The sun moved toward the horizon. At regular intervals, they stopped to drink water and eat fruit and meat saved from the previous day’s meals at the inn.
Ria dropped to her knees. “I can go no further. Too tired. Too weak.”
“You must. Night will come soon and the lopestas will slither from the rocks. We have no wood for a fire. Get up. The grove isn’t far.”
“Can’t.” She sprawled on her belly.
Ari scooped her into his arms and draped her over Bera’s back. After gathering both ropes, he strode forward. Another day of rest would have seen her stronger, but he hadn’t been willing to risk discovery by the priestesses.
As the sky darkened, he heard the skittering sound of the night creatures. The moon edged into the sky. Just as they reached the edge of the grove, he heard the click of the lopesta’s pincers. He turned his head. The creature scuttled toward Bera. The burro squealed and bolted for the grass. Ari and Ber raced after the other burden beast. Ria’s body bounced and Ari feared she would fall. Though he wanted to face the lopesta, he knew he had no chance of surviving an encounter. Fire was the only way to destroy them.
When they reached the trees, Ari saw the lopesta settle at the edge of the grass. The creature balanced on its tail and the large claws opened and closed. The sight sent chills along his spine. The stone beneath his tunic pulsed. He thought about using the crystal against the lopesta but knew the flames he called from the fyrestone weren’t powerful enough. He lifted a rock that lay on the grass and threw it at the creature. The lopesta fell from its perch and slithered away. Ari laughed. He had no idea why the creatures couldn’t enter the grove, but he thanked the fates for the escape.
He led the burros through the brush and trees searching for a campsite. The beasts pulled ahead and he had to trot to keep up with them. They entered a clearing where a spring flowed into a stone basin. Ari lifted Ria from Bera and placed her on the ground beneath a walnuss tree.
Ria stirred. “Ari.”
He touched her head. “We’re in the grove. How do you feel?”
“Tired, and you?”
“Hungry.” For food. For you. He nearly spoke of his growing desire to feel her beneath him, to thrust inside and ride her to fulfillment. Even exhaustion hadn’t dampened his need to delve into her depths.
“Did you carry me here?”
He shook his head. “I loaded you on Bera. We reached the grove with a lopesta nipping at Bera’s hooves.” He rose. “I must tend to the burros and build a fire. Just rest.”
“Why didn’t you leave me in the waste?”
He brought her hand to his lips. “I couldn’t do that any more than I could have left you in Rosti.
* * *
Ria pushed her aching body into a sitting position. If they’d been at the inn, she could have soaked in the tub. She should help Ari, but when she tried to stand, she could rise no farther than her knees. She sank back, closed her eyes and drifted. Ari’s return startled her. He handed her a mug of cold water and placed a bowl of plump dates on the ground. She bit into one and savored the sweetness.
Ari sat beside her and fished out a date. “I wish we could have waited another day.”
She sipped the water. “We had to leave. If we stayed, Malera would have found me. She would have punished you for helping me.” Just thinking about the chief priestess made Ria’s stomach knot. “Since she knows I’m alive, she’ll seek me through the flames.”
“If she finds you, can she hurt you?”
“Now that she has a fyrestone and I have none, she can use the flames against me.”
“If you had a stone, could you win?”
“Maybe.”
“Are you sure you’re the one who destroyed the crystals? Maybe Malera was at fault.”
Ria frowned. “Malera said ‘twas me.”
Ari moved to the fire circle. “Will you be able to travel tomorrow?”
“I’ll do my best.”
He brought their blanket rolls and set water to heat. Ria watched him work. She wanted him to kiss her again. He had saved her life. She’d seen need in his eyes and felt it in his touch. She wanted to give him what he desired. She closed her eyes to think about Ari and to discover what her urges meant.
When she opened them again, she felt famished. Sunlight flooded the clearing. She stared at the sky. Midday? She sat up and looked for Ari. “Why didn’t you wake me?”
He turned from the fire. “I haven’t been awake all that long. Yesterday was long and busy. We needed the rest. Come and eat. I set snares and caught two lopears.”
She stretched. “Let me wash and see to other needs.”
He pointed to a dense cluster of bushes. “There’s a pit beyond the tangle.”
Ria soon discovered what he meant. A short time later, she walked to the spring and washed in the pool. She changed her small clothes and rinsed the ones she’d worn the day before. After spreading the wet things on the bushes to dry, she set about gathering some of the cress that grew near the spring.
When she returned to the campsite, Ari handed her a portion of the food. “Will you miss the temple?”
“Some.” She dipped a mug of tea from the pot. “I won’t return to the temple.”
“Why not?”
“I have no fyrestone. The only way for me to enter the temple again would be for me to challenge Malera and win. Even if I bowed to her, she would never forget I almost defeated her. I’m a danger to her position as chief priestess.”
Ari bit into his portion of the lopear. Ria tasted hers and found the flavor delicious. She glanced at her companion. The heat in his eyes made her feel as though a river of fire flowed beneath her skin.
She wanted something she had no words to voice. As a girl child of the clans, once she’d reached her eighth birthday, she’d been kept close to the women. As an acolyte in the temple, other than the guards and an occasional petitioner, she’d had no interactions with men. Her teachers had cautioned against union with men. They’d told her if she joined with one before she gained mastery of the fyrestones, she would become a living torch.
Had that been another of their lies? She would never know. No matter what she’d been taught, and though she hadn’t been welcomed into the ranks of the priestesses, she had used the scarlet crystal. She no longer wanted a place in the temple, not while Malera was chief priestess.
Ria finished the meat and cress. “We should leave.”
Ari caught her hand. “We could rest until tomorrow.”
She lifted the burros’ pads. “I’m stronger than I was yesterday. There’s a good part of the day left.”
* * *
On the morning of Solstice day, Ria and Ari were camped at the edge of the grove. She turned to him. “Where are the hills where we’ll find the fyrestones?”
“North and west.”
“Will we reach there soon?”
He shook his head. “Not for several ten-day. The waste is wide on this side of the grove. Before we go into the hills, there’s a hamlet I must visit. Today, we’ll see to our traps and snares and gather wood for fires at night.”
“Why must you visit a hamlet?”
He stared at the ground. “An old friend told me of a place where I might learn about my parents.”
“What if Malera sends guards after us?”
“She might, but not for several days. The guards will be needed to keep the celebration from turning into riots.” He slid his arm around her waist.
She looked away. “Being so close to you makes me feel strange.” She pressed her hands against her abdomen. “'Tis like your touch and your gaze kindle a fire.”
He brushed his lips over hers. “What does this do?”
“Makes the flames burn hotter.”
He pulled her against his chest. “This is the year’s longest day. We will have time for pleasure.”
Ria pressed against him. “Show me now.”
He grinned. “’Twill be better for the waiting. We must check t
he traps and snares. The catch must be smoked so ‘twill last for our time on the waste. When the moon rises, we’ll have our pleasure.”
Ria followed him to where he’d set the traps. “Did you know grass and trees once covered the ground from the hills in the north to the sea in the south? The teachers at the temple said man’s greed destroyed the land and created the wastes.”
“They’re wrong.” Ari took a grass hen from a snare. “Fire was used. The priestesses sent the flames against people who refused to bow to them.”
“How do you know this?”
“’Tis a common tale among the people. The second waste was created by Malera’s predecessor when she sent fire against priestesses who fled from the temple.”
Ria thought of Malera’s command to use fire to destroy the herds, flocks, fields, and orchards, of Gydon. As a child, she’d heard tales of how the clans had fled from fires raging out of control. “You could be right. I wish I’d had more time to spend in the scriptorium. Surely the truth is contained in one of the scrolls.” She added three grass hens to the one she took from Ari. “I’ll clean these and put them in the smoker.”
“Leave one for our evening meal.”
* * *
On Solstice Day when the first rays of the sun lit the sky, Malera entered the rotunda. ‘Twas nearly time for the procession to the square where the fire would be lit. She tapped her sandaled foot against the tiles. Impatiently, she waited for the acolytes, priestesses, and musicians, to assemble. Once all had gathered, Malera led the way down the fyrethorn-lined lane.
She glanced at the gap where Ria had broken through the hedge. Anger flared. The rebellious acolyte’s bones should have been ready to use as starters for the fire.
With difficulty, she turned her attention to the coming ceremony. Twice each year, she and the priestesses joined the commoners to welcome the new season. Each of the alders from the other hamlets would return home with a coal from the solstice fire to light the hearths in their homes.
The guards formed lines on either side of the procession. They held themselves ready to keep the commoners from touching the priestesses. The temple musicians marched at the rear of the line. Drums sounded with a deep, sonorous beat. Malera’s heart rate matched the steady rhythm. Sistharas and flute music rose in eerie melodies.
As the procession reached the lines of people who gathered in expectation, Malera noticed how they swayed in time with the music. When the marchers reached the square, the guards formed a circular barrier to keep the people at bay.
Malera listened to the murmuring voices. She felt the anticipation vibrating in the air. After she lit the pyre, the people would shout hosannas. All for her. Only for her. Today, she was Fyre Incarnate.
She led the line of priestesses around the stacked logs. The musicians gathered beneath the elevated platform where she would stand to call fire. Three times in a clockwise path and three counter clockwise, the priestesses marched. The acolytes raised their white crystals. The priestesses held their yellow and orange stones aloft.
With slow and measured steps, Malera climbed the stairs to the platform. The drumbeats matched her gait. At the top, she raised the scarlet fyrestone. A collective sigh rose from the crowd. As she saluted the cardinal points, the scarlet crystal glinted in the sunlight. She felt the stones of her necklace and girdle heat.
The flutes wailed a high and eerie melody above the song of the sistharas and the pulse of the drums. Chants rose from the commoners. “Solstice. Solstice. Fire. Fire.”
Malera faced the pyre. The sun appeared to swell and brighten. Tiny flames rose from the white stones. Yellow and orange spears of fire blended with the white. Malera called a blaze from the scarlet. She drew all into a fiery dome above the tower of wood.
Smoke trickled, and then formed a cloud. The pyre burned. Malera formed the flames into a sheet. Though Ria had failed to punish Gydon for refusing to pay the tithe, a reckoning was at hand and the commoners would see the results of rebellion.
Malera laughed. “Hear me, people of Rosti and those who have journeyed from hamlets near and far to celebrate the solstice. This is Gydon, a hamlet that will not pay the tithe. They have children to sell, yet they have not done so. They deny the temple and the priestesses their due. Bear witness to their punishment.”
The hamlet of Gydon sprang into view. Malera expanded the picture to show the fields, orchards, the flocks, and herds. The gasps of the gathered crowd pleased her. Seldom were they witnesses to the power of the fyrestones. She sent arrows of flames to destroy the hamlet’s livelihood.
Screams rose from the people gathered in the square. Malera’s laughter rose in pitch. “See what happens to those who defy the temple. When you leave, carry this lesson with you.” Elation filled her with a need she must satisfy before she became a living torch consumed by the energy flowing through her body. The flames from the stones ebbed and died. The total destruction of Gydon would wait for another day.
Malera lowered her arms. As she left the platform, visions of the stone seeker filled her thoughts. She made her way down the steps and waited for the priestesses, acolytes, and musicians, to form a line.
She led the procession to the temple. As before, the guards formed a barrier to protect the priestesses from the adulation of the gathered people. Malera’s body pulsed with energy and her thoughts buzzed with excitement. Her nether lips throbbed. She searched the lines of men waiting to enter the rotunda for the face of the man she desired. She didn’t see him, but he would come. Perhaps he hadn’t known the invited men usually arrived in the temple lane when the procession left for the square?
Once the procession entered the rotunda, Malera sent the acolytes to the dormitory. Until they were tested in the circle, they were banned from the celebration. She frowned. Ria would have joined the celebration for the first time. Malera had looked forward with eager anticipation to guiding her heir through her first sexual encounters.
Malera’s hands clenched. Enough thinking of what would never be. She ordered a maidservant to fetch the harras males who would serve wine and food to the guests, or service those men who needed encouragement.
The musicians gathered next to the doorway leading to the inner chamber. They began to play a sensual invitation to those who would participate in the celebration that would last until well after the sun set. Malera strode to the entrance. She tore her caftan from her body and beckoned to the waiting men. As the guests moved toward her, she accepted a glass of wine. The men filed past her and she marked those she intended to use. Where was the stone seeker? Had he been trapped by the crowds and unable to reach the temple?
She gestured to a man in height and coloring similar to the man she craved. “Pleasure me.”
He knelt and grasped her hips. She threaded her fingers in his hair. As her body convulsed in climax, she imagined he was the stone seeker. When the last of the aftershocks ended, she stepped away. The look in the man’s eyes made her smile. He rose. His rod was engorged. He wanted her, but he would have to attend to himself. She moved to a second man. Four climaxes, though strong, couldn’t divert her thoughts from the sun-bronzed stone seeker.
Where was he? She had commanded him to come. She slipped into the inner chamber. There, she cupped the scarlet crystal and conjured his face and body. A scene unfolded. He strode from behind a tree and walked toward a figure kneeling beside a fire. How dare he leave Rosti? For that, he would pay! She sent a spear of fire to impale him. For his failure to obey her command, he would die. He staggered and fell to his knees.
With an abrupt spark that singed Malera’s fingers, the flame vanished. How had he managed to break the sending? No man could thwart the sending of a fyrestone. She tried again to find him and failed.
Anger swirled in her gut. If the fury she felt ignited, she would destroy all the fyrestones in the temple. One day he would return to Rosti. There was no other place to sell the crystals, other than the whites. When he entered the temple, she would chain him in the harra
s. Every day, she would extract the price of his defiance from his muscled body.
* * *
Ari strode toward the fire. He held a pair of lopears. Ria looked up. He cried out and fell to the ground. “Burns. Fates how it burns.” He fell to his knees, and then sprawled on his face.
Ria jumped over the fire circle and rolled him to his back. She cupped her hand around the copper cage. “Malera seeks to kill you. I believe this is how she took my betrothed’s life.” She glanced at the sky. “The solstice fire has been lit and the celebration begun.” Ria closed her eyes and meshed with his stone.
Ari released a deep sigh. “What did you do? I thought death was my lot for this day.”
“If you had been alone, you would have died. I’ve blocked her from the crystal, but I’m not sure how long ‘twill last. She’ll hunt you again, but not today. Rest. I’ll clean and smoke the lopears.” She helped him stagger to the blankets.
Later that afternoon, she removed the last of the meat from the smoker and stored it the way Ari had shown her. Then, she gathered the wood he’d cut and tied it in bundles.
The sun sank lower and still he slept. She spitted a grass hen and set it over the fire. When would he wake? What if he didn’t? She knelt beside him and listened to his breathing.
He’d promised to show her a different kind of fire. After Malera’s attempt to kill him, would he be able to keep that promise? How would he accomplish that feat? The harras males stroked and caressed the priestesses. Would she have to act like them?
She tested the broth she’d made from the bones of their catches and added slices of wild tubers and other roots to the pan.
“Ria.”
She went to him. “How do you feel?”
He stretched. “Rested. For my life, I thank you. As I saved yours, so you have returned the favor.”
“Come and eat. I’m sure you’re famished.”
Temple of Fyre (Island of Fyre) Page 6
