MEMORIES
I met with the Six today, in my workshop and by cover of night. Always by cover of night.
They came to me, each by his or her own magical means. Only the Rook King could not come, but he sent his bird as a proxy. A rook trained as well as any dog. Better, even, for somehow after these meetings, the bird communicates all we discuss to his master.
That rook unsettles me. I wish the King would send his general instead. I’ve never met the man, but at least he is human.
It has been almost half a year since the Six last met and half a year since I promised them I could make the doorways between kingdoms as well as a way to kill the Exalted Ones once and for all.
But I have no doorways, and I am scarcely any closer to producing a weapon than I was at our last meeting.
I did not tell that to the Six, though. The cards show me again and again that an answer is coming—which means Sirmaya Herself is telling me to be patient.
So patient I will be.
“The underground city is almost finished,” Bastien said as we went around the table with our various updates. For once, he had removed the mask he always wore, and his scars from the Exalted Ones were plain for us to see.
A not so subtle reminder of why we fought as well as the power we were up against. For as powerful as the six Paladins were that I worked with, the other six, who called themselves the Exalted Ones, were even more so.
“There is currently space for twenty thousand,” Bastien continued with a scratch at the brow over his missing eye, “but Saria assures me we can expand.”
“We can,” Saria inserted. “The wheat and sorghum crops are finally responding to foxfire and magic light.”
“And we,” Rhian said, “have almost finished the lamps and the heating apparatus.”
“All that we lack,” finished Midne, looking to Baile, “is a source of energy to keep the billows blowing.”
Baile smiled. “It is done. I finished three days ago. The currents inside the plateau will flow and move exactly where we need them.”
“Oh, excellent!” cried Midne, and Rhian beamed at her aunt. “That means we can begin moving families as soon as the doorways are prepared.”
In perfect synchrony, all gazes swiveled to me. Even the bird’s, for of course the doorways are my responsibility. My promise to the Six.
“Soon,” I murmured. “’Tis no small amount of magic, and unlike all of you, I was not born with power.”
I use this excuse every time—that I am not a Paladin. That I do not have magic. But I know this tale will not keep working forever.
The rest of the meeting we spent lost in discussion. Family by family, we would move the people most oppressed by the Exalted Ones out of danger. They would remain in the underground city to the south until we could kill the corrupted Paladins and end their reincarnations forever.
Although our plans might soon come to fruition, one wrong move could still give us all away. And the violence Bastien had faced at the hands of the Exalted Ones would be nothing compared to the punishment our rebellion would unleash.
When the quicksilver in my hourglass ran out, the Six took their leave. All except Lady Baile. She lingered, pretending to examine my latest assortment of stones. Yet as soon as we were alone, she spoke, “You seem preoccupied today, Dysi.”
I cringed. This was exactly what I had feared—that Lisbet and Cora were taking up more of my mind and energy than I had to spare.
“I apologize, my lady.” I bobbed my head. “One of my wards is … trouble.” This wasn’t entirely true, of course. Lisbet was not trouble at all, but I did not want to explain how worried she made me lately.
With eyes almost full silver, her mind was in another world.
“Ah.” Baile’s forehead wrinkled with a frown. She dropped a limestone chunk atop its pile. “I admit this was not what I expected you to say. I thought perhaps you had found someone.”
“Found … someone?”
“Hye. A new man or woman—or perhaps both.” She twirled a hand in the air. “It is just that you seem happier than I have seen you in ages.”
Nothing could have surprised me more, and Baile seemed to register the shock on my face, for she hastened to add, “Of course you also seem worried, Dysi, but we are all worried these days. What I see in you tonight is a flush on your cheek and a secret smile on your lips. Which is why I cannot help but suspect that you have found someone.”
“I … no.” I could barely swallow the chuckle building in my chest. Me, finding someone. It was truly laughable. “You mean like a Heart-Thread, don’t you?”
But Baile wasn’t laughing. “Hye, like a Heart-Thread.”
This time, I let a snort break free. “Where would I even meet someone, my lady? I spend all my time here, in the workshop, trying to build our doorways.”
Baile bounced one shoulder. “Sisters may take lovers, no?”
“Of course,” I said, “but I haven’t.”
She glanced toward the door, where I noticed a masked figure waited in the tunnel outside. “Sometimes we fall in love with those who have been beside us all along.”
Ah. So my suspicions regarding those two Paladins were true.
I shook my head. “I am afraid this is not the case for me. No Sisters have suddenly caught my eye, and no one else has entered my life …” The rest of my argument faded from my lips, for while I had been speaking, someone’s face had indeed come to mind.
Someone who would be at the Supplicant’s Sorrow tomorrow. Someone who visited once each month on the full moon.
But of course, I was happy to see him tomorrow—not for me, but for Lisbet and Cora. Of course that was why.
A skeptical “hmmm” was all Baile said before she departed.
And a matching “hmmm” was all I could offer in reply.