Waking Fire by Jean Louise

Author:Jean Louise
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Published: 2022-11-08T14:10:42+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

MORNING ARRIVES WITH A message from Omma.

The runner passes the note to Nez and turns to leave, but Nez calls out to him.

“Wait—how was she? Was she upset?”

“She seemed fine to me,” the runner replies. “When I told her you’re with the resistance, she didn’t seem surprised. She made me stay the night and wouldn’t let me leave until after breakfast.”

Nez’s eyes widen. “Tell me, what did she make for breakfast? Was it good?” With every word, he takes a step closer to the runner until they are nose to nose. “You smell like apricots. Did she make her famous apricot kaavi?”

The runner stumbles back. “I think so.”

“It’s so good,” Nez continues, lost in memories of apricot kaavi, “the way the pudding melts on your tongue and the flaky crust. Did you like it? Don’t tell me you didn’t like it.”

“Well, uh—” the runner stammers.

I snatch the note out of Nez’s hand and shove him aside. “Ignore my brother, please,” I say. The runner gives me a grateful look before scampering away.

“Wait!” Nez cries out. “Give me one more whiff!”

I elbow Nez in the ribs. “Cut it out.”

“I miss Omma,” Nez says, rubbing his side.

“Do you miss Omma,” I tease, “or her cooking?”

“Can’t I miss both?” Nez laughs as he avoids another jab from my elbow.

I sit on the floor and hold the note in my hands, but I hesitate before opening it. The runner said Omma seemed fine, but he doesn’t know her, and she might have been saving her wrath for this letter.

“Are you going to open it?” Kal asks, kneeling next to me.

Knowing I can’t avoid my mother forever, I unfold the slip of paper. There is only one sentence, a short one, and I smile when I read it.

“What does it say?” Nez asks. I pass the note to Nez and he reads the words out loud. “‘Make me proud.’” With a laugh, Nez kisses the note. “Yes, Omma!”

I take a deep breath. I feel stronger knowing I have Omma’s support. Doubts that danced around the back of my mind about confronting the Mistress vanish. I’m confident we’re doing the right thing. We need information, and the only way to get it is inside the meeting house. We don’t have weeks and months to sort through secrets and rumors, and the longer we wait, the more danger we put everyone in the village in.

A bell rings, the deep sound resonating within my chest, and I get on my feet. Scribes exiting the library file past toward the altar on the far side of the Temple.

“It’s time,” I say to the others, and they rise with me. But before we walk very far, Basheera emerges from the group of scribes.

“Why do you have a spear?” she asks, grabbing her younger sister by the arm. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“I’m going with my friends to stand guard when our Mother leaves for the meeting,” Rima replies, shaking off her sister. “I told you last night.”

“And I told you to sleep on it.

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