A Twist of Love - Chapter 5

First of all, I want to thank everyone who picked up a copy of Snowfall last week. Given the number of preorders for Murder Most Fowl, I have to assume you guys enjoyed it.😁

Here's the next chapter in Anthea's  next tale!

-----------------------------------------

Gina returned from her errand while I nibbled on the unleavened bread and sipped the milk in Dragonfly’s sitting room. High Brother Jax of Wildling and High Brother Talbert of Thief accompanied her. Both priests’ expressions were as grim as Gina’s.

Luc groaned. “How many did we lose?”

“The two wardens and the pair of peacekeepers at the Duke’s entrance,” Gina reported. “I’ve informed the magistrate, who in turn will inform Duke Marco. Magistrate DiCook has requested a meeting as soon as you are done with High Brother Xander and the Healers Guild.”

“Damn, we are too predictable,” I muttered.

“Sister Farrah and Sister Cedar Grove along with our chief wardens are leading the search for Gerd,” Jax said.

“High Brother Han and the magistrate are doubling the guards at all the exits,” Talbert added.

“How did Gerd overcome all four guards?” Xander said.

“Demon magick,” Jax spat.

The unleavened bread and milk churned in my stomach. For a moment, I feared I would ruin Dragonfly’s carpets. She began rubbing my back while I struggled to get my emotions in check. Now, I understood Luc’s odd comment. I was too close to this situation. I wasn’t thinking clearly. Yet, I was the perfect bait.

“She planned to use that grimoire herself.” I looked at Luc.

His skin turned a brilliant pink. He began cursing. In Issuran. In Cantan. Even a few words of Diné and Comanche we’d learned during the siege of Tandor. Once he ran out of breath, Talbert asked, “Has the grimoire been destroyed?”

I inhaled to answer and paused. The Reverend Mother and Yanaba said it had been destroyed, but what if it hadn’t been? What if someone pulled the same trick I had by substituting a demon-contaminated tome?

“I don’t know for sure,” I admitted.

This time, Dragonfly cursed fluently in several languages, including a few I didn’t recognize. She finished with, “Has your Reverend Mother become completely daft in her age!”

I described my actions to fool the renegades who had abducted Luc last winter. “It’s entirely possible the Reverend Mother thought she had destroyed the grimoire.”

Talbert rubbed his chin as he considered my words. “And whoever made the exchange would still be at the home Temple to aid Gerd in her escape.” He shook his head. “This doesn’t bode well at all.”

“In other words, I need to call a convocation,” I muttered. “I really miss being on a circuit. Being a city seat has become a pain in my buttocks.” No one laughed at my sarcastic comment. Not even Luc.

* * *

Technically, I had broken my fast at Love with the unleavened bread and sweetened milk. It did eventually settle my stomach as Claudia had promised. However, it wasn’t the heartier meal Deborah usually served me. My stomach growled obnoxiously through the healers’ examination of Gregorios’s corpse.

To the point, Master Healer Bly asked if I needed something to settle my digestive system.

The healers’ examination of Gregorios’s body provided no more information. It merely showed Gerd’s knife penetrated the head of household’s lung. The pain and inability to take a full breath stunned Gregorios, allowing Gerd to slit his throat which was the killing strike. And then there was the cracked skull where she stomped on Gregorios’s head. Their murder was so simple, so straight forward.

And so unlike Gerd’s normal style.

Which was exactly what Magistrate DiCook said when we met at the Temple of Light.

By then, it was First Afternoon. Thank the Twelve, Luc had inherited High Brother Kam’s chef. The man had adapted to Luc’s simpler tastes instead of producing the delicacies my maternal grandfather preferred. But Light’s chef still had a way with herbs and spices that made even a simple soup taste like a meal fit for the Twelve Themselves.

The magistrate wasn’t one to turn down an offer of hospitality from either Light or Balance. DiCook feared offending his wife by honestly telling how bad her kitchen skills were, but as Deborah, my own Temple cook, pointed out, Madame DiCook’s talents would not improve if he wasn’t truthful.

Once our clergy, chief wardens, and the magistrate gathered in the high brother’s dining room and food had been served, Brother Jeremy rose and cast wards so we could have a private conversation.

DiCook turned to me as Jeremy resumed his seat. “Speaking of which, why on earth are you putting so much responsibility on Warden Gina’s shoulders? She should have a promotion for all the extra work she’s doing.”

“She’s been offered a chief warden position. Three times.” I held up the requisite number of fingers. “She turned down Dragonfly. Yanaba and Elizabeth both believe if they stay at my Temple long enough, they will seduced Gina into accepting an offer when they are assigned a seat.”

“The queen isn’t thinking of rebuilding Tandor, is she?” DiCook looked aghast.

“She can’t,” Luc said around a mouthful of yeast roll and butter. “Not without killing anyone who steps inside the walls. According to the ancient histories, Death’s final defense spells render a space uninhabitable for a thousand generations.”

“And?” DiCook prompted.

“Your ancestors were from the isles of Britannia.” Luc shrugged. “If you want to put the spells to the test, be my guest.”

“Last that the Reverend Mother said was the queen is considering moving the citizens of Tandor to the Anacapa Islands,” Elizabeth said before DiCook could spit out an impolite rejoinder. “If she does, Yanaba and I will be assigned there, and a new junior justice will be assigned to Orrin.”

“Won’t they be subject to pirate attacks?” Luc’s chief warden Nicholas asked.

“Not if Duchess Nadine succeeds in her efforts to build solids fortresses on all the island,” Jeremy said. “She’s already approached several foreign ambassadors about trade agreements. If they stop at one of the island wharves, it would lessen their travel a half day each way.”

I sipped my wine to keep from laughing. There was no doubt he’d gotten that information through Sister Shi Hua from the way her skin shifted from orange to red.

Brother Garbhan, Luc’s newest priest at Light, whistled. “Does Duke Marco know about this?”

“Yes, he does.” I set my goblet down. “Lady Alessa has been assisting Duchess Nadine with his blessing.”

“And acting as a chaperone for the poor widow?” DiCook raised his right eyebrow.

I snorted. “Some of Marco’s idiot cousins foolishly think the duchess has more than her title. I don’t blame her for wanting a bodyguard.”

“And we are deliberately avoiding the real subject of this meeting.” Yanaba unerringly spooned the mixture of berries, milk, and sweet bread from her bowl to her mouth. The poor justice was keeping down food now, but only certain things. She avoided most of the Cantan dishes Luc’s chef prepared, but he always made her something special that wouldn’t upset her delicate stomach.

“You all know Gerd, the former high sister of Love, entered the Temple in the predawn hour and murdered Love’s head of household Gregorios,” Luc began.

“Are we sure it was Gerd?” Yanaba asked.

Elizabeth frowned. “Are you saying Anthea performed the rewind incorrectly?”

“No.” Yanaba set her spoon in her bowl. “A rewind only allows us to replay events as they happened within that space. What if it were a skinwalker or a demon wearing Gerd? It would explain her unusual behavior.”

Luc and I exchanged looks. We were both slipping in objectiveness.

“Or Gerd’s change in behavior could be the result of having nothing to lose,” Nicholas murmured. “She has a death sentence over her head regardless of what she does now.”

“Yanaba may be right.” I pushed my plate back, no longer having an appetite for the fresh roasted fish. “Demon magic was used to kill the guards at the duke’s entrance to the tunnel system.”

“Maybe it would be best to bring down the three remaining exits,” Little Bear said. “This isn’t the first time the damn renegades and demons have used them against us.”

“We’ve already doubled the people watching the tunnels, including adding a member of the clergy at each of them,” DiCook protested. “If Gerd tries again—” “Do you really want to sacrifice your peacekeepers, Malven?” I said. “If Yanaba is right, the demon or skinwalker is using those guards’ death to power itself. If I’m right and it is really Gerd, she’s no longer a priestess. She had been studying the demon grimoire formerly in her possession, or she’s found another one. If that’s the case, she’s in the process of becoming a skinwalker herself.”

Red drained from DiCook’s face, leaving it an ugly yellow color. “So, you’re saying Orrin is screwed no matter what we do?”

“No,” Luc said firmly. “I’m betting the person who entered Love is Gerd. Otherwise, a demon would have targeted Balance and Death first, especially after those Temples managed to destroy an entire demon army in Tandor.”

“What happens if Jax and Talbert’s people lose the trail?” Shi Hua said softly. Like me, she’d pushed back her plate with the food barely touched. “Or worse, the murder at Love was bait for a trap? The renegades led us on a merry little trip when they abducted you, High Brother.”

Luc stared across the table at me. His worry prickled against my psyche.

I shrugged. “Xander is right. I’ll call for an emergency convocation for tonight.”