Seventy Nine: Orthan

"It's just one dark-damned thing after another." Lin paced around the room for the hundredth time that evening. Dela watched her from her pallet. She was too tired to pace. She had been at the end of a very long shift at a shelter when the call came to bolt windows and doors and sit tight. There had been no time to get back to the boarding house they were staying in while the temple was repaired, and the sick needed as much tending as they ever did. The acolytes had appropriated spare pallets from the shelter stores and set up on the floor in a spare room instead. The walls were thin in this place, and from their respite they could still hear the noises of the ward. It wasn't hugely relaxing.

"You're telling me," she muttered. She slowly rubbed a circle into one sore shoulder with her fingers. Her feet ached abominably, especially the one she had cut the night of the temple fire, scabbed and tight but still tender – and not thanking her for spending the whole day rushing around. She would be glad when the light returned in full. Not long now – the moons were out and demon numbers dwindling, and with the light could come a reconstruction of the battered city.

She only hoped her own problems were resolved by then, too. She had slept badly since her encounter with the Devils, always expecting them to be there when she woke up, or to pop up when she let her guard down - so she simply didn't let her guard down, and the lack of sleep was draining her. When one of them – a tall, rangy man with a shaved head who smiled far too easily for her to be comfortable – had come to give her the signal for her first task a couple of weeks ago, she had almost been sick with terror. It had gone off fine – Kerrin had agreed to meet with Cael on the false pretence that Dela had been told to use, and surprisingly Harkenn's Unspoken, Yddris, had backed her up. She didn't know if it had served the purpose intended and did not care to ask, nor to find out whether Yddris somehow knew of the plan. She felt filthy for deceiving the Lady that way, even if it was ostensibly helping Harkenn. She'd never wanted to be of help in such a manner.

Despite that task's success, getting access to the Orthanian private wing was a different matter. She simply didn't know how she was going to do it. She knew where it was, but little more than that. Perhaps that was all Arlen's apprentice needed to get in, though she doubted it. The otherworld boy had seemed as intimidated by the plan as she'd felt.

"You're not listening, are you?" Lin's sharp question intruded on her spiralling thoughts, snapping her back to the present. Her friend glared at her with her hands on her hips, though she read more frustration and concern there than anger. Remembering the last time she had assumed that Lin hadn't realised anything was wrong, Dela pinned a smile on her face.

"I'm sorry. I'm just so tired, my thoughts are all over the place. What were you saying?"

Lin looked unconvinced, but to Dela's relief she didn't press the point. She thought she might have crumbled if she had. "I was saying, there's not been much news from out there. Do you think it's worse than we thought? Nika ran out yesterday and hasn't come back."

Knowing Nika, Dela thought there was probably a very good reason keeping him away from his patients, and tried not to indulge the surge of anxiety that reared up at the thought. "I heard it was four demons and twelve patients. It surely won't take them much longer to round them up."

"Got to quarantine them, too," Lucine piped up from the corner of the room, where she huddled on her own pallet fixing a hole in her stockings. She bit off a thread and continued, "Twelve can turn into a lot more if we're not very careful."

"That's what the plague hospital was for," Lin grumbled. She eyed Dela. "Did you know there was a plague hospital?"

"No. Why would I know?" Dela, for a miracle, kept her patience. They had mostly made peace, but there were moments when Lin's jealousy reared its head again. It didn't take much to dissipate it, but Dela was long tired of doing so. "Lin, she might like me, but I'm still a second-level acolyte. She would never tell me something like that, and I bet half the Clerics didn't even know about it."

"Backfired." Kell, who had been pretending to sleep, suddenly joined in. "If she'd told more people, someone might have actually had some sort of clue as to what happened."

"The patients broke out," Lin said. "That's what happened."

"What, with a wasting sickness and brain rot? From individual locked rooms in a secret locked hospital?" Kell said stubbornly. "No way. Someone let them out."

"I don't think that's any more likely," Lin argued. "Who in the Pit lets out plague patients?"

Kell gave a gesture that could have been a shrug. "The Devils?"

"Devils aren't immune," Lin said. "They'd be signing their own death warrants."

"They could have had someone do it for them."

The argument continued as a buzzing background to Dela's weary thoughts. She looked at the guttering candle on the floor beside her pallet, then picked it up and got to her feet. Every part of her body protested the movement, but she wasn't going to use the chamber pot in the corner while everyone else was still awake. Not that she cared, but everyone else did. It was one part of her Varthian upbringing she had had to suppress when she arrived at Kiel, that all the other Houses had very different ideas about what constituted modesty. It had always made her stand out, and she wearily contemplated that she just seemed to be one of those people who always did, for one reason or another.

She left Lin and Kell still arguing their theories with one another and wandered into the hall. The closet was located at the bottom of the stairs near the door, which was securely barred until the danger had passed. She stepped inside and closed the door behind her, setting the candle on the little shelf above the basin, and sighed in relief at the isolation and quiet. She was long used to communal living, but the last week of endless demand on her time and energy left even her longing for solitude.

She did her business and picked up the candle again, bracing herself to endure company once more, but just as she was about to open the door a knock came – not a knock on the closet door, but one that reverberated through one wall, which meant it was the front door. Her heart lifted, hoping it was an Unspoken come to tell them it was all clear and they could go home. She heard someone, probably a priestess, hurry down the stairs outside. The rattle and clank of chains and bolts followed. Dela stayed where she was, hoping to hear the news first.

"Well met," a voice said, and her heart sank when she placed it as Thorne's. If she stayed here, in the closet, would they just tell him she was out? No, Lin had probably seen her leave and it was the only thing to do down here.

She waited until she heard the priestess agree to look for her and climb the stairs again. A breeze drifted under the closet door, toying with the light of her candle. She paused with her hand on the latch, steeling herself. She was far too tired for this. She was going to screw it up, she was sure of it.

But if she got it over with, she wouldn't have to think about it anymore.

Thorne seemed startled to see her when she stepped out of the closet. "Hello."

She paused. "Well met." She could not force a smile onto her face, and trying to would have fooled neither of them. "Is it time?"

"Apparently." Thorne sounded disgruntled. "I'm sorry. Can you come?"

"I don't expect I have a choice."

Thorne looked over his shoulder into the darkness outside, and Dela knew with a chill certainty that a Devil was out there waiting for them. The Unspoken apprentice shook his head. "Sorry."

"It's not your fault," she muttered. "Wait here. I'll tell the priestess you're escorting me to a Medica for spare blankets." She paused, thinking of their dwindling supplies. "It probably wouldn't be such a bad idea to pick some up if I have time."

Before he responded, she hurried back up the stairs. When she entered the makeshift dormitory, the argument had ended. By the look on Lin's face, she guessed it hadn't ended amiably.

"In a hurry?" her friend asked, brows rising as Dela crossed the room to her pallet and hurriedly got changed into her outdoor robe – despite how tempting her wool shirt and winter trousers looked, she'd need to look convincing if they talked to anyone at the Orthanian temple. For a moment, she looked at Lin and couldn't get any words out for the panic in her throat. She wanted to ask for help, for advice, for someone to get her out of it, but there was nothing any of her friends could do for her, and she certainly wasn't going to a Cleric. When it was over, the whole incident was never passing her lips again.

"I'm going to get more blankets from the Medica," she said, the lie tasting bitter on her tongue. "An Unspoken has come to help out."

"I can come."

"No, we'll manage." It came out far sharper than she had intended, and she tried not to wince at the hurt on Lin's face. "I'll see you when I get back, okay?"

She felt the eyes of all the girls on her back as she hurried away. She told herself she wasn't avoiding anything, but the look on Lin's face promised that it would come up again later. She found the priestess and explained her falsehood; she looked surprised but grateful, which made Dela feel even worse. Perhaps Thorne would agree to help her carry some blankets back. And come up with a reason why such a simple errand had taken hours, perhaps.

She made her escape before anyone could think to come after her, and found Thorne waiting for her just inside the ring of light from the shelter's lantern. She flicked up the door latch and stepped out, closing it behind her and hearing it drop back into place. Someone would come down and bolt it again soon. She was about to say something scathing to Thorne about her probability of getting back in during the middle of the night, but her words caught in her throat as a hulking figure stepped out of the shadows of a nearby building – Usk. His face was as impassive as it had been last time.

"Can you climb?" he asked her.

"Yes," she said, with some dignity. Even as an ex-Varthian he should remember that Varthian children spent their childhoods scrambling up trees, to collect fruits and nuts and sling-shot small birds that the adults were too heavy to get to. Climbing was second nature. Granted, there hadn't been much call for it in the Kiel temple, but two years was nothing compared to the twelve or so before. Faced with the kind of climbing Usk probably meant, though, she was suddenly seized by doubt.

"Good," he grunted. "Then we are going up."

He turned and strode off into the darkness. Thorne began to follow, and gestured to her when she hesitated.

"In my experience it goes faster if you just get on with it," he said, his tone still apologetic. "We're doing it whatever."

"I know." She sighed, and hurried along after them both, already regretting leaving her winter trousers behind. Why hadn't she thought to put them on under her robe? Too late now, though. If she turned back, Lin wouldn't let her go uninterrogated the second time. To her alarm, the shadow in front of her resolved into the hulking figure of the Varthian scaling the side of a tall building with the help of window ledges and broken stonework. Thorne followed with more effort, using the guttering to help him as well, and had to be hauled over the top by Usk. Dela paused with her hand on the drainpipe. "Why are we climbing?"

"Because we can catch plague," Usk said shortly. He thrust a thumb at Thorne. "And he might as well stay with us."

At the reminder of the whole reason she had been at the shelter to start with, she set her feet to the wall and began to climb. Unpleasant as what she headed into promised to be, it was nothing compared to the horror stories she'd heard of the plague. Suddenly the chill over her skin wasn't only to do with the cold.

The trip over the rooftops was treacherous with a night time mist, and though she was used to being up high, she had always climbed trees, which had a lot more grip than roof tiles. She felt like a learner all over again, and found to her dismay that her less active life in the temple had had consequences for her leg strength too. She battled on, staying closer to Thorne. He didn't seem anything like a Devil should be, and that was a comfort. Some tiny part of her couldn't quite convince itself that Usk wouldn't push her off to rid himself of a nuisance. Arlen could have come up with the second deal just to dispose of someone who knew too much.

That horrifying idea was still percolating in her mind when they reached the Orthanian temple.

The temple yard was quiet, which was much as she had expected. She found herself sandwiched between Usk and Thorne as they lay on their bellies on a townhouse roof to survey the ground. Usk smelled of blackweed and sweat; Thorne smelled like he'd spent the last few hours in a crypt. She made herself as small as possible, trying not to touch either man's shoulder.

"Quiet," Usk commented. "Don't like it."

"Aren't they all locked down?" Thorne asked. "It would be quiet, wouldn't it?"

"Orthanians? Pah." Usk spat over the roof's edge. "They are loud even when they are quiet."

Dela peered over the ledge herself. Orthan's temple was magnificent; no one could deny that, no matter what they thought of the sect's followers. The many flames burning around the tower levels made the light play strangely across the courtyard, which was completely deserted. Candlelight flickered in the tall, narrow windows of the temple hall.

"Where are we getting in?" she asked breathlessly. The roof edge dug uncomfortably into her chest but she didn't dare release her claw-like grip on the guttering to fidget.

"Arlen will be waiting for us at the back entrance of the east wing," Usk rumbled, rubbing his jaw with one hand. "But I will concede to you if you believe another entrance will give us better chances."

"Arlen's here?" Thorne whispered. Usk's grin was all sharp points.

"He is the distraction if needed. He was understandably not keen to get too involved. Mostly, he is here to see how far you have come."

Thorne said nothing to that, but his silence was distinctly unhappy. Usk returned his scrutiny to Dela, who suddenly felt very weak and sweaty. Some part of her had never quite believed it would come to this, though she recognised that as stupid now. Devils always collected on payments.

With an effort she dragged up a mental map of what she knew of the Orthanian temple. She had been a few times with Lady Kerrin. A few acolytes always accompanied visits to other temples – it was considered educational, though she thought that Kiel was the only house that did so. She didn't know the private wing, but she did know how to get to it.

"That should be fine," she said cautiously. "But they put a double guard on any entrances to the private wing. And I don't know which one Ethred would have inhabited. I don't think he ever moved into Eril's temple cell."

"I am sure we will be able to tell," Usk muttered. He was already moving, scrabbling up into a squat and crab-crawling across to the roof of the next terrace. Dela and Thorne followed, less gracefully, though Thorne had more recent training on his side. He stopped and waited for her a few times, though she wished he wouldn't; it was embarrassing that he watched her scramble inelegantly across the rooftops. Though it proved quite useful when he caught her just before her leg disappeared down a chasm between two buildings.

Heart still pounding from that close shave, she shimmied down the overgrown wall that Usk used to gain access to the courtyard, a unique patch of shadow in an otherwise unforgiving stretch of lit, open space. They waited there for a while, but no guard came along on a patrol of the dormitories. Dela guessed everyone was in the main body of the temple. She would want more than a wooden door between her and escaped plague victims if it came to that. Usk gestured them on. It took her a moment to recognise the object that flashed in his hand as a knife.

She was at the back of their little queue; if she slipped away, would either man notice? If Thorne did, would he tell on her? She didn't think so, somehow, yet she also guessed that Usk was fully capable of running her down, and Kiel knew what he would do to her then. She had not seen so much as a spark of warmth in his gaze when he looked at her, no waver in him that she could appeal to. So she didn't try, yet despite all her reasons for not doing so she felt a coward. She was probably about to be party to something she would never be able to forget.

Their footsteps echoed in the dormitory corridor, but no one came out to investigate. They entered another little courtyard, surrounded by outbuildings and connected to the temple by an offshoot of the cloister corridor. Usk stopped them again on the corner, checking for guards at the archway entrance, and gestured them on again after a short pause.

"Where are they all?" Thorne whispered to Usk, who didn't respond. Dela guessed that wasn't a good sign. Her breath came sharp and heavy, and every distant noise was a guard coming to arrest her.

The private wing was just as quiet as the rest of the temple had been. They had come up against no resistance, and it was making even Dela uneasy by that point. There should have been someone. Had something happened to the temple, something bad, so quickly no one had had the chance to raise an alarm? Or had they simply evacuated all the outer reaches of the temple while the contagion was eliminated, and she was reading too much into it? She couldn't shake her uneasiness as they crept into the private wing, denoted by elaborate doors made of thick wood, with so many locks that both Thorne and Usk had to work together on one door to get it open with any speed. She shifted from foot to foot behind them, looking up and down the corridor so compulsively her neck started aching, and wishing that Thorne hadn't come to her tonight.

The main lock thunked behind her. They all froze, listening for evidence that someone had heard.

"Too quiet," Usk repeated. "Boy, get out your blade."

Thorne obeyed, pulling a well-worn hunting blade from his belt. Dela recognised it as a southern blade, in a style typical of the villages populating the plains her family had controlled. She wondered where he'd got it, but all curiosity vanished as Usk unhooked a smaller knife from his own supply and held it out to her handle-first.

"Do not make me babysit you," he growled when Dela didn't take it right away. "All Varthi's children learn blades at their father's knee. Do not shame her."

Dela didn't think she was the one shaming Varthi, but had the wisdom not to say so. She accepted the blade to keep the peace, and vowed that she wouldn't use it unless it was the difference between life and death, and even then only to wound. She hoped that the speckling near the base of the blade was only rust.

They pushed the door open, tensing at the slightest noises it made. Dela kept her eye out behind them, but the candle-lit corridor of ornate stone and bright hangings remained deserted. Ahead of them a short, broad corridor of plainer stone was equally empty. Considering the rest of the Orthanian temple, the private wing seemed very sedate and reserved.

"You take one side, I'll take the other," Usk said to Thorne. Dela noticed a definite warmth in his manner with the boy that definitely did not extend to her. "Girl, you keep watch. Signal to me if you hear or see anything at all."

Dela nodded. Still shaking all over, she stationed herself at the grand doors to the private wing, able to see down the corridor but only leaving a gap of a few inches. To a casual glance it would look closed, and she could easily duck out of sight from a gap that small. She stilled her pounding heart, reaching for her centre. Behind her she heard the quiet noises of Usk and Thorne working at locks and investigating rooms, but forced herself not to get distracted by them. The silence in the rest of the building was eerie; Orthan was not a small house and the temple should have been heaving, especially when they were all supposedly locked down.

She jumped as a crash sounded somewhere else in the building and closed the door quickly. Shouts followed, though they were dim through the thick wood of the door and the blood roaring in her ears. Had the rune nets collapsed? She couldn't make out any sounds of demons, but some didn't make sound. Kiel above, what if it was a Geist?

"Harkenn's men," Thorne said, his voice just audible over the distant crashing. "Don't panic. I don't think they'll come this way yet." He turned to another open door on the corridor. "Usk, I've found Ethred's room. I think you should come and see this."

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Regards,

Elinor (S E Harrison)