Desert Rising (21 page)

Sulis nodded. She'd had plenty of visitors, and Aggie had informed her that the prisoners were still dying, one by one, in their cells. The latest had been a boy just barely into his first beard.

Alannah shook her head. “I used to think that I could serve Aryn or Parasu, that they were the sanest of the deities. But when justice isn't tempered with mercy, the healer becomes a murderer—­I hope I can block out the deities and never be taken, live out my life as a pledge. Maybe I will get thrown out and go to your beloved desert.”

“You'd burn to a crisp,” Sulis said lightly, looking her over. “What's this about the healer murdering?”

“They found the soldiers who set the fire,” Alannah said flatly. “They wouldn't say if Voras ordered them to do it or if they were working on their own. Then they started bleeding inside, and blood seeped through their skin and out their nose and mouth until they died. Aryn perverted the healing process, caused an unhealing.”

Sulis made a shushing motion with her hand, hoping no healers were about. “Alannah,” she hissed. “Healers always have their
feli
with them. Aryn might hear you. And she's already in a fury.”

Alannah kept her eyes on her stitching. “None of this is what I expected when I came to the Temple,” she said. “I thought you were wrong to distrust the deities. I thought you'd come to understand what I knew—­that the deities protect us, that they are our connection to the One. But I'm the one seeing things differently.” She looked up and smiled, her eyes bright with tears. “I guess ­people could say you corrupted me, but it doesn't feel like this is bad. I feel like I'm finally seeing clearly even if I hate what I see.

“Hate? Are we hearing our pure, sweet friend hating something?” Dani's voice rumbled from the opening in the curtain around Sulis's bed.

“She hates knuckleheaded military men who interrupt conversations and think with their swords rather than their brains,” Sulis responded, understanding the plea in Alannah's eyes. Alannah had become the spiritual leader of their group, her patience with every lesson an example for the rest of them. She wouldn't want the others to see her troubled about her own faith.

“I don't blame her. Oy, I thought you'd finished yer tunic.” Luella followed Dani and eyed the tunic in Alannah's hands.

“I have,” she said, pushing the cloth back to Sulis. “Sulis didn't know how to make a finishing knot, and I was showing her.”

“Yeah, those things are a bugger,” Dani said, as Sulis gathered the sewing and stuffed it in a bag. “I don't have the hands for those tiny needles. I've been using a big one Sandy had for sailcloth. The holes it makes are a bit big, but I don't care as long as it stays on me a ­couple of hours. Then I'll be Voras's problem.”

Djinn paced in, followed by Luella's black Onyx and Dani's tawny Pax, and leapt on the bed with Sulis. Onyx and Pax sat tall and still as sentinels beside Sulis's bed, and she laughed. “Well, I guess my escort has come,” she commented.

“Indeed, it looks like it has,” said a healer in green, stepping through the curtain and eyeing the group with a certain amount of disapproval. She had Sulis's gray-­cotton pledge's robe over her arm. “If all of you would wait outside, so this young lady can dress, you can be on your way and back to your studies.”

They all shuffled out except Djinn, and the healer shooed him off the bed. She helped Sulis change from her shift into the robe. “Honestly, you pledges need to be focusing on your studies, not running around visiting one another,” she scolded. “The ceremony is less than two months away. I know your elders are distracted, but that's no reason to neglect your studies.”

They picked up Lasha on the way out of the hall, hurrying to avoid another scolding from the healer. At the entrance to the hall, Dani put out a hand to halt them. “Sulis, stay in the middle of the group. I'd say try not to attract attention, but with your height and coloring, I'm not sure that's possible. I'll lead. Luella, take the rear. Alannah and Lasha, flank her.”

“Are you sure this is necessary?” Sulis asked, as they crowded around her, the
feli
positioning themselves beside their paired, but on the inside, closest to Sulis. She noticed that Alannah's Yaslin and Lasha's Alta had joined the crowd around her, so that she was surrounded by giant cats.

Dani gave her a quelling look. “Luella and I heard some muttering among the soldiers. Some of the acolytes aren't happy with what you can do.” He gestured to the
feli
around Sulis. “We didn't call our
feli
; they just came. That kinda confirms to me that there could be problems.”

Sulis let them lead her through the streets, touched that when she looked winded, they slowed their pace. The healing hall was down several roads from the Temple, and Sulis needed to pause at one point to catch her breath.

“Someone's following us,” Luella murmured to Dani, and he looked around, alert. “There, in the bright robes.”

Sulis looked around and then saw the tall, dark figure leaning against a merchant's stall. She blushed when he saw he had her attention and touched two fingers to his forehead in salute.

“Ashraf,” she muttered, turning away.

“You know him?” Lasha asked.

“We met before I pledged. He didn't want me to go to the Temple,” Sulis said. “He's a friend of the family.” At least he was now, according to Kadar. “I didn't know he was back from the desert.”

“So he's here to protect you,” Dani rumbled, looking satisfied. “Good. That curved sword looks wicked.”

Sulis poked Lasha. “Quit staring,” she muttered. “You'll just encourage him.”

“He's gorgeous,” Lasha whispered back, her eyes twinkling. “If he'd asked me not to join the Temple, I wouldn't have.”

“Can we just move on?” Sulis asked, exasperated. She started walking, and they fell in place around her again.

The second glances their formation got were curious rather than hostile, and Sulis could imagine what they looked like—­a bunch of drab-­cloaked pledges with their more colorful
felis
pacing beside them. They joined the crush of the crowd as they drew closer to the Temple, but the common ­people drew away from them, leaving a respectful gap for the pledges to move through. It wasn't until they were in the hallway that they were stopped by a small group of Voras's soldiers.

“The Templar wants to see her,” the leader said, jerking his head toward Sulis.

“Sorry, Samias—­the healer said she goes straight to bed,” Dani said firmly, not moving out of his way.

“Don't care what some pansy green cloak says,” Samias said with an unpleasant smile. “If the Templar wants to see her, she's coming to see the Templar. And a little pledgling like you had better not stand in the way.”

Luella pushed past Sulis to stand beside Dani. “Just followin' orders. Wouldn't wanna rub your face in the floor,” she said. “I can do it, though.”

Djinn's hackles were raised, and a growl issued from him in a rising and falling dirge. Alannah stood just behind Dani and Luella, one hand on Yaslin's head. Lasha had disappeared in the crowd that parted around them. They were getting many peculiar glances from the pilgrims, but none stopped, probably afraid to interfere with Temple business. Sulis noticed that although the soldiers outnumbered them six to four, none of the soldiers had their
feli
with them.

One of the soldiers grasped Dani's shoulder, squeezing. Alannah reached her free hand and touched the soldier before Dani could react.

“You don't want to be here,” she said in a low, focused voice. “You want to go back to your altar.”

The man drew back in confusion and started to stumble away. His companions grabbed him, and he pushed away from them. Samias narrowed his eyes and looked from the confused soldier back to Alannah as though trying to figure his next move.

“What is going on here?” A sharp female voice came from behind, and they turned to find Counselor Elida emerging from the Temple of the One, her gold cloak swirling around her. Lasha trailed behind her, looking triumphant. “Why are you soldiers stopping pledges in the middle of the hall? Get back to your altar!”

“The Templar wants to see pledge Sulis,” Samias said, trying for a respectful tone.

“The Healer said she was to go straight to bed when we got here,” Dani told the Counselor.

“And so she should, just out of the healing hall!” Elida exclaimed. “Off with you, then,” she told the pledges. The soldiers moved reluctantly to the side, one cursing as Djinn swiped at him. The group of pledges pushed through to Ivanha's altar.

They could hear Elida scolding the soldiers—­“Tell the Templar that the One won't stand for any more interference with the pledges . . .”—­as they walked through the altar to the courtyard by the women's dormitories. Sulis sat down weakly on a bench.

“Whew. And I thought you guys were being overprotective,” she told Dani and Luella. “Thanks.”

“Good thing Lasha went and got the Counselor,” Dani rumbled. “Not sure what the penalties would be for pledges wiping the floor with soldiers of Voras.”

“Samias,” Luella said with disgust. “He's the one who tried to
geas
me. He's got it coming to him.”

“Didn't know you could
geas
a full acolyte,” Dani told Alannah, a bit of awe in his voice. “He was ready to run back to mama when you were done.”

“I didn't know either until I did it,” Alannah admitted. “Come on, Sulis—­let's get you tucked into bed before someone else tries to make trouble.”

“Luella, let's catch midmeal,” Dani said, punching the big woman's arm. “They'll be fine from here.”

She grunted her approval, and they saluted Sulis before walking away.

Sulis barely made it up the stairs to her bed, her energy waning quickly from all the excitement.

“I'll get you some water and a bite to eat from the kitchens,” Alannah volunteered.

Lasha watched her descend the stairs and turned to Sulis. “Did she really put a
geas
on a soldier?” she asked.

Sulis nodded. “She told him to go back to his altar, and he backed off in a hurry,” she said. “I hope the Counselor notices and takes it off, or he'll never leave the altar again.”

“Wow, I miss everything fun,” Lasha said wistfully.

“You had perfect timing,” Sulis assured her, then bit her lip, not certain if she should mention what she saw in the hallway.

Lasha noticed her hesitation and prodded her. “What? What is it?”

“I was standing behind Alannah when she did it,” Sulis said. “For a moment, her cloak turned gold. If I hadn't been staring at her back, I'd never have noticed in the dim light—­but it was clear to me. It flickered gold, then went back to gray.”

“Whoa,” Lasha said, and looked from Sulis to the stairs Alannah had disappeared down, her eyes wide. “I've never heard of the One picking a pledge, and certainly not before the ceremony. I wonder what that means.”

“I don't know, but things keep getting stranger and stranger around here,” Sulis said.

“Should we tell her?” Lasha asked.

Sulis thought a moment. “No . . . not unless we can figure out what it means. She's got enough on her mind right now as is.” She changed the subject and asked Lasha what she'd been dying to find out all morning. “Have you heard anything more about Kadar?”

“Just what I've picked up from the healers. They think this is a fascinating case, so they're visiting him at your uncle's place. They think he needs time to heal and regain his energy, as you did. They wonder if you sucked some energy out of him like you did us.” She grinned impishly. “Here, hold out your hand.”

Sulis did, and Lasha grasped her wrist. Immediately she felt more alert, less tired. She jerked her arm away.

“What was that?”

“Alannah and I can both do it now,” Lasha said smugly. “Especially with our
feli
in contact with us. It seems that there's some natural channeling we can do without the deities' help. Don't you try it, though, or you might put yourself back in the healing hall.”

Sulis thought about it. “Do you think the
feli
are lending you energy?” she wondered.

“I don't know, but this is obviously something none of the deities want us to find out—­that pledges have some natural ability, without being taken by a specific deity. It certainly goes against everything I've been taught.”

“But not what I've seen,” Sulis said with a frown. “I've always had some talent with felines and canines. My brother has an amazing touch with the bigger-­hoofed animals. There always seems to be someone in the clan who has some special way with clay or who seems to have more strength with healing poultices than others. Is it not that way here?”

Lasha wrinkled her nose, thinking about it. “Not that I've seen, but if here in the North, the Temple
feli
bond with ­people as soon they start showing talents, there wouldn't be many ­people outside the Temple with those kinds of special skills. In the desert, there is no Temple to snatch them up and hide them away from everyday life.”

They were interrupted by Alannah's return with a filled tray. “Soup, bread, and some late-­season fruit,” she said triumphantly. “No you don't, you greedy glut,” she added to Djinn, who was trying to lick the edge of the tray. “Go to the kitchens if you want food. This is for Sulis.”

Djinn let out a hefty sigh and stalked out as Alannah swatted and scolded him.

Sulis laughed. “You've come a long way,” she remarked. “A few months ago, you would have been scared to death to swat a sacred animal.”

Alannah put a hand to her mouth as she realized what she'd done. Then she gave a rueful laugh. “The more I'm around them, the less I think of them as sacred beasts,” she admitted. “It's more like having a greedy little brother or sister you have to keep out of trouble.”