Lost Priestess by Barbara Lund

Author:Barbara Lund [Lund, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Barbara Lund

Chapter

Sixteen

Sumi

Jay hadn’t solved all my guilt with one story about his days in the guard… but he had helped. I’d been able to sleep, and by the time I woke, I’d acknowledged he was right— I didn’t kill Elspeth. I’d had no idea those religious fanatics were going to kill her, and without a lot more information, I’d still have allowed her into the Damned Third.

It was our Third of the city, after all. Just as we occasionally probed from the Rest Third into the Blessed Third, they checked out defenses as well. If we pulled back, the blessed would take over.

I was still angry Elspeth had been killed, furious I hadn’t been able to stop her killer or prevent her death— no matter how much Maldita punished me for “wasting” her blood.

There were things I needed to do, meetings I needed to have, a replacement I needed to choose, but I couldn’t think yet, and when I tried, it tied knots in the muscles of my back, so I headed for the main vault to get some cleaning in, still in the long shirt and long pants from yesterday. I’d bathe after. Perhaps if I exhausted myself with chores, I could face the other things.

I’d only been back once since the poisoning, but still so angry at my sisters I’d had the poison pulled off the door and pushed halfway to their rooms before I changed my mind and buried it deep in the rock below the temple floors. This time, Jay stooped and pointed out the undisturbed single hair he’d placed across the seam at knee height. No one had been in here since.

I still spent an extra moment checking for poisons.

On both sides of the door.

Thank the dark goddess, the air was stale and the door clean. With my gestures hidden by the dark, I said the words, puffed my breath out, and clapped my hands together, focusing on the lanterns in this room only.

They lit.

I never tired of it. Somehow Old Magic was more like magic and less like hard work.

My feet took me back toward my book where I could study Thousand Cuts of Blade, but Jay’s voice echoed strangely in the vault and stopped me.

“What?”

“I said, I’d like to teach you the basics of sword work. Remember?”

“Fine.” I had forgotten. I’d been thinking so hard about not thinking that I’d completely forgotten his offer, but he hadn’t. Would learning a weapon be just interesting enough to engage my attention, or a horrible idea that would have me careening down the halls, blade in hand, finally ready to kill my sisters?

If I were a better person, I would somehow make them into my allies.

Somehow.

So far, I wasn’t a better person. Not that I’d really tried— at least, not since becoming high priestess. I couldn’t spare the energy, then or tonight.

“Sumi?”

Weapons. Right. I started toward the nearest sword.

“Not that one,” Jay said, scanning the room. “It’s too long for you, and the balance is too far toward the tip.

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