Blood of the Fold

"No, it's true." His face reddened. "I thought your curly brown hair was the most beautiful I'd ever seen. You were smarter than the others, and commanded your Han with sureness. I thought there was no one your equal. I wanted to ask you to study with me."

"Why didn't you?"

He shrugged. "You were always so sure of yourself, so confident. I never was." He brushed his hair back self-consciously.”Besides, you were interested in Jedidiah. I was nothing to compare to him. I always thought you would just laugh."

She realized she was smoothing back her hair, and let her arm fall. "Well, perhaps I would have."

She thought better of the slight. "People can be foolish when they are young." A woman with a young child approached and fell to her knees before them. Verna paused to bestow the Creator's blessing on them. As the woman thanked her and then hurried away, Sister Verna turned to Warren. "You could go away for twenty years or so, to study those books you are so interested in, and catch up in age with me. We'd look the same age again. Then you could ask to hold my hand.. like I wanted you to, back then."

They both looked up at the sound of someone calling out to them. Through the throng of shuffling people, she saw one of the Palace Guard waving his arm to get their attention.

"Isn't that Kevin Andellmere?" She asked.

Warren nodded. "I wonder what he's so stirred up about?"

A breathless Swordsman Andellmere vaulted over a small boy and stumbled to a halt before them. "Sister Verna! Good! I've found you at last They want you. At the palace. Right now."

"Who wants me? What about?"

He gulped air and tried to talk at the same time. "The Sisters want you. Sister Leoma grabbed me by my ear and told me to go find you and bring you back. She said that if I was slow about it, I'd rue the day my mother bore me. There must be trouble."

"What kind of trouble?"

He threw his hands up. "When I asked, she gave me that look Sisters give that can melt a man's bones, and told me it was Sister business and none of mine."

Sister Verna let out a tired sigh. "I guess we best return with you, then, or they'll skin you and use your hide for a flag."

The young soldier blanched, as if he believed her.

CHAPTER 6

On the arched stone bridge that led over the River Kern to Halsband Island and the Palace of the Prophets, Sisters Philippa, Dulcinia, and Maren stood in a row, shoulder to shoulder, like three hawks watching their dinner approach. They clutched their hands impatiently at their waists. The sun at their backs cast their faces in shadow, but Sister Verna could still make out the scowls. Warren walked onto the bridge with her as Swordsman Andellmere, his duty accomplished, hurried off in another direction.

Gray-haired Sister Dulcinia, her jaw set, leaned closer as Sister Verna came to a stop before her. "Where have you been! You've kept everyone waiting."

The drums in the city kept up their beat in the background, like the slow drip of rain. Sister Vema put them from her mind.

"I've been for a walk, reflecting on the future of the palace, and the Creator's work. What with Prelate Annalina's ashes hardly cold yet, I didn't suspect the backbiting was to begin so soon."

Sister Dulcinia leaned even closer, her penetrating blue eyes taking on a dangerous gleam. "Don't you dare get impudent with us, Sister Verna, or you will quickly find yourself a novice again. Now that you have returned to life at the palace, you had better begin bethinking its ways, and start showing your superiors the proper respect."

Sister Dulcinia returned her back to straight, as if retracting claws, now that the threat had been delivered. She expected no argument. Sister Maren, a stocky woman with muscles like a woodsman, and a tongue to match, smiled with satisfaction. Tall, dark, Sister Philippa, her prominent cheekbones and narrow jaw giving her an exotic look, kept her dark eyes on Sister Verna, watching from behind an expressionless mask.

"Superiors?" Sister Verna said. "We are all equal in the Creator's eyes."

"Equal!" Sister Maren sniffed irritably. "An interesting concept. If we were to call an assembly of review to consider the matter of your contentious attitude, you would find out just how equal you are, and would likely find yourself once again doing chores with the rest of my novices, only this time you wouldn't have Richard here to intercede and get you out of it!"

"Really, Sister Maren?" Sister Verna lifted an eyebrow. "Is that so." Warren inched behind her, into her shadow. "I seem to recall, and correct me if I'm mistaken, that the last time I 'got out of it, you said it was because you had prayed to the Creator and it had come to you that I would best serve Him if I were returned to 'Sister. Now you say it was Richard's doing. Am I mistaken in my recollection?"

"You would question me?" Sister Maren pressed her hands together so tightly that her knuckles turned white. "I was punishing insolent novices two hundred years before you were born! How dare you — "