by A. J. Adams
I became adept at helping out, but I hid the fact I had the sight and that my powers were growing. I was terrified the duke would find out. My visions reminded me regularly that Brighthelme would mean my living death, but as they also showed me the paths that led there, I was able to avoid them.
To stay safe, I limited my contact with the village and focused on my new home. I worked hard, planting my own herb garden and making my own tonics and medicines. In addition, I delivered babies, human and animal, and slowly I carved a place for myself.
While the Lady Divine was delighted by my good fortune, the Patriarch watched and burned with fury. There was nothing he could do about me, but he turned his attentions to the sisters.
“Freyja’s temple is a rich one. How lucky the sisters are!” He looked meek when he said it, but I was worried. Whenever the Patriarch came near me, all I felt were his hatred and greed.
I warned the Lady Divine. “He’s up to no good. Be careful. I think he wants to get rid of you.”
“Nonsense,” she scoffed. “You really have an overactive imagination, Bliss!”
But the Patriarch began giving little speeches. “The gold statue of Freyja in Llanfaes is a wonderful sight!” and “The Sisters of Freyja are noble indeed! They give their wealth to the shrine in honour of the goddess.”
At the same time, he was talking about his own people. “In the Vale we have many poor widows and orphans to support.”
“Because the Patriarch’s laws ensure that men inherit twice as much as women,” I reminded everyone. “It creates poverty.”
“Nonsense!” Courtney snapped. “No man would let a sister or mother go hungry! We’re not Beasts! They simply need our charity.”
Very soon the Patriarch was riding over every week for prayer meetings and collecting every spare copper he could put his hands on. “A gift to Ullr supports orphans and widows,” he preached.
My senses warned me the Patriarch was dangerous. However, my visions told me what would happen if I told the Lady Divine I was truly a sibyl. So I warned her without giving myself away. “The Patriarch wants money and power. He will have you sent away so he can take over as spiritual leader.”
“It will never happen,” she assured me. “Freyja loves us.”
“Lady Divine, you must remind the people who you are. The Patriarch is always identifying himself with Ullr, and boasting about how good he is. If you’re not careful, the villagers will forget about our Lady Goddess.”
“No, they won’t, Bliss. They love our sweet Freyja and the sisters who have served her for a thousand years.”
I tried and tried, but she wouldn’t listen. She was so secure in her ancestry, in her sisters, and in herself, that she didn’t have room for doubt. No matter what I said, I couldn’t get through to her.
Slowly the people worshipped less at the shrine, sent fewer gifts, and even Courtney began consulting the Patriarch.
“Speak up!” I urged the Lady Divine. “Remind them you represent the goddess!” But she was blind to her peril.
As I’d warned her, the villagers abandoned the Lady. After a year of poison, the sisters found themselves worshipping alone most days. Then, a week before Freyja’s Day, I found the shrine completely flooded thanks to a leaking roof.
“Nobody will help us,” the Lady Divine cried. Her pain hit me like a wave, bruising me with the force of it. “The villagers think we’re rich. They want us to pay them for their labour. But Bliss, we have no money!”
I went straight round to see Courtney. I found him at prayer with the Patriarch, but it didn’t stop me. “The sisters are in trouble! They’re sleeping in damp beds, with a leaking roof and flooded cellars. How could you let this happen?”
Courtney was defensive. “We’ve been helping the widows of the Vale. They have children to feed, you know.”
That’s when I lost it. “The Patriarch created poor kids and widows with his unfair laws!” I yelled at him.
The Patriarch was furious, the hate coming off him in black waves. “The servant of Ullr doesn’t listen to the spawn of evil Beasts!”
“I’m a child of Freyja, and the duke himself is my protector!”
It was enough to keep me safe, but the Patriarch simply announced, “The sisters have a century of gold stored in their temples. They can pay to have their shrine repaired.” He said it to Courtney, and then he went to the village and repeated it to every man there.
“We don’t!” The Lady Divine said, horrified. Finally worried, she went to confront the bugger. “Patriarch, we have no riches.”
The Patriarch was sugar-sweet and evil. “But dear sister,” he never gave her the proper title of Lady Divine, “There’s a gold statue of the goddess in Llanfaes.”
“It’s paint! We live here and work among the people. We have no worldly goods.”
But the poison had flowed too long, and the villagers believed the Patriarch.
“There is a gold statue in Llanfaes, I’ve seen it,” David said.
“I gave the goddess a copper every year when I was little,” Theta remembered. “I bet it all adds up.”
In a word, the villagers would not help.
“How can you treat them so?” I asked them. “They’ve always been so kind!”
“We have our own families,” Durwyn said. “We can’t keep them, too.”
“They’ll have riches in Llanfaes,” David agreed. “They’ll send them money.”
“They’re poor! As for collecting riches, the Patriarch is here every week, taking every spare copper you have!”
“That’s not for him but for the widows and orphans of the Vale.”
“You really think so? How come they can’t feed their own people? It’s not like the Vale is poor! They’re richer than us.”
“The poor of the Vale need us, and the sisters don’t.”
And no matter what I said, that’s what the villagers believed.
The Lady Divine was devastated. “We’re no longer wanted,” she said. “How can Freyja allow this?”
“We should have fought,” I told her sadly, “but now it’s too late.”
I foresaw their doom, but I didn’t foresee the well turning black. The water stank, clearly rancid. It happens sometimes, ground water can become contaminated, but I suspected the Patriarch of sabotage.
For one thing, he was there straightaway, dead keen to get rid of them. “Sisters, in your hour of need, the temple at Llanfaes will give you shelter!”
Llanfaes, a city a month’s journey away. It was the end of the world.
I went to Courtney. “Please, you’re the squire. Help them!”
“They’ll be happier in Llanfaes.”
In desperation, I wrote to the duke, begging him to help the sisters. I got his answer within a week: a rich blue woollen cloak and a note full of royal compliments that ended with, “Don’t fret, sweet Bliss. The sisters will be happy in Llanfaes, and Ullr will protect your village.” In other words, the duke didn’t give a damn.
The Patriarch knew the duke had abandoned them. “It’s Freyja’s will they seek sanctuary!” the cheeky bugger announced at a big prayer meeting. “Ullr guards us now.”
It was the end of the road for the sisters of the loving goddess.
I made a last-ditch effort to help, “You can stay with me at the lodge.”
“Bliss, we must serve the goddess at her temples,” the Lady Divine reminded me. “We have to face facts. We no longer have a place here. The priestess at the temple at Llanfaes has written most kindly. We will join her.”
Even in all her troubles, the Lady Divine thought of me. “You’re rich, and the squire is still single. You should marry him, Bliss.”
“Be a meek mother, you mean?”
“Ignore the Patriarch! There are plenty of happily married women.”
She’d seen what the villagers were like, and yet she was still a romantic.
“If he asks me, I’ll consider it!” There was no way I was going to partner with the we
ak-minded, cowardly fool. But I knew better than to say so. It would only worry her, and she’d been kind to me all her life. “Don’t worry, Lady Divine. I’ll be fine. And next year I will visit you at Llanfaes.”
And on that note, the sisters gathered up their few belongings and left. I was still crying my eyes out after having waved goodbye when Courtney pitched up.
He was riding a white horse, a beautiful animal with a long silky mane and a gorgeous thick tail. If he’d had any sense of style, he would have ridden a mule, because the contrast between him and his steed made him ridiculous. Courtney eats and drinks too much, so he’s thickset and brick-faced. It was like seeing a pig mounted on a unicorn.
“A sad day,” he said cheerfully. “You’ll be lonely, Bliss.”
What I felt was a giant hole where my heart used to be, but I tried to be brave. “Yes, but I can go visit them next summer.”
“It’s not the same.”
“No.” And if the Patriarch hadn’t forced them out, with Courtney’s help and that of the duke, this wouldn’t have happened. I was sick at the betrayal.
“The Patriarch is right, a woman without a man is a ship without a sail,” Courtney continued. “You need guiding and protecting.”
More like exploiting and bullying. I was furious but didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to kill him.
“Our Patriarch’s been very concerned about you,” Courtney was on a roll. “This will relieve his mind.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, it was his idea that we make a match of it.”
“I’m a foundling, and you’re the squire.”
“The duke favours you, and that makes you a princess.” Courtney had clearly been practicing his courtly charm. It made me feel queasy instead of flattered.
Courtney didn’t realise, so he was talking happily. “We’ll have kids, Bliss. That will keep you busy. And I will take care of the property. You’ve some woods that can be logged, and there are grass meadows we can rent out.”
From the way Courtney was burbling, he and the weasel Patriarch had it all planned. His mind was filled with the vision of gold. No doubt half my rents would go into the Patriarch’s pockets.
“I’m glad the sisters are gone,” Courtney said. “They were a bad influence on you.”
While I wanted to yell, I remembered how the Patriarch had manoeuvred the sisters into exile. Being upfront was dangerous. I was considering my options when Courtney leaned towards me and kissed me.
It was like being slapped in the lips with a week-old dead herring. Slimy, scaly and with a lingering wetness that made me shudder all the way to my toes. I swear the hair on the back of my neck stood up. In a word, it was revolting.
Courtney had no clue. “Maybe the duke himself will come and bless our marriage bed.”
The thought of being defiled by the porky squire made me heave. Bliss in my bed and her money in my coffers; his thoughts were as foul as his kisses. I stepped away, determined he would never have me.
“You know, the Patriarch used to worry that you are a witch.” Courtney was smiling, but tension suddenly streamed from him. “Of course, that’s nonsense. Witches are evil. They don’t save the duke and live in Freyja’s shrine.”
I didn’t need a vision to tell me this was trouble. Having power is dangerous. There’s a sibyl at Brighthelme and another at Haven, plus seers at the temples of Apollo and Freyja in Llanfaes and Caern. They are honoured, but others haven’t fared so well.
Those who have the gift of prophecy are examined to see if their power comes from the gods or the darkness. Those who pass are sequestered, like the sibyl in Brighthelme. Only dukes and senior priests have access to the sibyls. As for those who fail the tests, they are burnt at the stake. In Caern they stun you with rum and smoke. In Brighthelme you go screaming.
“The Patriarch said that you were never examined,” Courtney said, “but as the duke himself is your guardian, I don’t see how that matters.”
The Patriarch was moving against me, and if I wasn’t careful, I’d not go into exile like the sisters but to my death.
I was safe under the duke’s protection, but I had no doubt that the Patriarch would try to overturn that if he saw the chance. And after the duke’s complete disinterest in the fate of the sisters and my own uselessness to him, I couldn’t risk depending on the noble.
Courtney was looking sleek and triumphant. “Well, Bliss, will you name our wedding day?”
As he put his hand on mine, I felt his burgeoning lust. I’ll rent out her lodge, and I won’t see those alien eyes in the dark. And with those hips, she’ll bear strong sons.
Again, his basic distrust and lust for my property battered my senses. I hadn’t seen this, so I had no visions to guide me. I knew that as the squire’s wife I’d be safe forever from the Patriarch, but the thought of belonging to those fish lips made me shudder.
Just then the sun came from behind the clouds, and I was struck by inspiration. Channelling the Brighthelme sibyl, I shuddered dramatically. “Is that you, my Lady?”
Call me a cheat, a bitch, or a liar, but I faked a vision. Yup, complete with shaking, quaking and wailing. “Sweet goddess! I hear your cries of warning!”
It wouldn’t have fooled the Lady Divine for a second, but Courtney was in awe. “She spoke to you? Freyja herself?”
I stood tall and looked serious. “Yes. She’s jealous, Courtney. And angry.”
It worked a treat. “Angry?” Courtney gasped.
Putting on my holiest face, imitating the Patriarch, I intoned, “Lady Freyja demands my purity.”
After that, it would’ve taken a personal visit by the goddess herself to persuade Courtney to marry me.
“I’m not risking divine wrath,” he whispered. “We all honour your purity, Bliss!”
I was safe in my freedom, but I knew it was safer to have Courtney on my side. “We shall always be friends,” I told him.
“Of course.”
“If it hadn’t been for the goddess...” I sighed sadly. “The Lady is jealous, Courtney.”
At that, his pride was soothed. He took my hand. “Poor Bliss. But you will have a rich life as the Lady’s favoured child.”
“Yes, and you know that both of us are on your side.”
“My side?”
I opened my eyes wide. “The Patriarch wants to rule Salvation, Courtney.”
“Nonsense!” But like all nobles, he was already worried. The Patriarch is a holy man! Surely Bliss is wrong! But she’s beloved of the goddess.
I read him easily and hit home hard. “The Patriarch lusts after power. The kind you have.”
“He can’t be squire. He’s a priest!”
“The Patriarch was a simple priest in the Vale, but now he rules completely.”
At that, Courtney looked thoughtful. “The judges there were incompetent.”
“Since when has that mattered?”
“Bliss!”
“The Patriarch also made himself tax collector. He loves money and power, Courtney, and if you’re not careful, he’ll try to take over here.”
“It couldn’t happen in Salvation.” But Courtney was worried. I felt nervous tension coming off him in waves. Fear and suspicion swirled through him. Nobles are always worried about their property, and Courtney was right up there when it came to paranoid. Like the duke, the squire was always seeing plots. “He wouldn’t dare!”
“All I’m saying is that you need to watch your back.” I leaned in and whispered. “I can’t be your wife, Courtney, but just as the duke has his sibyl, I will be here for you.”
“But you don’t have visions, do you?”
“Actually, I have had some dreams recently.” I tried to think of something useful but dull. “Just weather predictions and seeing Fowler’s lost cow.”
Of course he couldn’t resist. “Really? May the goddess bless you!” He patted my hand. I might have my own sibyl! Just like the duke! Courtney was happy, thinking he’d exploit me. Even so, he was ca
reful. “Tell me about all your visions, Bliss. I shall guide you! And the second you see something important, I will send to the duke myself!”
“Absolutely,” I replied piously.
The Patriarch was furious that I’d wriggled out of the trap he’d set, but he was a sneak, so he never confronted me directly. We fought a secret war, badmouthing each other with honeyed tones.
As I lived in the village, well, near to it, and he was based in the Vale, I had the upper hand. Much to the old fat gut’s annoyance, I began invoking the name of the goddess.
“Freyja loves you!” I sang the mantra at every chance. “She blesses the herbs that heal us. Call on me when you’re sick.”
“Prayer is all that’s needed to heal,” the Patriarch bounced back. “Just ask Ullr for his blessing.”
The gods watch over us and sometimes play tricks on us, but I’ve never heard of one who bothers with colds and sniffles. With the sisters gone, I became the only healer, so when the villagers turned to me for help, I copied the Patriarch’s trick and took everything as a sign of the goddess’s favour.
“Freyja is pleased. She gives me healing power so that I may help you. Bless Lady Freyja!”
I wasn’t shy about speaking up for the duke, too. “Our liege loves us and cares for us like a father. I am his special charge, you know. Bless our royal duke!”
The Patriarch raged at this, but even he was weary of responding. Nobles have a way of indulging popular priests, but they’re jealous of their power and will deal with any threats with a sword.
He tried to get to Courtney, of course, “The Beast’s daughter has too much influence.”
“Now the sisters are gone, she’s the one who heals the sick.”
The Patriarch then went for his favourite subject: money. “Has she paid all her taxes? I will investigate.”
That was a mistake because Courtney recognised an attempt to usurp his authority. “Patriarch, please remember that I represent the duke here!”
When he told me about it, I rubbed it in. “Told you! The Patriarch wants to be judge and tax collector. Watch your back, Courtney!”
