The Ingressionist (Delvonian Tales Book 3) by Herb Mallette

Author:Herb Mallette [Mallette, Herb]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-12-22T23:00:00+00:00

XLVI

They brought us to Kua Aiddo in a small garden behind the temple. As we entered, she rose calmly from her work at a stand of halewort, brushed the dirt from her hands, and moved to greet us.

“It is a blessing to see you again,” she said, clasping her forearm to mine in the morgish version of a handshake. Her fiery blue eyes looked me up and down, and then went briefly to Shoje, before she spoke again. “You are well, and in the company of a friend. It pleases me to see both of these truths.”

“No more, I’m sure, than it pleases me to see you. Kua Aiddo, this is Shoje Keindan — a disreputable Haniman I’ve known for some years.”

She bowed to Shoje, and he to her, and they exchanged pleasantries, although I did not miss the look Shoje gave me at the word “disreputable.”

Nor could I overlook the change in Aiddo since I’d seen her last. She still had a strong morg physique, but it showed noticeably thinner than I recalled, and her pilgrim’s traveling robes had been replaced by a simple brown shift, coarse-woven and less than comfortable in appearance.

“Come,” she said. “Let us seek shade, and drink to ease the heat while we talk.”

With a bow to the two church functionaries who’d led us to her, Aiddo turned and took us into a covered portico nearby, where chairs and a pitcher of bitter tea awaited. Two sides of the portico were bounded by the cool stone walls of the temple, so the extraordinary heat abated somewhat as we took our seats.

“You come for several reasons,” Aiddo said, pouring a tall glass of tea for each of us, but not for herself. “I see no simple purpose in your eyes, as I would expect if you had finished your mission and sought me out only to tell the tale of it.”

I nodded. “A great deal remains of the undertaking I’m on, and unfortunately, I’d still prefer not to burden you with the full breadth of the matter.”

She spread her hands placidly. “You see the price of aiding you, a known fugitive: only blisters on fingers and dirt on palms. Let me say again: no penance daunts me, that helps move you toward a just goal.”

As much as I would have liked Kua Aiddo to join our small company, my conscience would not allow it. It had taken interviews with two Intercessors and an Undercurate to get me permission for this visit. Because Aiddo had knowingly helped me while an imperial warrant called for my arrest, she had been sentenced to six months’ penitence here in the gardens. The Undercurate informed me that nothing could be done to lessen her punishment, even though I presented him with the writ remanding my fugitive status. What’s more, he said that if the same events had taken place in Hiisia, with regard to a Hiisian legal warrant, her religious sentence would have been followed by a civil one, including no less than two years’ hard labor with a brass circlet around her neck.

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