A Virtue of Child - Chapter 3

I'm so sorry. I was so busy catching up on some things I forgot to post a chapter yesterday. Enjoy!

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

“Are you sure you want to continue?” I asked Garbhan. “One of my wardens can handle the witnessing.”

The brother sat on the tail of the Healers Guild wagon and sipped a drought Master Healer Bly had given him to settle his stomach. His skin returned to pale yellow, which was much better than the greenish hue he wore when I helped him out of the shop.

More citizens of Orrin had gathered around the shop. So far, it was curiosity. I prayed to Light to please keep them peaceful. I couldn’t handle another riot. I could not risk losing control.

The voices from the demon grimoire offered to show me how to control the lightning. I gritted my teeth and focused on the priest next to me.

“No, Lady Justice.” Garbhan gulped more of the medicine. “Master Bly’s potion is doing its job. Besides—” He smiled weakly. “—I don’t think there’s anything left in me to vomit.”

Bly exited the shop, followed by Master Healer Devin. At the peacekeeper’s initial report of multiple bodies, he accompanied her so she would have an extra pair of hand. Bly’s intern Simi was the last to come out.

Unfortunately, the young woman’s color was the same greenish shade Garbhan’s had been. She whirled away from the crowd and ran for the alley. She didn’t quite make it before she lost the contents of her stomach.

The two senior healers gathered their equipment to take samples for both themselves and me. If the people whose limbs lay inside in the dining table fought back against whoever killed them, there might be some of their murderer’s skin or blood in their fingernails if the insect hadn’t consumed the soft debris. Bly glanced at me as both she and Devin dabbed on ointment under their noses and tied on masks to deal with the odor of rotten flesh while they worked.

“In a way, I’m glad it’s not just me getting sick,” the Light priest whispered.

“It’s not just you,” I whispered. “The only reason the master healers and I didn’t get sick is we’ve seen worse things.”

Blood rushed to his cheeks, shifting the skin to an orange-red. “I meant no disrespect, m’lady.”

I patted his shoulder. “There’s nothing to apologize for. I hope to the Twelve you never see some of the desecration I have.”

My words seemed to be the right thing to say. Garbhan’s shoulder relaxed beneath my touch.

He looked around us, but the peacekeepers and wardens kept the fishwives back from the shop. His attention return to me, but he still kept his voice low. “I hope my reports to the Reverend Father make him realize what Orrin is dealing with. These things aren’t happening in Standora…”

No one in the capital, except maybe Crown Princess Chiara, was taking the events in Orrin and Tandor seriously. But then, she led the Queen’s army in the Battle of Tandor. Finding yourself face-to-face with one demon, much less an entire army of them, generally made one a believer.

“I’m going to give you the same lecture I gave Justice Yanaba, Brother Jeremy, and my own wardens.” I squeezed Garbhan’s shoulder. “We do not guess. We do not assume. We follow the evidence.”

“Yes, m’lady,” he murmured.

“And on that note, I want Warden Noko to witness for me.”

“B-but—” Garbhan stared up at me. “I assure you I can do my duty as your witness—”

“This isn’t about your skill or devotion to duty.” I tried to keep a reassuring expression on my face. “We can’t afford to lose any more Light clergy. If this is another trap, I don’t want anywhere near me when I start the rewind.” I grinned. “Besides, Sister Cedar Grove would be most vexed if I got you killed.”

His skin glowed orange, and his eyes widened. “You, uh, she, um…”

“I’m merely glad you’re making friends.” I scanned the crowd as we spoke. “It’s difficult being transferred from a prominent post to a backwater city.”

“Orrin is not a backwater,” he protested.

“I’m glad you think so,” I said agreeably.

He sputtered a bit more before Warden Gina leaned close to him and said, “She’s teasing you, Brother.”

“Oh.” He gulped.

Gina straightened and faced me with a frown. “And you need to stop, m’lady. He’s not the high brother.”

I probably teased Garbhan about his relationship with Thief’s second to avoid thinking about my own problems. I was the first to know Cedar Grove was pregnant with Garbhan’s child thanks to the peculiar sight I cursed myself with when I tried to cure my blindness. Still, it wasn’t fair to the young priest. Many of those in Balance and Light found the recent proclamation to procreate uncomfortable.

“I apologize, Brother.” I inclined my head. “Inappropriate humor is my own mechanism for dealing with uncomfortable situations.”

He gulped again before he said, “I understand your reasoning, Chief Justice, but I’ll never have the experience the city needs if you and the high brother don’t train me.”

His unspoken accusation sent a shiver through me. So Luc was ignoring the newest member of his temple. That was definitely not a good sign.

Gina grimaced. She would never say a word about someone outside of Balance, but her expression meant there was more going on than the news DiCook had told me when he arrived at my Temple. I would definitely need to have a private conversation with her and my chief warden once we were done here. In the meantime, I would have to see to Garbhan’s investigative training despite my reservations about putting his life in danger.

Masters Devin and Bly exited the seamstress shop once again. After setting their equipment and samples in their wagon, Bly pulled her mask from her face.

“We’ve got the initial samples we knew you’d request, Chief Justice.” She inclined her toward the building. “Do you want the body parts removed before you do the rewind?”

“As much as I want to, no.” I eyed Bly. “If you don’t mind, could Warden Noko, Brother Garbhan, and I have some of your nose ointment before we go in?”

“Of course.” She smiled.

While we applied ointment and cover our lower faces with clean silk handkerchiefs we normally used to collect potential evidence, Master Devin stepped closer to me.

“Are you coming to the Guild House to observe?”

I nodded.

“Then we’ll speak when there’s not so many ears around.”

A chill ran through me. Devin was one to always speak his mind, regardless of who was nearby. Did he notice something with the limbs piled on the table that neither Brother Garbhan nor I had?

“Very well.” I turned to Noko and Garbhan. “Ready?”

“Yes, m’lady,” my warden promptly replied.

Garbhan’s skin around his eyes shift to a greenish yellow.

I lowered my voice. “You don’t have to come.”

He straightened his spine despite his ghastly skin color and the green beads of sweat developing on his forehead. “I will do my duty, Chief Justice.”

I nodded before I pivoted and strode back inside the shop. The ointment helped a little, but it couldn’t completely block or disguise the scent of rotten flesh.

“How do you wish to proceed, Chief Justice?” Noko asked. Other than Gina, she was the best non-priest who witnessed for me. Before we left Balance, I had decided to give her a bit more experience. I really hoped she didn’t think I was punishing her by asking for her assistance.

“Justice Yanaba?” I said both aloud and silently.

Yes, Chief Justice.

“Have you started court yet?”

No, m’lady. Is there something you require?

“Have Justice Elizabeth preside over today’s cases. I need your assistance.”

Yanaba’s laughter tinkled like silver bells in my mind. How many blocks this time?

“It’s only one building. Barbora’s seamstress shop and apartment.”

I felt Yanaba’s sudden intake of breath. She’d nearly killed herself dealing with the murders of Barbora and her family because I’d been ordered to investigate the Temple of Balance in Tandor.

If this is too much for you or the baby… I said resorting solely to silent speech.

No, she whispered in my mind. Just old nightmares. I felt her exhale through the link before my skin tingled with her magic. What specifically do you want me to do?

“We’re going to rewind the events in the building,” I said aloud again. “Unfortunately, the last known time we know no bodies were in here was eleven days ago.”

Yanaba swore a few colorful oaths. No wonder you want help. Give me a moment to inform Elizabeth. Her presence receded. I counted my breaths. At twenty-four, Yanaba’s mind touched mine again. All right. Any chance a trap spell has been set on these bodies?

I laughed. “These days, I’d be disappointed if there wasn’t.”

I am ready.

I turned my attention to Noko and Garbhan. “Brother, be ready if there is a trap spell or any other nasty magic.”

He nodded.

“Warden, you’ll observe the front room.” I pointed to the tiny narrow staircase. “You’ll also follow if anyone goes up the stairs.” I lowered my arm. “Brother, you’ll stay here in the living quarters.”

They both answered, “Yes, m’lady.”

I crossed to the southern wall and sat cross-legged on the dusty floor, facing the stones. Sivan would chide me for getting my clothing filthy, but it couldn’t be helped. The best substance to pull the memories of the last eleven days would be the sea- and river-washed rocks forming the first story’s walls.

Placing my bare palms on the polished surfaces, I concentrated. With Yanaba’s help, I yanked the timelines back the necessary time period. I let the strings slip through my fingers at a certain rate. A day passed.

From the front room, Noko called out, “Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Slower, m’lady!”

Perspiration broke out on my forehead at the effort to curb the flow even with Yanaba’s help.

“Jaime has entered with two men and a woman,” Noko reported. From her clear voice, she stood near the doorway to the front shop. “All four are dressed in city peacekeeping uniforms. Two of them go into the living quarters. Jaime and one of the men start going through the seamstress’s equipment and supplies. Jaime is comparing what’s in the room with a scroll he’s carrying.”

That would be the copy of the list of Dante and Barbora’s belongings I had delivered to the magistrate’s office after their deaths. It was good to know DiCook was being thorough in his duties.

Garbhan picked up the recitation. “The other man and the woman come into the living quarters. She waves toward the staircase, and they proceed up the steps.” Wood creaked as the Light priest followed the ghost of the past to the second story. He and Noko ignored my orders, but I couldn’t berate them properly without dropping the spell.

“They are also cross-checking what is up here versus the inventory your Temple provided,” Garbhan shouted.

I let time speed up just a bit. A few heartbeats later, bootsteps come back down the steps.

“The two I followed are finishing their inventory of personal property in this room,” Garbhan added. “Now, they head back into the shop area.”

“Peacekeeper Jaime asks the other pair something,” Noko continued. “They both nod. All four are leaving.”

Nothing interesting or unusual so far, but I didn’t expect otherwise from Jaime. He was a quiet man, but very conscientious in the performance of his duties.

I let the strings of time slip faster through my fingers. One day passed. Two. Three. Four.

“Hold!” Garbhan’s shout nearly made me lose my control of the spell. It was night at this pause.

“Warden, get in here!” he called sternly.

It was rare for Garbhan to show his true nature. He’d adapted a quiet, unassuming personality in order to keep an eye on the Reverend Father of Light for the Reverend Father of Thief. As much as I hated politics, there was a growing body of circumstantial evidence Reverend Father Farrell may be connected to the renegades. He definitely hadn’t made a good impression on anyone at Love with his obsession for the younger priestesses.

Bootsteps pounded into the living room, and Noko gasped. “What in Balance’s thousand names!”

“Witness!” I demanded. Holding time in place strained my resources as well as Yanaba’s.

“I’m drawing in the dust,” Garbhan answered. “We’re going to need your clerks to draft a better picture. Something not human came through the back door. I think it picked the back lock.”

“The creature walks upright,” Noko said. “It appears like a Wildling caught halfway in their change. Furred. Long talons, but it still has thumbs. The head—” She paused, obviously searching for the right words. “Prominent ears. Long snout. It doesn’t quite resemble a bear or a wolf. Something…in between. And it has the horns of a white-tailed deer. It’s carrying an intact body. A woman.”

“I can’t hold the lines forever,” I said through gritted teeth. Sweat soaked through my small clothes and dampened my silk tunic.

“Go,” Garbhan said.

Time eased forward under my grip. Noko took up the recitation while Garbhan tried to capture the perpetrator’s appearance.

“It lays the body on the table. It—” She choked and coughed. “It uses its talons to rip open the body and starts eating the internal organs.” She made gagging noises before she added, “The creature seems to be relishing the heart the most.”

“Go outside, Warden,” Garbhan murmured. “Get some fresh air.”

“B-but—”

“Go on, Noko,” I ground out. “Before I get sick myself from hearing you retch.”

“Yes, m’lady.” She sounded on the verge of tears. From the rhythm of the floorboards beneath me and the pounding of her boots, she ran from the living area.

“The creature rips off the head of the corpse, and it eats the brains,” Garbhan continued grimly. At least, he didn’t sound like he was about to get sick again, too. “It tears off the arms and the legs.”

“Was the woman clothed?” My words were punctuated by little gasps, and I blinked sweat from my eyes.

“No.” Garbhan sounded puzzled. “It collects the remains of the torso and skull, and it leaves, but it doesn’t touch the limbs.”

I could feel Yanaba listening through me, and she was just as confused. However, we need more information. I started to speed the timeline. Nearly a day passed.

“Slow,” Garbhan barked. My shoulders and back ached, but I did as he said. I could feel the creature’s timing was around First Night, the same as before.

“It brings in another woman. Again either unconscious or dead. No clothing. The creature performs the same ritual of eating the innards.” The priest paused before he added, “And the brains.”

I let time flow at a sedate pace through my fingers. There had to be a clue here in the creature’s actions.

“Again, it removes the limbs before collecting the torso. Chief Justice…” Garbhan hesitated. “It almost appears as if the creature is using the limbs to create a design on the table.”

He reported two more women devoured and dismembered over the course of two more nights before he said, “This is new. A male youth.”

“Young enough to be mistaken as female?” I asked.

“Or possibly berda,” Garbhan replied. “Without any clothing, it’s difficult to tell how he originally appeared.” Another pause filled the air. “This time, it is eating the heart first. I’m sketching the layers of the limbs. I recognize a couple of the symbols. If I’m right, this creature is leaving someone a message. Or possibly casting a spell.”

“Why here?” I murmured more to myself than to the young priest.

“The demon eggs? The family’s death?” Garbhan chuckled softly. “You’re the one who preaches that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions.”

This all happened on consecutive nights, Yanaba whispered in my mind at the same time Garbhan said the words aloud. My junior justice sounded as tired as I felt. Why didn’t anyone notice this thing? she added.

“I can’t hold the timelines too much longer, Brother,” I said.

“One moment,” he pleaded. His fingernail scraped against wood as fast as if he were using a stick of charcoal. “I have it. Go.”

Time flowed faster through my grip.

“Nothing, but the increase of insect activity,” Garbhan reported. “A family of rats have come in and are feasting on the flesh along with the flies and maggots. The rats’ motions through the pile result in the shifting and jumble of the limbs.”

Time oozed into the present. I groaned at the cramping of my major muscles along with a good number of little ones. DiCook’s estimate of how long the limbs had been rotting in here was only a few days off. I didn’t expect total accuracy from him, but he’d obviously picked up quite a bit from Luc and me over the last year. Warden Yar, Garbhan said silently.

From the boot treads, someone smaller followed the giant Light warden into the living area.

“Warden, I will guard my drawings, but I need you to fetch one of the Balance clerks to copy these to papyrus or parchment.”

“Yar, stay here with the brother,” Gina said. She had no problem countermanding a clergy member’s order if she believed it was in their best interest. “I’ll send Noko. It’ll get her mind off the grotesque scene in here and the rewind.” Gina crouched next to me. “Chief Justice?”

“I will need some help standing,” I admitted. Yanaba?

I was bright enough to lay down before we started, she said with an irritated tone. Sivan and Ming Wei are attending to me.

Once Gina half-carried, half-guided me to the healer’s wagon, Bly pressed a potion bottle to my hands while Devin checked my vitals. Noko shuffled nearby, no doubt to make sure I was all right before she faced Little Bear at the Temple.

“You all are worse than mother geese,” I protested. However, I swigged Bly’s concoction.

“That’s because you refuse to use the sense the Twelve gave a dog,” Devin snapped. “At least, your heartbeat is slowing. You’re damn lucky it didn’t seize.”

“I’m fine. Besides, Justice Yanaba helped with the rewind.” I immediately regretted my words. Both healers froze and scowled at me.

“Go on to Balance and check on her, Master Bly,” Devin said. “Simi and I can deal with the mess here.”

“Warden Noko, go with the master healer and then escort Clerk Leilani back down here,” Gina said.

Noko audibly gulped. “Yes, Warden.”

Part of me wished I could simply erase Noko’s memory or the horrible scene inside the shop. She would no doubt relive what she saw during the rewind for the next week or so, too. That would add one more to the list of people at Balance having nightmares.

Bly grabbed a shoulder bag from the seat of the wagon. Together, she and Noko trotted down the side street toward the Temple District.

“How many times do we need to remind you not to put so much on Justice Yanaba, Anthea?” Devin murmured. His fingers rested against my neck once more to check my pulse. Why had I asked Yanaba for help? She needed the rest.

Because I needed to do only one rewind for the entire house. Normally, our gift for viewing the past is hindered by the need to anchor ourselves in three dimensions, which means we’re limited by the walls of one room.

In Yanaba’s effect to destroy the demon last spring, she’d let go of her body and anchored her spirit to the walls of the city. Shi Hua, Jeremy, and Brother Turtle from Child managed to disentangle Yanaba and place her spirit back into her body, but my junior justice was still linked to Orrin.

To the point she couldn’t step outside the city walls or sail past the harbor entrance.

I couldn’t worry about Yanaba at the moment. Instead, I needed to focus on the atrocities committed. The creature had done its dismembering here, but did the actual deaths occur before it brought its victims to the shop. Balance only knew where it found these people. DiCook’s confirmation of no reports of missing people didn’t mean no one knew the victims were gone, only that their absence hadn’t been officially recorded.

The thought of every possible lead to follow was adding to my post-rewind headache. And this very morning, I told myself I needed to carry more of the court load while Yanaba dealt with her babe. I couldn’t imagine how I would handle everything without Elizabeth here, too.

“You’re right,” I replied equally softly to Devin. “I promise not to rely on her so much, but I fear putting too much on Chief Justice Elizabeth as well.”

“She’s doing much better than when she arrived here nearly six months ago.” His eyebrow lifted as his fingers withdrew from my neck. I didn’t need silent speech to know his unspoken question.

“Rebuilding and fortifying on Tuqan Island has begun, but it’s a long way from being ready for regular habitation.” I shook my head. “Crown Princess Chiara has thrown her support for the project, but it’s going to be expensive, and the queendom’s already pushed to the limit.”

“We didn’t expect to lose an entire city,” Devin remarked.

The hairs on the back of my neck rose despite being soaked in sweat. “No, but we didn’t have much of a choice, and we paid a steeper price in the lives we lost.”

“I wasn’t blaming you, Anthea,” he said gently.

“Why not?” I snapped. “Everyone else does.” I jumped down from my seat on the edge of the wagon and marched back into the seamstress shop. The voices in the back of mind whispered that I’d done everything in my power, but they could give me more so something like Tandor would never happen again.

Shut up!

They went silent, except a hum of discussion amongst themselves. That noise I could ignore, just like when I ignored the wagons, horses, and people outside of Balance during a court session.

What I needed was a way to shut down the demons in my head for good, instead of dealing with murders of people who didn’t matter.