Thirteen: Raklan

"There's blood down your nails." Lin gave Dela a pained look. "Why in Kiel's name did you volunteer for that?"

Dela glanced down at her fingers. Her nails were cut down short, and there was a rime of blood underneath them, but it was nothing her evening wash wouldn't sort.

One of the Clerics had brought a dead thrall into the dissection class that day, and Dela had volunteered to have a go at the demonstration. Though the fiendish little thing gave her shivers, an Unspoken had drained its venom so it could be used in class and it was harmless. Lin was just being squeamish again.

"It's just a bit of blood," she said, finishing off her gruel. "It'll wash out. And I volunteered because I was interested." She couldn't help feeling a little hurt by her friend's tone, as if there was something wrong with enjoying her vocation every now and then. "It's not as bad as a butcher's shop, anyhow."

"You were never going to be in a butcher's shop."

"No, but my mother had me helping with kills from the hunt as soon as I could hold a knife." Dela frowned. "I had to put my entire arm inside the corpses sometimes."

"Oh, don't." Lin shook her head, eyes squeezed shut. "I'd forgotten you grew up in the wilds."

"Well, I never forget that you grew up in the city," Dela replied, nudging her friend in an attempt to lighten the mood and distract her. "You're so very sheltered."

"Sheltered? Psh." Lin rolled her eyes dramatically. "The city is a different kind of wild, with just as many big scary monsters."

"I lived with the big scary monsters," Dela said, matching the playful tone. "My papa was like two of you stacked on top of each other."

"He was not."

"I swear on my life he was." She stood up to clear away her bowl and Lin followed, but she didn't argue, perhaps reminded of how tall Dela actually was for her age.

As usual, the thought of the life she had run away from sobered her. There were aspects of it she had loved – her family and tribe always around her, the smell of the grasses when they flowered, the dazzling displays of glowbugs in the light season dusks. Sometimes she still dreamed of the wilderness and the rugged expanses of the southern plains. But there was just as much that she had been glad to get away from; the husband her mother had started referring to long before she had considered married life, the strange wild priests who shrieked and hummed in the night when the spirits took them, the endless wandering, and the terror of a dark season in the open.

She had made the right choice coming here.

Their afternoon was theirs to do with as they pleased, a rare day off while yet another inspection was made of the temple and its burial chambers; first, to ensure no other bodies had gone missing, second, to double check there were no secret ways in, and third to re-ward a few parts of the temple's rune net that had worn out more heavily, just in case. Dela didn't think anyone thought demons were behind the thefts, but Lady Kerrin wasn't taking any risks. The Head of the House looked thinner and more harassed every time Dela saw her.

Behind the acolytes' halls was a large walled courtyard garden which she and Lin favoured in their time off. It was used to grow vegetables and flowers for decorating the temple hall in the light season, but the Clerics who managed it had also made it a cosy outdoor space for meditation and relaxation. Several stone benches bordered the walkways, and candles floated in metal dishes on the surface of the pond, bobbing between the large leaves of spiny lotuses, which produced spectacular sweet-smelling blooms when the light returned. In the dark season they furled up into bobbing balls of pinkish spikes to protect their fleshy centres from marauding pests, and Dela had always thought the sight was vaguely obscene.

She and Lin selected their favourite bench furthest from the cloister. The courtyard was criss-crossed with thin rope from which lanterns hung, but also served as an anchor point for the temple rune net. A pair of Marrowhawks swooped overhead, screeching, and somewhere in another quarter a Firebull hollered. Dela slipped her hands inside her sleeves and thanked Kiel for her fortune in ending up at the temple instead of on the city streets. It wasn't like she hadn't been aware of what happened to runaway daughters who had never been to the city before, but she had been desperate enough to try anyway.

"What are you thinking about?" Lin asked. "You've got that face on."

"What face?"

"Righteous moral anguish."

Dela gasped in mock offense and tried to push Lin off the bench in retaliation, but the wiry little acolyte was stronger than she looked. They were forced to end their stalemate when they were too breathless with laughter to keep it up.

"What would you do," she asked, after they'd caught their breath in companionable silence, "if you manifested the Gift tomorrow?"

Lin considered, a light frown on her face. "I suspect setting something on fire would be part of my agenda, whether I wanted it or not. Then some crying. Then, I suppose, I would find myself a tutor. What about you?"

"Don't you ever wonder what it's like?" she asked, instead of answering the question.

"If you're about to explain some crackpot idea that involves poking demons with sticks, count me out."

"I'm not, I'm not." Dela chuckled. "I'm just curious sometimes. How other people live. I expect their lives are at least very interesting."

"And at most utterly miserable," Lin said.

"They don't all seem miserable." Dela thought about Hap and Koen when she'd met them several days before. Koen had been positively enthusiastic about his job, and though Hap had seemed tired and in pain, he hadn't been reluctant or resentful.

"You get those people in every job. The ones who enjoy stuff other people find unpleasant."

Dela raised a brow. "You wouldn't be talking about anyone in particular there, would you?"

Lin resolutely shook her head. "Absolutely not."

A Cleric entered the courtyard, acknowledging them with a nod that they returned, faces sober. The Clerics in charge of the gardens wore their pale gold robes with a dark brown border, unlike the black of the Long Path or the white of the High Clergy. The woman knelt at a bed on the other side of the courtyard and began to dig up large bunches of potatoes, pale from the dark and cold. The vegetable patches were starting to look very bare, and the seeds sown last year would not sprout before the light returned. Dela swallowed her anxiety.

While she was watching the Cleric work, movement caught her eye from the cloister corridor. When she looked up she saw nothing, and frowned.

A face appeared from behind one of the corridor's columns, and she had to stifle a gasp.

"I'll be back in a minute," she said to Lin, hoping the Cleric hadn't also noticed the temple's unexpected visitor. "I need to relieve myself."

Lin's brow furrowed. "Alright. Do you want me to come?"

Harkenn's guards had stopped escorting them all over the temple after extra security measures had been implemented, but many of the acolytes still liked to travel in groups. Normally Dela might have taken Lin up on her offer.

"No, no. I'll be fine. Just a moment."

She got up and hurried off before Lin could question her further, hands clenched in her robe and guilt gnawing at her.

She followed the darting figure all the way down the corridor until they came to a stop behind the latrine block.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed, "If the guards find you..."

"Relax." It was strange hearing her mother tongue again after so long. Her brother Raklan leaned against the block wall as casually as if he hadn't sneaked into a temple past city guards when they were already on high alert. How he'd done it, Dela had no idea, but her oldest brother was an excellent hunter, and that came with being incredibly stealthy. "They won't find me."

"You'd better hope they won't," she said hotly. "Papa won't set foot in this city to bail you out of Harkenn's jail. How did you even know I'd be out there?"

"I didn't." He shrugged his massive shoulders. "But it is on the way to your room, and I was going to check there when I spotted you." He frowned. "They've shaved you again."

Dela's hand darted self-consciously to the stubble all over her head. She had arrived at Kiel's temple with a wild mane of pale, near-white hair, which her brother still had. In her tribe, pale hair had been considered a mark of favour from Varthi. She dreaded to think what her mother would say if she knew Dela had allowed it to be shorn off.

Cattle! She would shriek. Dela could hear it now. Shorn like cattle! I should put you out to pasture and feed you nothing but grass until it grows back!

Her brother's sharp-toothed grin broke her from her reverie. Raklan was the only one she told before she ran away, and he had kept her secret, so she could never be angry with him for long.

"I missed you, Karu," she mumbled, and threw herself into his outstretched arms.

His laugh rumbled in his broad chest, echoing in her ears. He smelled like furs and smoke, like the wilderness, so out of place in the temple but so familiar, too. He was several years older than her, but had tolerated her sleeping in his tent for far longer than most boys would tolerate pestering little sisters. She squeezed, listening to the strong thud of his heart, and then pulled back before her eyes could well up.

"It's not safe for you to be here," she said, rubbing them hard.

"When has that ever stopped me?" He ran his hand over her head as if to ruffle hair that was no longer there. "I came to warn you."

"Of what?"

"Sickness in the settlements." He frowned, looking more troubled than she had ever seen him. "A deadly one. It is spreading quickly."

"A plague?" He nodded. "What spreads it?"

His expression darkened further. "Father heard the story in Klinort – a maddened demon, it started with. Came into the settlement and attacked one of the townspeople, and though they survived they fell terribly sick, despite the efforts of their Hooded Man. It spread like wildfire."

Dela's heart fluttered in fear. "Is the tribe okay?"

"No one is sick," Raklan reassured her. "We have stayed far from the southern settlements since then. But it is important for the city to know, if demons can carry it. Demons range further than we do."

"Did the Unspoken get sick?"

Raklan shook his head, very slowly. "If he did, we've had no word of it, though he has tended the sick most closely since their physician was taken ill. We have heard it begins with a vile pox, followed swiftly by brain rot. They should know that, too."

Dela bunched her fists under her chin, feeling all of a sudden very small and inconsequential. Someone had to raise the alarm, but surely she couldn't...then again, had Kerrin not called for her personally before? Surely the Lady would listen.

"You must be out of the city before I tell the Lady of the House," she said firmly. "They will wonder where I found this information, and I can't easily lie." She gestured at the towering temple walls around them. "I can't have just overheard it, can I?"

"Tell them Father sent you a missive," Raklan said, waving a hand. "He could have. But I would not pass up an opportunity to see you, Drina."

She hugged him again, but knew Lin would come looking for her soon if she didn't hurry. Sadness prickled at her eyes; there was enough that she didn't miss to keep her at the temple, but she did miss her brothers and sisters. She had found a new family here, of a sort, but it wasn't the same. Raklan couldn't stay long on his rare visits – outside the great seasonal fayres, Varthians were only allowed into the city if they were on official business or denounced their traditions. Raklan had not, and if a city guard caught him on the street with the top of a skull hanging from his belt and a necklace of finger bones, he would be hauled up in front of the Assembly – and that was when they weren't on high alert for security risks already.

"From your sisters," Raklan said, digging in a leather pouch at his hip. He pulled out a beautiful carved amulet which opened in the centre. It hung on a leather cord decorated with dyed threads and inside the little carved deer skull were three tiny teeth. "Their children are older now. They hope you will meet one day."

Dela rolled the little teeth with the tip of her finger, throat tight as she pictured the tiny nieces and nephews they belonged to. If she'd stayed she would probably have one of her own on the way by now, but she'd always cared more for the children she could give back at the end of the day.

"Thank you, Karu," she whispered, looping it over her head and hiding it under her robe. "Tell them I will visit as soon as I have reached my calling."

Raklan clasped her head between his massive paws and pressed their foreheads together. "It has been quiet without you, Drina."

Lin looked positively beside herself when Dela returned to the courtyard garden in a daze, fingers pressed against the amulet under her robe.

"I was about to come and look for you!" the other acolyte exploded as Dela sat down beside her again. "What took so long, are you ill?"

"No, no." Dela dropped her hand and then shook herself out. "Is Kerrin in the temple this afternoon?"

"How would I know?" Lin retorted, still looking put out, but whatever look was on Dela's face caused her to narrow her eyes. "Why?"

"I need to see her. It's urgent."

She chewed on her lower lip. She'd never gone to Kerrin before, and wasn't sure how to go about it without the Clerics dismissing her.

"Good luck getting Maniel to agree to that," Lin replied, echoing her thoughts.

"I won't ask Maniel, then," Dela said. Before Lin cottoned on to what she intended to do, she stood up and marched out of the garden, determined to get there before her nerve failed her. There was a pause, and then frantic footsteps sounded behind her and Lin caught her arm.

"Are you cracked?" she hissed. "You could get into so much trouble!"

"It's important." Dela kept her eyes ahead and her trembling hands clasped in front of her so Lin didn't see how frightened she was. They reached the sermon hall, Lin making her disapproval abundantly clear through loud sighs and the rhythm of her steps, though the acolyte didn't leave her side.

The corridor to Kerrin's office seemed to stretch longer than last time, and the door loomed taller. Lin had fallen silent, and clutched Dela's arm with a grip that promised retribution.

The door swung open before Dela could knock, and she and Cleric Maniel stared at each other in equal shock.

The priestess recovered first.

"What are you doing down here?" she hissed. She caught Dela by the ear. "You do not simply take it upon yourself to bother the Lady of the House whenever you..."

"Who is it, Maniel?"

The Cleric paused in her rather painful shaking-down. "Two acolytes from my order, my lady. I apologise, they had not come to me first."

Kerrin appeared at Maniel's shoulder, frowning delicately. Dela's heart skipped, and she blurted, "My family sent me an urgent warning, my lady. It's really important you hear it."

Kerrin's frown deepened. "Deladrina. How urgent is urgent? I am really very busy today."

"No need to worry yourself with it, my lady," Maniel said quickly, but Kerrin put a calming hand on her shoulder.

"I would at least hear the warning."

"There's a plague coming," Dela said, relieved beyond words that the lady hadn't simply allowed Maniel to carry her off. "A deadly one. My...father sent a message."

Kerrin's face smoothed. "Let her in, Maniel."

"But your meeting..."

"Lord Harkenn will want to hear of this, so I must hear it before I go." Kerrin settled herself back in her chair. Dela stepped inside, trying not to meet Maniel's disapproving gaze. Her fingers threaded through Lin's behind her as her friend let out a small gasp.

Kerrin fixed Dela with a steady gaze. "Please give me all the details you know."

Dela recounted what Raklan had told her, in as close to his words as she could, silently thanking her training in memorising scripture. Kerrin listened with a grave expression and without interrupting. When she finished, there was a long silence.

"Please ask the stables to ready a coach," Kerrin finally said, getting out of her chair. "Or I shall be most grievously late for the meeting."

Maniel hurried off without a word. Dela trembled where she stood, all her bravado gone when she realised the immensity of what she'd done. She tensed, readying herself for the punishment.

"You will come with me, of course," Kerrin said. "Harkenn will want to hear from you."

Dela's heart dropped like a stone. Her – in a meeting with the High Lord? In a coach with the Lady Kerrin? She thought she might be sick, either from fear or excitement, or a bizarre mixture of both.

"I-I would be honoured, my lady."

Kerrin smiled. "Go and change into your ceremonial robe, and meet my coach at the front in five minutes."

Dela bowed, echoed by Lin behind her, and as soon as the office door was out of sight she broke into a run.