the abbey. It was good to see her flourishing.
Muraz was right behind her.
Venila made eye contact and smiled, jerking her head at Muraz and waggling her eyebrows.
Lieta sighed and turned away. Her lack of a sex drive was legendary.
She led Muraz out through the front gates and down the pathway toward the orchard with her pack on her back and his slung casually over one shoulder.
“Why don’t you just take off from within the abbey?”
Lieta sighed. “It is one thing for them to know that I can copy any talent, another to see me using one that I copied when I was a child.”
“You said you can teach me to fly?” He looked at her with hopeful eyes.
“First, I will show you, then I will teach you. This way.” They passed through the orchard and stepped down a hill, moving toward th
e foothills.
Once they were at a position where they would be unable to be seen by the casual observer at the abbey, she turned. “Take my hands.”
He did as she asked and she concentrated. “Bend your knees slightly.”
He did.
She pushed upward and pulled him with her. The bent knees helped her go up and away, and she took him with her. She heard him yelp in surprise but it was a swift trip through the mountains that brought them to the high herding grounds.
He was breathing heavily when she landed. His knees locked up, so she dropped him on his butt. She stared down at him and smiled. “How do you like flying?”
He rolled over and threw up the breakfast she had forced him to eat.
“Oh dear.” When he sat up, she pulled a gentle rain together over his face, cooling his skin.
“I don’t think flying is going to be an occupation I enjoy.” He drank the rain and his expression became blissful.
“You don’t have to like every talent you see, but flying is one you do need to master if you are going to be my shadow.”
He grimaced and opened his eyes. “I really don’t want to.”
“Well, get on your feet and you will get some low-height training.” She smiled. “If you want to bathe, there is an exceptionally icy lake down this pathway. The goats are nearby they enjoy the grasses around the lake.”
He nodded. “I think I would like to start this day over.”
“Come on. We will start with a cold swim.” She led the way through the small opening in the stone, and after twenty feet, it opened up to show the crystal blue lake surrounded by the lush green and lavender grasses.
When he could see it, he ran past her and was out of his robe and boots in seconds. He dove into the water and bellowed in surprise.
He wasn’t blue when he went in, but he was when he came out.
She stifled her grin and walked up to him, wrapping her arms around him and radiating heat. He clutched at her and shivered violently for a few minutes until he was radiating the heat and she was shivering, but cold wasn’t involved.
He lifted her chin with two fingers and kissed her with slow care. She went up on her toes and wrapped her hands around the back of his neck.
She heard the goats in the background and ignored them. Learning that her blood could fire in her veins was something that she did not expect to discover on a mission for goats.
Lieta broke the kiss. “We have a task to complete.”
He smiled. “I know.”
“And that goat is making off with your robes.”
He cursed and let her go, taking off to rescue his clothing from the four-foot-high beasty.
Muraz wrestled with the beast for possession of his clothing and was successful.
She laughed and retrieved his boots and pack to save them from any curious goats.
He pulled his robe back on and ran the cleaning technique that she had shown him that morning. There was still a chewed hole in his shoulder but the rest was intact.
Lieta was still smiling. “If you put anything down for more than a minute, they will investigate by tearing it to pieces. I have flown home naked twice because of them. This is neither the time nor the place for romantic contact.”
He grimaced. “I am getting that idea. So, how do we do this?”
“We walk to the point where the lake meets the stone and we clap. The goats know what to do from there.”
She hoisted her pack and set off while he was busy pulling his boots on.
The herd looked sparse, only a few beasts here and there, but the moment they started moving, the few was going to look like many very quickly.
He followed her, and half an hour later, they stood on the promontory between water and stone.
“So, is this some kind of sonic event, some strange talent you are going to share with me?”
“No, this is using natural acoustics. Clap like this.” She held out her hands and brought them together in three short bursts, two with pauses and three more.
The goats lifted their heads and began to bleat.
Muraz was amused, but he mimicked the pattern and the beasts turned and ambled out a small crack in the stone face that guarded the lake.
“How do they know how to do that?”
She smiled and slowly began to follow the goats. “They know it because they have been doing this for dozens of generations, long before I was born. The abbey has always used the goats and they have flourished under our care.”
“It seems everyone who enters the abbey flourishes.” He walked with her. “May I ask you some questions?”
“Certainly.”
“Did you ever fear Mother and Father?”
It was a simple question and she gave him a simple answer. “Yes. They are ancient and no one knows how long they have been here and they will never be specific. Their original form is unknown and they won’t say. They are both natural and alien at the same time. It is frightening, and each time they link with my mind, there is so much power pressing in on me, I feel terrified. That said, I am also never more cherished and protected than when I am linked with them.”
“That is honest. Do they know?”
She gave him a sidelong glance. “Of course they do. They know what they are, but they keep their secrets. May I ask you a question?”
“Fair is fair.” He smiled.
“Did you ever meet the Aruda on your home world? There had to have been some at one point.”
“No. Until I came here, I would never have thought to look. I didn’t know that this species even existed, let alone that it was encoded in my genes.”
“I didn’t know that I wasn’t the only one of my kind and that a bunch of the others were power-mad jackasses. Every day is another chance to learn.”
They followed the goats through the narrow path and down the mountainside in a progress lost to time.
Every now and then, Muraz would ask a question about life in the abbey or how she could so easily master new skills. She answered question after question until they made it down to the wintering valley.
“How do we get the kids and mothers separate from the rest?” Muraz was looking nervous at the flock, as it was obviously over two thousand milling and bleating goats.
She smiled and whistled in a lilting tone, over and over until the small creatures with floppy ears made a beeline for her. Their mothers came after them.
“How do you do that?”
“I was trained by Brother Eycar. Bringing in the flock had been his duty. I took over from him when he wasn’t able to make the journey. He enjoyed it.”
She whistled again and more of the little ones separated from the flock until there were over one hundred mothers and kids milling near her. She took a snack from her pack and ate as she walked. Muraz followed her example and every few hundred yards she whistled again until they were on the way down a gentle slope and heading toward a barn.
“Who feeds them?”
“Brother Frimin is the primary on winter duty here this year. The seven here will be checked on every week and spend their time in meditation and communication with Mother and Father. They keep this area green and lush for the kids and the mothers. Winter doesn’t touch it and there is a spring and plenty of fresh water, grass and light. Everything that they need.”
“Why is it important to separate them from the herd?”
She sighed, whistled again and kept walking, leading her fluffy parade. “If we don’t separate them, a good quantity of the kids die and then the females go into season immediately. Overbreeding isn’t good for them. If we keep the kids with them as long as possible, they won’t breed again for two years.”
“So, population control and keeping the species healthy is a good thing. I am just surprised that they go along with it.”
“They were raised this way and their mothers were raised this way. It is in them after one generation. The offspring brings a w
arm winter. They know it and expect it. We can’t stop now.”
She whistled and the doors of the barn opened. Brothers and sisters streamed out with supplemental hay and troughs that they filled with water. The goats took it from there.
Lieta watched the beasts walk toward the brothers and sisters without fear. “I envy them the simple life.”
“The monks or the goats?” Muraz was amused.
She snorted. “Both. Ah well. Time to go home. It is a twelve-hour walk or a half-hour flight. Which are you up for?”
He visibly paled at the mention of flying. “Which way are you getting home?”
“I am flying. If you want to walk, tell the monks and they will show you the tunnels.” She refastened the back of her pack and slipped it over her shoulders.
She smirked. “You won’t get sick if you do your own flying.”
“What?”
“If you control the motion of your, body you won’t get motion sick. Come on, we will fly, and if not, I will see you at dawn tomorrow.”
She lifted off and left him on his own. He had the power and the skills to use them if he was brave enough.
Time would tell.
Chapter Nine
She landed in the orchard and checked the skies. She squinted and there he was, skimming along the edge of the mountains.
His landing wasn’t graceful, but it was solid. She helped him up and put his arm around her shoulders, walking him through the trees as they prepared for their winter sleep and into the abbey.
Instead of going through the public areas, she skimmed along the outer walkways and headed straight for the bathing pools.
She aimed him sideways through a crack in the stone just wide enough for his body and she pushed him through.
“Where are we going?” He was dazed.
“Special pool. Be quiet and relax.”
The hall was several metres long, but eventually, they emerged and she eased him onto a bench. With the ease of practice, she removed his boots, and with a grin, she slit the robe off him with nails turned to claws.
