A Matter of Death - Chapter 2

FYI - I'm posting chapters as they are in the first version of the manuscript. I'm currently doing some rearranging of the storyline. Don't worry! I'm not taking anything out. Just changing the order and adding some scenes.

Why am I doing this? Because I found the notes I'd forgotten I'd written for the unresolved plotlines from A Modicum of Truth that needed resolving in A Matter of Death. I'd only added one of the subplots in the first manuscript version. Oops!

I'm usually not this disorganized, but it's amazing what surgery and opiates will do to your brain. LOL
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Bone-deep weariness dragged on my limbs. So much so, I leaned against the parapet of the Neighbor’s Gate watchtower. I wasn’t sure if it were night or day anymore.

“Anything, Chief Justice?” Reverend Father Nizhé'é' of Diné joined me in staring at the demon army camped outside the city of Tandor. Camped wasn’t the right word. They did not sleep or cook as humans did. They crouched in alternating rows. Not moving. Not even breathing from what I could see.

“No, sir.” I shook my head. “But they’re plotting out there. I can feel it.”

He lowered his voice. “Get some sleep, Anthea. You’ve been awake for nearly two days straight.”

“You don’t have anyone who can see them the way I can.” Normally, I would have shouted the words at anyone who questioned my abilities, but I couldn’t muster the strength.

“And the Twelve Temples have survived a thousand years without a clergy member with red eyes who can see demons through their glamours,” he almost sounded amused, but then, he always did when he spoke to me. “You’re of no use to me if you kill yourself, young lady.”

“Young lady?” I bristled. Maybe I had some energy after all.

“I have you by sixteen winters, so yes.” He smirked. “Young lady. Go back to Light and get some sleep.”

I gave up and nodded. The little bit of respite from my weariness had died under his logic.

As Luc had pointed out, all the clergy and wardens of the combined Diné, Cliffdweller, and Plains Nations army reported to Nizhé'é' as the seniormost priest of Conflict. Even though, the Reverend Father wasn’t Issuran, the surviving Temple seats of Tandor had followed High Brother Aduba’s lead in reporting to him as well. Therefore, Luc, our two wardens, and I acceded to the Reverend Father’s command, too.

The main purpose of the Temple of Conflict was to prepare for the exact situation we faced—a demon army on the loose. It merely made sense for the senior priest of Conflict to head our…

What in Balance’s name were we? A delaying action? A last resort?

High Sister Bertrice said our seconds in Orrin had destroyed the demons and eggs planted there, and the queen’s army was marching south from the capital in our last contact we had from home. Unfortunately, Bertrice depended on the only distance speaker we had in Orrin. And we hadn’t heard from Sister Shi Hua of Light in the last four nights.

Though I was fairly sure the demons’ spells blocked the young Jing priestess from talking to us, I prayed that nothing more had happened at home. Even though Balance didn’t deign to answer my pleas directly, the fact that the demon army remained camped outside our walls gave me hope. If the rest of Issura had been lost, they would have left a few troops here and marched east for Diné.

No one was on the streets as I trudged back to Light, neither clergy nor civilians. How late was it? Or was it early? With the Temple bells silent and the sky overcast, I had no way to tell.

We had to disable the alarm spells on the bells. Otherwise, they would be constantly clanging due to the demons camped on our doorstep. The din would have driven everyone insane over the last few days.

I glanced at Balance, but only a trickle of magic came from the remnants of the building compared to the other Temples. Even if its structural integrity weren’t questionable, Chief Justice Elizabeth and I were reluctant to step inside it. We’d used all of Balance’s magic in a desperate effort to kill a skinwalker and its renegade allies who’d quietly took over Tandor before anyone noticed there was a problem.

My thighs and calves ached when I climbed the steps of Light. What I wouldn’t give for a good soak and a goblet of Pana red right now. But the damn demons had destroyed a large section of the aqueduct into the city, so we needed to conserve water. And the healers needed the wine for the injured since our medical supplies were as finite a resource as our water.

Instead of heading for the room I currently shared with my warden Tyra, I headed for the bedchambers of the former high brother of Tandor. Luc had taken them over, not to mention drafted his own army of the city’s children to bring books and scrolls from the Temple of Knowledge for him. If it was as late as I suspected, he should be alone.

I entered without an invitation.

Luc jerked upright from where he’d fallen asleep at the table he used as a desk. “What? Where?” He fumbled for the sword hanging at the side of his chair.

“It’s only me.”

“Anthea?”

Magic tingled across my skin. Luc squinted and blinked.

I cupped his cheek. “Extinguish the light ball, my love. We’ve both been ordered to get some sleep.”

“I thought we’d been ordered to mate.” He pulled me closer for kiss.

“I don’t think we’d stay awake long enough to do so,” I said with a laugh. Shi Hua and Jeremy had shared that little tidbit in our last communication with them. The clergy of Light from Diné and the Plains Nations had confirmed they received the same directive from their home temples before the demons’ spells cut off all contact with the outside world. In theory, the new order validated mine and Luc’s illegal affair. After the messages had been received, he grumbled the Twelve had a warped sense of humor by giving us permission in the middle of a demon siege.

His kiss was brief. “Well, technically, I’m the only one who needs to be awake.”

“Not necessarily,” I teased as I straightened. “I recall a few mornings by our campfire while we were on circuit.” He grabbed his specially designed crutches and crossed to the bed. I quickly stripped off my gear and clothes and joined him. I turned on my side, and he curled around my back.

“It smells much better in here.”

“Mmmm.” He tightened his arm around my midriff. “Luckily, the master carpenter rallied some other civilians. They managed to clean out the bathing pool and drain before the demons arrived and destroyed the aqueduct.”

The renegades hadn’t even allowed poor High Brother Dav a chamber pot for his use. Even though he’d been driven mad by the skinwalker’s mental torture, he retained enough of his faculties to use one spot for his waste.

“What do you think is happening at home?” I whispered.

“Don’t.” Luc kissed my shoulder. “You’ll only drive yourself insane asking that question.”

“But Yanaba—”

“Is alive. You know Mya, Aaron, and their respective staffs will take excellent care of her mental and physical health.” I knew our high sister of Child and head of the Healers Guild would do everything in their power to help my own junior justice. Luc’s words didn’t ameliorate my guilt that I left Yanaba alone to face both the Assassins Guild and demons. “But you know Shi Hua wasn’t telling us everything,” I muttered. “Not with Bertrice in the link.”

Luc reached down and playfully smacked my left buttock before he resumed his hold of my waist. “What did I say about driving yourself insane?”

I inhaled deeply and released the breath. He was right. All the speculation in the world couldn’t change our predicament much less Orrin’s.

I’d closed my eyes for barely an instant it seemed when the alarm bells clanged. Both Luc and I were out of bed and dressing before we were fully awake. The rasp of demon magic grated against my own power, but it wasn’t from the direction of the city walls.

It came from below my bare feet.

Luc muttered a few obscenities in Cantish. “The damn demons are in the tunnels.”