A Touch of Mother - Chapter 1

This is the unedited version of January's release A Touch of Mother.

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The soft knock on my door couldn’t be my head of household and personal assistant Sivan with my second pot of tea. She would have simply barged into my office. The jingle of bells as the door opened immediately set my teeth on edge. I wish I could blame my reaction on my visitor. However, my past wasn’t Dragonfly’s fault.

Nor was my present her fault. Dragonfly wasn’t sleeping with my lover. The sad part was I liked and respected Sister Claudia, but I could no longer stand to be around her, which was the reason Dragonfly came here.

“Good morningtide, High Sister.” I set aside the latest dispatches from the Issuran home Temple of Balance. Whatever else my own Reverend Mother prattled about could wait. “Ready for our next round of examinations?”

High Sister Dragonfly’s veil fluttered with her sigh. “I hope you’ve had your first cup of tea, Chief Justice.” Her hands clutching the mound of scrolls and parchment were bright orange. Whatever currently bothered her must be worse than the audit of Orrin’s Temple of Love.

The poor priestess had inherited a royal mess when her predecessor, my birth mother, had been caught in a number of criminal acts, not the least of which were embezzling from her own order, demon dealing, and high treason.

“Yes, but Sivan should be here any moment with a fresh pot.” I cleared my desk of research grimoires from Light and Knowledge. “What has happened?”

Dragonfly flipped back her veil. Her shorn cheeks were as bright orange as her hands. The silk covered her face as required by all the priestesses of the Temple of Love when in public. Here in my office, neither of us stood on ceremony. The times we had met privately at her office, she would switch between male and female civilian clothing. I could never decide if she made a more handsome woman or a prettier man, but such was the lot of a berda in the service of Love.

Neither of which mattered with the feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. I feared she would announce Claudia was with child.

Dragonfly shook her head, and the bells lining her robes jingled. “You are not going to be pleased with this news, Anthea.”

I turned to the open doorway where my squire Nathan stood. Beyond in the hallway, Balance Warden Jonata and one of the new Love wardens stood guard, a leftover from the demon attack inside Orrin right before the Spring Rituals. No warden would let their priest or priestess go anywhere unescorted.

It had become damn annoying when I had to attend a privy other than the one in my personal quarters.

“Nathan, would you please tell Sivan my morning visitor has arrived early?”

“Yes, m’lady.” He bobbed his head and took off in the direction of the kitchen.

Dragonfly closed the door Nathan had forgotten and dropped heavily into the chair on the other side of my desk. “Gerd has escaped. The Reverend Mother of Love believes she may be headed south.”

“What?” It was worse than Claudia carrying my Luc’s child. My right hand automatically reached for my sword, but my scabbard and harness hung from their peg behind me. I forced myself to relax and lowered my hand. “How? What happened?”

“No one seems to be sure on the details, according to my Reverend Mother.” Dragonfly handed me the top parchment on her pile before she leaned forward and rested her elbows on the scarred oak of my desk.

I ran my fingers over the parchment. There were none of the raised marks used by my Temple for records. Though I wasn’t blind like the rest of my order, even my odd sight couldn’t quite discern between the ink and the skin. Which meant I couldn’t read the demon-blasted original.

I rerolled the message. “May I have Donella make a copy of this?”

“That’s the reason I brought it,” Dragonfly answered sourly. “I rather suspected you didn’t know about Gerd’s escape yet.”

There had been nothing of that sort in the dispatches from the home Temple of Balance in Standora. Why hadn’t an alert gone out?

Unless the Reverend Mother’s pride had gotten in the way. Losing a traitor of this magnitude would have our entire order questioning her competence.

I sucked in a deep breath and released it. “Tell me.”

“The warden who delivered her evening meal was found in her cell beneath her blankets. Dead. He wasn’t discovered until the next morning.”

“What about the second warden? No one opens a cell door without a reinforcement.” I couldn’t see any warden much less any assigned to Balance breaking protocol, especially not with a treason case.

“They haven’t found him.”

“Balance help us.” I wiped my hands down my face. “This is not good.” I pushed to my feet. I needed to move.

My birth mother on the loose meant the Reverend Mother of Balance was right. There was a traitor within her own Temple in the capital. Goddess, no wonder she wanted to keep this quiet. The dread in my stomach shifted to fury.

“Why does your Reverend Mother believe Gerd is fleeing south?” I asked as I paced in the small confines of my office. “According to the Reverend Father of Child, Gerd’s overriding desire is to kill you and torture me.”

I stopped abruptly. My robes swirled around my ankles. “You say that very calmly.”

Dragonfly shrugged. “It’s not the first time Gerd has threatened me.”

Which was true. Even though Dragonfly had been Gerd’s second, she had never trusted the berda and often threatened her with castration if she didn’t obey Gerd’s every whim and command.

“If it make you sleep better, Gerd allegedly hasn’t decided exactly what retribution to inflict on High Mother Bianca.” Dragonfly chuckled.

I shook my head as I rolled possibilities and probabilities through my mind. I still wasn’t sure how involved Orrin’s seat of Mother had been in Gerd’s illegal activities. There were a lot of rumors, but no actual evidence. Gerd could simply be enraged Bianca failed to convince the other Temple seats regarding the false charges my birth mother had brought against me. However, I sincerely doubted the matter was that straightforward.

“Would any of the other Love priestesses here in Orrin help her?”

Dragonfly cocked her head and simply stared at me.

“That was an idiotic notion.” I bowed. “My apologies to your sisters for even allowing the thought to enter my head.” Gerd and her renegade allies had done worse things in order to keep the city’s Love clergy under control.

Dragonfly inclined her head in return.

I resumed pacing and tapped my index finger against my chin. “So who else in Orrin is mad enough to possibly help her?”

Dragonfly laughed. “Why do you make light of such serious matters?”

“Would you prefer I soil myself?” I grinned at her. “I’m assuming you have some proof of Gerd’s additional misdeeds in those ledgers you carried here.”

“That’s what you and I have been verifying.” She patted the topmost binding.

Sivan chose that moment to burst into my office with tea and cups.

“Find Chief Warden Little Bear for me,” I ordered as she set down the tray on my desk.

Sivan frowned at my rudeness.

“Please,” I amended. “It’s a matter of Temple security.”

Alarm filled her expression. “What happened?”

“Our dear Reverend Mother managed to lose the Mad Whore.”