A Touch of Mother - Chapter 5

Oops! I totally forgot today is Wednesday!

Just a reminder, these are unedited chapters of my current work-in-progress that will be released on February 14th.

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I didn’t dislike High Mother Bianca. At least, not the way I loathed clams. But Balance help me, I didn’t trust the woman. Not when she accused me of misconduct at midwinter.

Granted, my birth mother Gerd had been involved in the false charges. But even after everything that had happened in Orrin, I still wasn’t sure if Bianca was Gerd’s accomplice or her gudgeon.

However, the boy’s murder in the slums, the blanket both a clergy member and a civilian official witnessed in my rewind, and Dragonfly’s news gave me more than enough reasons to make a formal visit to the Temple of Mother. And if I was making this a formal visit, I would take my chief warden.

Upon returning to the Temple of Balance, I dispatched Nathan with a note of apology regarding my tardiness to Master Healer Devin. The murdered boy was going nowhere, and catching Bianca off guard might be a more productive use of my time. After giving Little Bear a brief account of the events in the slums, my entourage and I headed for the Temple of Mother.

The architecture of each of the Temples represented their namesake deity. Balance’s walls were stern, unyielding, with narrow horizontal windows high on the top edges. The only hint of softness was in its central dome.

Mother’s structure seemed to be nothing but curves. Round towers marked its four corners. Scalloped carvings linked the slender turrets. More reliefs decorated the walls. While Balance was a fortress, Mother was a work of art that even my strange eyesight could appreciate. The craftsmanship of the Temple would be the only pleasantness of this visit.

Upon our arrival, one of the junior priestesses escorted my party to Mother’s main receiving room. She left and closed the door.

I sat on one of the cushioned armchairs and pushed back my hood. Jeremy and Little Bear took their stances at my shoulders while the other four wardens spaced themselves to keep eyes on the main door, the windows, and the service door to the kitchen area.

Tapestries covered the marble walls. While I couldn’t make out the individual designs, they were probably a blend of Chumash, Toscan, and Britannian designs, which had become the standard in Issura over the past three hundred years. Back when Luc and I traveled circuit in the east, he often let me look through his eyes to see what neither my blindness nor my odd sight could discern. While the lack of temperature differences meant I couldn’t appreciate the artistry of the tapestries, I could detect the tiny holes in the walls.

None of my party said a word while we waited. We all knew we would be spied upon or listened to by the sisterhood. No sense giving Bianca any foreknowledge of the purpose of my visit.

Nearly a quarter of a candlemark passed before the main doors of the receiving room opened again. High Mother Bianca swept into the room with a flair of her robes and her hair piled high on her head. Two junior mothers accompanied her, their hoods raised and their eyes downcast. Her chief warden, a dour-faced woman named Maebh, stationed herself at Bianca right hand as the priestess claimed the chair on the opposite side of the rug from me. The two priestesses stood behind Bianca and Maebh, but spaced widely, a position from where they could launch spells at us while their chief warden could cover their high mother with steel.

Good to know no trust had developed between Bianca and I over the last six months.

I hadn’t bothered to rise when she entered. It was a petty move on my part, but with the magic hangover headache centering itself between my eyes, I wasn’t in the mood for niceties. But then, her staff hadn’t served me any refreshment either.

Maybe I wasn’t the only one acting in a petulant manner.

“To what do I owe this visit, Chief Justice?” Bianca drawled my title as if it were a slur.

“If I may remind you, High Mother, you voted to have me named as Chief Justice of Orrin at my trial last year,” I said. “You may not,” she snapped. “State your business because we are both aware this isn’t a social call. Or are you planning to illegally imprison me as you did High Father Jerrod?”

I didn’t bother defending myself. Imprisoning Jerrod had been my way to protect him while I negotiated with demon dealers in my efforts to rescue Luc and capture or kill those renegades.

Instead, I focused on the real purpose of my visit. “A child who should have been under your care was found dead this morning on the south side slums.”

Her skin color remained steady. “And you bring me this news rather than High Brother Xander because…”

“Upon superficial examination, the child’s throat was slit.” I shrugged. I wasn’t about to give her any information regarding how we knew the boy’s body had been dumped. “The Healers Guild will do a more thorough examination of the corpse to learn if there were any additional injuries.”

Only Chief Warden Maebh reacted to my news, and even then, it was only a slight shift in her body color. She went from bright yellow to a burnt orange. None of the three priestesses showed any signs of distress at my statement.

The chief warden cleared her throat. “If I may, Chief Justice?” At my nod, she cleared her throat again. “The fault for this child’s death is mine. I’ve been adamant the High Mother and our priestesses remain here given the recent attempts on your own life as well as the other seats in Orrin.”

Maebh either wouldn’t or couldn’t meet my gaze, but then, that was my purpose in showing my own face. The color of my eyes disturbed people. Luc was the first person to tell me the truth. My attempted healing spell to give myself normal human sight had gone wrong and turned my eyes the color of blood.

I wasn’t surprised Bianca would allow her chief warden to take the blame for her own inaction. As much as I wanted to truthspell the clergy and staff of Mother to find out what unspoken thing lay between them, I didn’t have enough evidence to interrogate anyone here. Yet.

“While I appreciate your loyalty in protecting those clergy under your charge, Chief Warden, we all have our duties to the citizens of Orrin. We cannot allow our personal fear to interfere with our service.”

My reprimand of Mother’s chief warden finally elicited a reaction from Bianca. Her fury spiked against my own mental shield, and her face and hands glowed bright red.

“How dare you criticize my staff?” she hissed. “Each Temple deals with their own matters—”

“Unless terrible situations like this occur where our roles cross,” I said coldly. “However, your chief warden may have her hands full already. If so, you need to petition your Reverend Mother for additional wardens.”

Bianca sniffed. “Why would I need more?”

“Gerd escaped custody.” I smiled. “While my death and High Sister Dragonfly’s top her list for revenge, you, my dear High Mother, are running a very close third.”

Color drained from Bianca skin. The priestesses accompanying her gasped. Maebh instinctively started to reach for her sword.

“She wouldn’t dare,” Bianca said. The disbelief in her voice said everything about her relationship with Gerd.

“She had no problems attempting to kill her own child for the last thirty-one winters.” I waved my hand in a nonchalant manner. “Everything from illegally terminating a Spring Ritual pregnancy to hiring the Assassins Guild. She had Sister Gretchen tortured and murdered for stealing a demon grimoire from her. She allowed renegades to torture and rape the priestesses of her own Temple while plotting with them to take over the city of Orrin.” I leaned forward in my chair. “What makes you think she’d show you mercy?”

Bianca’s nostrils flared as she considered my words. “Why are you warning me?”

This was what Luc would call a fishing expedition, but I didn’t dare admit such at this time. Instead, I exhaled and met her gaze squarely. “We lost too many clergy in the Battle of Tandor. We cannot afford to lose anyone else. Not if we want to win this war.”

“So this is merely your concern for queen and nation?” Bianca’s right eyebrow rose.

I stood. “No, this is my concern for the survival of the human race. But if we stoop to slitting the throats of our children. I wonder if we deserve the lives the Twelve have bestowed on us.”