The Elemental Jewels (Book 1) (17 page)

“We did it!” Garrel said triumphantly, as soon as the friends emerged into the city, standing in a small plaza adjacent to the city wall, with shops and homes stacked four stories high all around.  “We made it all the way here!”

“What do we do now?” Deana asked.

“I suggest we find a place to spend the night,” Ariana advised practically.

“Let’s go see the harbor,” Grange proposed.  “And we can look for a place to stay on the way – maybe an inn for tonight, or maybe an apartment.”

“Why do you want to see the harbor?” Deana asked.

“I’ve never seen one before,” he answered simply.  “I want to see what that much water together all at once looks like.”  It was an impetuous request, but he still felt the effects of the strong wine swirling around in his brain, easing his self-control and restraint slightly.

“Which way to the harbor?” Ariana automatically asked a passerby.

It’s to your left,” the man said, without stopping as he walked on.

“Let’s go to the harbor, and if we see a place to live on the way, we can look into it,” Ariana repeated Grange’s proposal.

The group found a narrow street that went towards the harbor.  It twisted and bent around corners, before it released them in another city square.  They followed another street from there, saw mostly shops, and no signs of empty or available residences.  As that street turned, Grange came to the realization that he no longer could tell which way led to the harbor, and he extended his arms to stop his companions.

“Which way is the harbor?” he asked them all.

“That way,” Ariana said calmly, pointing straight ahead.

“No, this way,” Deana insisted.

“I, thought it was that way,” Garrel pointed in the opposite direction.

“Let’s ask again,” Grange suggested.  He maneuvered through the light foot traffic to reach a store front, where a grandmotherly woman sat on a stool next to a display of swatches of cloth.

“Are you looking for a dress for your pretty young bride?” the woman asked with a smile.  “I’ll sew a dress from any of these fabrics – have it ready for you in less than three days!”

Grange grinned at the offer, so reminiscent of the street vendor bargaining he had remembered hearing in Fortune.

“If you had a place for us to live, I’d take that,” he replied with a smile, as the others huddled around behind him.

“My top floor apartment is open.  If you buy a dress, I’ll let you rent the space – one month’s deposit, and the first month paid in advance,” the woman proposed, not blinking an eye.

“I think she’d look pretty in this blue, don’t you?” the woman lifted a light blue swath of fabric and draped it over Ariana’s shoulder.  “See how it brings out the color in her eyes?” the woman asked.

“I always notice those pretty blue eyes,” Grange blurted out, the wine still swirling through his thoughts.

“Thank you Grange!” Ariana blushed slightly, her usual composure perhaps also compromised by the effects of the wine.

He heard a slight hum, and turned again to look at her.  “Did you say something?” he asked.

“No, nothing,” she replied.

“You’re such a nice couple, and so are your friends,” the shopkeeper complimented them.

“May we see the apartment?” Garrel asked, as the happenstance encounter became a housing opportunity.

“Certainly,” the shopkeeper agreed.  She called a girl from inside the shop to come to watch the front of the store, then she fetched a set of keys, and slowly led them up a narrow set of stairs, her progress slowing considerably as they passed the third floor.

“Spirits in the sky, that’s a long walk for these old legs.   You young folks don’t mind at all, I’m sure,” she said as she fitted the key into the lock, and opened the door to the apartment.

“It’s even furnished,” she added in a cheery tone as the four visitors entered the apartment.

It was furnished in a minimal way.  There was a table and three chairs in the room they entered.  Two other rooms had a bed each, and the back room had a row of large windows that looked upon a tiny courtyard below, with light gray curtains pulled open.  There was little else.

“How much would you charge for this apartment for a week?” Grange asked.

“I won’t rent it to you for less than a month,” she stated matter-of-factly.  “And I’ll have to see your marriage certificate; it’s a local rental law that people under twenty five have to be married to live together.  Just one couple has to be married,” she added helpfully.

Grange and Garrel looked at one another, stunned.

“If none of us are married, we can’t have this apartment?” Garrel asked.

“That’s right.  Though, as you know, there’s a temple down the street where the priestess performs weddings,” the prospective landlord said helpfully.

“I’ll make the rent ten brass florins a month,” she threw a number into the air, apparently warming to the idea of having paying tenants in the space.

“It’s a nice space,” Deana said.

“We should go back downstairs and talk about it,” Ariana seemed unwilling to make the commitment to the rooms.

“Yes, let’s go downstairs,” Grange agreed with her.

“We’ll be back in a little while,” Ariana told the dress shop owner, who looked disappointed by their departure.

“Will we really go back in a little while?” Grange asked the girl when they were out of the building and standing back in front of the shop.

“Of course.  You want to buy that blue dress for me, remember?” she gave him a warm and engaging smile that was different from her usual friendly mien, making his heart pound faster.

No, that’s impermissible
, someone said behind him, but he ignored the comment.

Garrel and Deana were holding a low, intense conversation of their own.

“We’d go back to the village in the spring for the real ceremony?” Deana was asking.  “This would just be for the sake of the apartment?”

“Exactly,” Garrel confirmed.

“We’ll go to the temple and get married,” he turned and announced to his friends.

“Really?” Grange asked in astonishment.  “Really, truly married?”

“Not so truly,” Deana answered.  “We’ll go back to High Meadow for the real ceremony in the spring, so my parents can see.”

“The temple’s down that way?” Garrel tried to recollect the direction the land lady had indicated, and the group lurch forward, his fingers and Deana’s tightly intertwined as they walked hand-in-hand.

Only half a block brought them in sight of an imposing structure, one that Grange was convinced was a temple.

“We’d like to get married,” Garrel told the first man he saw in the lobby.

“Go tell the priestess,” said the man, who turned out to be another visitor, uninterested in being helpful.

A woman in a long white gown, with a veil over her hair was passing nearby, and Grange stepped over to intercept her.

“May my friends get married here?” he asked the priestess, motioning towards Garrel and Deana, behind him.

“They’re very young, but so are you,” the lady said, stopping to survey the group.  “Do you have your parents’ permission?”

“We’re very far away from our parents,” Garrel answered, stepping closer to the priestess.

“Have you been in counseling with any particular priestess regarding the duties and responsibilities of marriage?” she asked, as she motioned for Deana to step closer.

“We just got to town.  We haven’t talked to anyone,” Garrel answered.

“And you want to be married soon?” the woman asked, as her eyes shifted from one to the other.

“Today?” Deana asked in a small voice.

“Really?  Today?  Is there reason for this rush?” the woman asked intently.

“We, um, are in love.  We’ve come a long way from the mountains, and we’re ready,” Garrel answered carefully, realizing that there wasn’t going to necessarily be a simple walk into a marriage ceremony.

“Come with me, all of you,” the priestess said.  She motioned for them all, as she turned and strolled through a curtained doorway.

On the other side of the curtain was a dim hallway, and the group strolled single file for twenty feet, until she knocked on a door, then opened it following a muffled response from the inside.

Their guide motioned for the four visitors to enter the room, which surprised Grange by being a bright and open office, one with light that streamed in through long, narrow windows up near the ceiling – light that reflected off the many white surfaces in the room, maintaining a highly visible environment in the room.

“Mother Brooke, these pilgrims have come to our temple seeking to be united in holy matrimony,” their guide reported to a woman who sat behind a desk.  The woman was older, more than old enough to be the parent of any of the four travelers, and her short hair was flecked with gray among its wiry black strands.

“Which ones, Zena?  The pale one from Southgar?” she asked, with a glance at Grange.

“No, not him, or perhaps him too, though he hasn’t said so,” Zena replied.  She paused to unclasp the ribbon under her chin, and pulled her head scarf off, letting her hair unfold down the back of her neck.

“It’s specifically these two,” the priestess placed hands on the shoulders of Deana and Garrel.

“And what about you and your inamorata, son of Southgar?” the woman at the desk asked, as her eyes flicked to Ariana.  “Do you seek to be married as well?”

No, no, no!
Grange heard the jewels speak clearly, emphatically in his consciousness, and his eyes widened in astonishment.

Ariana reached over suddenly and grasped his hand, squeezing it tightly.

“No, my lady, Grange and I do not seek to be married at this moment,” she answered.

“What we’ll have will be much deeper,” she said it with a smile, as though she were joking, but there was an intensity in her eyes that unsettled Grange.  “You’ll understand soon enough,” she told him as she turned to look at him.

The others in the room looked at her strangely, unsettled by her unusual answer.  Grange stared at her vacantly, concerned not just by her answer, but by the vehement arousal of the jewels, speaking to him for the first time since the battle with the demon in the forest, at the very beginning of the apple-harvesting adventure.

“Why don’t I take the two of you out into the temple, while Mother Brooke talks with your two friends?” Zena suggested.  She pushed the door to the office open, and led Grange and Ariana out of the room, as Garrel and Deana watched them go.  Grange caught a glance of Garrel’s face, and thought his friend look trapped.

He grinned as he followed Zena along the hall, while the woman used both hands to restore her head scarf to its position on her head, her hair pushed up beneath it.

She swung to the right, and led them into a vast open space, a dim sanctuary with multiple statutes of women positioned along the walls.  Some of the statutes were inspiring female figures, hands raised in benediction or triumph, while other, smaller statutes showed women doing household chores – cooking food, rocking babies, churning butter.

“Whose temple is this, anyway?” Grange heard the question escape his lips.   He had begun to wonder what deity they were calling upon, but he thought it was rude to admit that the group of travelers had entered a temple without knowing or caring which god or goddess was worshipped there.

Zena apparently shared his opinion, as she turned and stared at him incredulously.  “You don’t know which god’s temple you walked into?” she asked in a chilly voice.

“That’s not what he meant,” Ariana immediately answered.  “Of course he knows this is the temple of the good goddess Miriam.

“You just meant to ask who the prominent worshippers are who attend this temple, didn’t you?” Ariana provided an excuse for his ignorance.  “Since we’re new in the city, we don’t know.”

“Ah,” Zena relaxed.  “I misunderstood,” she said.  “We have several prominent noble families that attend here to present offerings to Miriam, although I doubt you’d recognize their names. Duchess Chatham, the Countess Arch, the Lord Cobble,” she rattled through the names, as Ariana shook her head negatively.

“Thank you for telling us,” Grange said.  “I was just curious.”

“I’ll leave you here for a little while, if you don’t mind,” Zena said.  “I have an errand to perform.  I’ll be back in a few minutes.”  She walked away without awaiting a response, leaving Grange and Ariana standing in the back of the dim space.

Grange was relieved.  He wanted some quiet time to speak to the jewels, to find out why they had protested the notion of his marriage to Ariana, and he wanted to know why they had been so quiet for so long.

“Let’s sit down and rest,” he suggested, looking at a set of benches that were empty, offering a perfect quiet spot to query the jewels.

“We don’t have time,” Ariana said.  She grabbed his hand and forcefully pulled him after herself as she broke into a determined gait, walking rapidly towards an alcove with a statute of a woman comforting two small children who were clinging to her skirts.

“Where are we going?” Grange asked, taken aback by the sudden activity.