Red Sister

‘Is she dead?’

‘How are you here?’ Clera ignored the question. ‘You weren’t supposed to be here! How did you know? … and even then, how did you get here?’

‘Is she dead?’ Nona rushed forward, pushing Clera back, away from Ara, who was still coiled about the spear. She knelt, reaching out to touch the spread gold of her hair. ‘Ara?’

‘You should never have let me go.’ The words sputtered from Clera as if she were hurt, as if it were her wrapped around a spear. ‘You had me bound. Guilty. You should have let them drown me.’

‘I wouldn’t do that to a friend.’ Nona set her fingers to Ara’s neck, seeking a pulse. The smallest of groans, the smallest tremble of a hand.

A short laugh burst from Clera, sounding as much like pain as mirth. ‘They all think you’re the big bad. The church’s hammer. Cage the Shadowless. And you’re still a child, Nona! You run into everything heart-first, expecting … what? You didn’t understand how people work when the abbess brought you here, a dirty-footed peasant. You didn’t understand when she sent you away. And you don’t understand now. People lie, Nona, they steal, they cheat, they’re unfaithful. People hurt you, they let you down. They sell you out.’

‘It doesn’t mean I have to be like that.’ Nona stared up at Clera who flinched, guilty before those black eyes. ‘We have a whole church built on ancestors.’ She waved an arm at the dome. ‘Family. Dead family.’ She took Ara’s hand in hers. ‘You choose your friends. If you’re going to worship dead people you didn’t choose, then perhaps the bonds of friendship shouldn’t be so easily broken. No?’

Clera shook her head. ‘You’re a fool, Nona Grey. Are you going to kill me now, or let someone else do it?’

‘Ara could live. If we get her to Sister Rose. Now!’ Nona glanced back towards the convent. They were coming. The old sisters and the young girls. Sister Thorn had vowed to protect them. Sister Cage to fight alongside them.

Clera waved her hand at the distant nuns, exasperated. ‘Let them take her. I don’t care. I didn’t come for Ara. She was just in the way.’

Nona released Ara’s hand with a squeeze and stood. ‘I’ve missed you, Clera. It’s been too many years.’

Clera glanced out across the plateau. ‘We were children, Nona. Children make and break friendships all the time. It’s not important. This, what we’re doing now, this is important. It’s about sides in the great game that’s being played. And you’re on the wrong one. The losing one. You should change sides.’

Nona shook her head. ‘I’m not playing. And I’ve always been on your side, Clera. You’ve just not properly understood it.’

Clera looked down at Ara. ‘I wanted her to run.’

‘I know.’

‘She should have run. There were too many of them for her. Why did she have to be so stupid?’

Nona shrugged. ‘Where is Lano Tacsis?’

‘You know the Tacsis.’ Clera nodded towards the plateau stretching out beyond the pillars. ‘They like to let you spend your power against people they consider expendable, then arrive to finish the job if anything’s left to finish.’

‘They do.’

‘He’s out there with his soldiers and eight Noi-Guin. His teachers from the Tetragode. Others too.’

Nona looked down at her sword. ‘My power’s not spent.’

‘You think you can kill me without reaching for the Path, little Nona?’ Clera drew her sword, a twin to Nona’s, taken from the body of a Red Sister.

Nona turned away, her back to Clera, looking out across the plateau.

‘I think I won’t need to kill you,’ Nona said. ‘I think you’ll fight them with me. Sister.’