The Frostwoven Crown (Book 4) (17 page)

Serepheni fell to her knees on the floor at his feet and looked up at him with pleading eyes. "Don't go, Garrett," she cried, "Please don't go!"

Garrett sneered at her. "Are you afraid I won't come back?" he laughed.

Fear flashed in her eyes, and she put her hands on his knee for support. She seemed to crumple in defeat, a look of devastation on her face. "I'm so sorry..." she sobbed, her voice nearly inaudible.

Garrett turned his eyes toward the darkened doorway of the chamber and imagined how good it would feel to just walk away forever. He allowed himself a long moment to enjoy that little fantasy, letting the priestess suffer while he reveled in the dream.

At last, he looked down at her again and he reached out to cover her hand with his own.

"You think they can get rid of me that easily?" he laughed.

Serepheni lifted her face to him, blinking in astonishment.

"I told you I would do this," Garrett said, "and I keep my word. I'll be back tomorrow... and the next time I see Matron Shelbie... I'm just gonna smile and wish her a good day."

Serepheni shook her head slowly from side to side. "You're staying?" she whispered.

"Yeah," Garrett said.

"I would like to know why," a woman's voice spoke from the doorway.

Garrett saw Serepheni's face go white a moment before she bowed low to the ground in the direction of the door. "High Priestess!" she gasped.

Garrett looked to see a stern-faced woman, perhaps fifty years of age, standing in the doorway. The High Priestess of Mauravant wore a robe of green silk ribbons of many shades, sewn together to give the garment the appearance of mottled scales. Her tall headdress bristled with emerald feathers, woven together with fine golden wire, and her glossy black hair snaked out from either side to cascade down over the serpent's head epaulets on her shoulders. Her lips were rouged almost blood red, and coal-dark eyeliner sharpened the intensity of eyes the color of green ice. She stared into him with those cold eyes now, and Garrett gaped back, speechless and unable to move.

"Why do you want to stay here?" the High Priestess asked him as she stepped into the room, her silken robes rustling as she moved toward him with almost unearthly grace.

"I..." Garrett spoke, his mouth gone dry. He swallowed nothing and spoke again, "I won't be scared away that easy."

A hint of a smile played on the High Priestess's red lips. Her eyes went to the darkening stain on the shoulder of his shirt. "And what would it take to scare you away?" she asked.

Garrett shook himself from the spell of her eyes and struggled to get down from the cot, remembering to bow in her presence.

"No," the High Priestess said, lifting her hand to stop him, "Remain seated." The woman moved around the room, on the other side of Serepheni's prostrate form.

Garrett sank back onto the cot, following the High Priestess with his eyes but daring to say nothing.

The High Priestess moved to the table and lifted a wet bundle of cloth from a large wooden bowl. She squeezed pink water out from the cloth, letting it spill into her cupped left hand. She turned her gaze toward Garrett again with a bemused smile. "Why would you bleed so much for this?" she asked, "We are not your people. You have no love for the Goddess... do you?"

Garrett remained silent for a moment. Something about her eyes made it impossible to answer falsely.

"I don't really know anything about the Goddess," he answered, "I mean, apart from what Matron Beeks has had me read..."

"And yet you would suffer so in Her name?" the High Priestess mused, "Why is that, I wonder?"

Garrett felt suddenly very afraid, but something in her eyes calmed his fears, made it seem all right to answer her. "Because my friends asked me to be here," he said.

The High Priestess let the washcloth fall back into the bowl and dried her hands on a clean towel, never taking her eyes from him. "You have a great deal of loyalty to your friends," she said, "but do you have any loyalty to the Goddess?"

Garrett shrugged. "I never really thought about it," he admitted.

"And why is it so important to your friends that you remain here?" the High Priestess asked, her eyes falling on Serepheni who did not raise her face from the floor.

"I guess... they want the priestesses and the necromancers to become friends," Garrett said.

A cynical smirk curled the High Priestess's lips. "But that is not the
only
reason, is it?" she asked.

Garrett's heart was pounding in his chest, and a warning screamed in the back of his mind, but he couldn't really hear it. "No," he said, "That's not the only reason."

The High Priestess gave him a sharp-edged smile. "And why do your necromancer friends want you to be here?" she asked.

Garrett's skin tingled at the danger in her question, but his voice paid it no heed. "They want me to learn the secret of how you make skeletons," he said.

He was dimly aware that Serepheni's body flinched at his words, but he could not look away from the High Priestess's cold green eyes, as they seemed to pierce into the depths of his soul.

The High Priestess tossed her head back and laughed, a long, merry laugh. She shook her head and laughed again.

Garrett blinked, suddenly aware that he had not done so at all while she was speaking to him. He felt the strange spell of her questioning seem to fade from him, and he looked at the High Priestess, wondering what he had said to elicit her strange reaction.

Serepheni dared a glance up at her mistress, trembling with fear, but the High Priestess only smiled down at her and offered her hand to the young priestess.

"Get up, child," the High Priestess spoke to Serepheni as she helped her to her feet, "I have outed a spy in our midst, but, fortunately for the both of you, not the one I was hoping to find."

"I'm sorry, High Priestess," Serepheni answered, "I didn't mean for..."

"You have done nothing wrong, my dear," the High Priestess laughed, "and you are welcome to keep your little spy." She gave Garrett an amused glance and then patted Serepheni gently on the shoulder. "I believe the Goddess's secrets will remain safely hidden... even from such formidable foes."

"He can stay then?" Serepheni gasped.

The High Priestess gave her a motherly nod. "He's already collecting his share of admirers," she said.

Serepheni questioned her with a look.

"If it were only Matron Beeks speaking for him, I would understand," the High Priestess said, "She has a gentle heart... But when Brix stood up for the young man... That's when I knew I had to meet him."

"Matron Brix?" Serepheni asked, her face incredulous.

"She's asked for him to be reassigned to full Templar training," the High Priestess said, "I don't believe I have ever seen Brix as angry as she was today."

Serepheni shared a bewildered look with Garrett.

"He begins anew tomorrow," the High Priestess said, looking at Garrett again, "His record wiped clean by my order. See to it that he does it properly
this
time."

"Yes, High Priestess!" Serepheni gasped, falling to one knee before her.

The High Priestess locked Garrett's gaze to hers once again, but this time he felt no danger in it. "A warning, little spy," she laughed, "Do not delve too deeply into the secrets of Death and Life. Some mysteries lie hungry and waiting for those foolish enough to discover them."

Garrett only nodded in response, shaking himself free of her presence as she swept from the room in a rustle of green silk.

*******

Serepheni brought Garrett a breakfast of warm porridge the next morning. She looked as if she hadn't slept at all, but Garrett felt completely renewed by the time he had made it halfway through the bowl and washed it down with a cup of goat milk.

"I need to have a look at your wounds," Serepheni said, rubbing her forehead in an attempt to hide a yawn.

Garrett dragged the tail of his shirt up over his head to let her have a look at his back as he sat on the edge of the cot, pulling on his boots. He heard her stifle a little gasp.

"Is it bad?" he asked.

"No," she said, remaining silent for a moment as she studied him, "It's... healed."

Garrett grunted. "That's good right?" he asked, tugging his shirt back down.

Serepheni shook her head. "I've never seen anything like that," she said, "There aren't even any... well, any
new
scars."

"Oh," Garrett said, "thanks for fixing me up."

Serepheni flashed him a wan smile and looked away. "Garrett," she said, "I'm sorry about yesterday... If you decided that you didn't want to keep doing this, I would understand."

Garrett laughed and shook his head. "No," he said, "I meant it when I said I would stay. Anyway, I feel great today... Honestly, I didn't feel a thing when Matron Brix was hitting me yesterday... Maybe Graelle was right about dragon fire. Maybe it makes you invincible or something."

"You didn't see what your back looked like when they brought you here, Garrett," Serepheni said, "You were badly injured."

"I've had worse," Garrett said, shrugging his shoulders. He got to his feet and seated his heels comfortably into the heels of his boots.

"This isn't a game, Garrett!" Serepheni said, "Not everyone who goes through Templar training survives it."

Garrett looked at her with a smirk. "And you still asked me to do it for you?"

Serepheni blushed, her eyes falling. She looked very tired, worse than he had ever seen her in the swamps.

"It's all right," Garrett said, "I'm not afraid of it. I said I would do it, and I will."

"You don't have to!" she sighed, "I'll understand... Max will understand."

Garrett laughed. "I still have to find the secret of skeleton making for him, don't you remember?"

Serepheni shook her head, anger in her eyes. "Forget about that, Garrett," she said, "Max has been trying to worm that out of me since the day we met, but, even if you did know, it wouldn't do you any good."

Something about her words triggered a flash of memory for Garrett, a fleeting hint of something important, something that made his heart ache. He had heard those words before somewhere.

"I'm glad you told the High Priestess the truth about that," Serepheni said, "but you must understand, they will not allow you to discover that secret. Even if you did, it would be useless to you. You would risk your life for nothing in trying to learn it."

"Then you knew that Max wanted me to learn the secret?"

"Of course he asked you to," she said, "He's Max... I love him Garrett, but you know he doesn't always think things through. He puts people at risk in his mad schemes... people he loves, because he doesn't think things through."

"Then just tell me the secret," Garrett said, "I mean, if it isn't of any use to me, then why not just tell me, or tell Max, so we could forget about it?"

Serepheni sighed and shook her head. She sat down on the edge of the cot and seemed almost to shrink in size as the breath went out of her. "There are things, Garrett... terrible things... We stand between them and the world, people like me. The priestesses... we stand between the world of men and the world of gods, and we look where others do not dare to look. We face things, Garrett. We... have the strength... no, the mindset, patterns of thought... our training that lets us witness things that others could not look upon and remain... sane. Sometimes I wonder if it is enough..."

Garrett said nothing.

She smiled at him, her eyes half-lidded with exhaustion. "There are things inside the temple, Garrett, that you do not want to find... no matter how much you think you do. I'm not protecting what is hidden here from the world outside. I'm here to protect the world from
it.
"

Garrett nodded slowly. He turned toward the doorway, but paused, looking back again. "What did the High Priestess mean when she said that she was looking for another spy?" he asked.

Serepheni lifted her hands, palms up. "Someone in the city is working for the Chadiri," she said.

"But the High Priestess thinks that it is someone inside the temple?" Garrett said.

"I don't know," she admitted.

Garrett considered telling her about the thing he had seen crawling through the sewers, but then, there wasn't much to tell yet. He shrugged his shoulders experimentally, finding the stiffness gone, and looked at her again. "Thanks for healing me up," he said, "You might want to take a nap or something. I'll probably need another treatment after the guys in Matron Brix's class finish beating me up."

He left her sitting there with a pained smile on her face.

He paused in the hallway and briefly considered going back. He had no idea where he was after all, lost somewhere in the unfamiliar halls of the temple. His pride overruled the thought, and he eventually found his way to the outer courtyard, only having to backtrack twice before he found a hall that led outside.

He was early. Garrett crossed the empty courtyard to stand before the whipping post once again, keeping a safe distance this time. The scarred wooden pole had been scoured clean, and no trace remained of the degradation he had suffered the day before. Still, the rage burned like a ball of blue fire inside his chest, cold and potent as death.