Elyon's Hunters, page 27
When Maida shrugged wearily and made to turn away as though it didn’t matter to her whether she was or wasn’t, Sábria caught her by the chin and held her in place. “Look at me. Do you know what happens if you let those niggling jealous thoughts fester?”
Maida tried to pull away, but when Sábria held on, she grumbled, “I’m not jealous.”
“Let me tell you what happens. Jealousy is like the death roll of a crocodile. It spins and spins, making all rational thought impossible for both the crocodile and its victim. Don’t let it sink its teeth into you, Maida.” She waited for the Hunter to look her in the eye again. “And if by chance it sneaks in and your thoughts begin to roll into dark, destructive beliefs, come to me, and I’ll tell you again how very special you are to me. Yes?”
With an impatient growl, Maida nodded and rolled her eyes. “Yeah. I will.”
As her Blade pulled away again to straighten the saddle pad, a pad that really didn’t need straightening, Sábria sent up a silent prayer to her Goddess, Help me not lose her, My Lady.
Gradually, as they finished their duties, the other four Hunters brought in their saddle blankets or bedrolls and settled around the fire. Not surprisingly, Falla sat next to Sábria, who found it interesting that the one who sat on Falla’s other side was Cladine, the prickliest of the bunch. Then again, her black-and-white personality would either accept a person or not, and it occurred to Sábria that the others may not have confided their concerns about Falla to her simply because she’d never been one to encourage familiarity among her peers.
Once they’d all settled in, she laid out the ground rules. “First, there’s a lot of anger in this tent right now, and I understand that. But this is not the time to work through that anger. I intend to meet individually with each of you to talk about the hurt that’s been done to you and hopefully begin the healing process that’s been missing for so long. She caught and held each woman’s gaze until they nodded their understanding.
“I sense an immediate need to gather all the Hunters together to talk through what’s been happening and to find a way to heal the rift that’s opened between Hunter and Blade. The first issue I want to address is this. I understand why Xyda needed to metaphorically separate you from the Blades. What you need to understand is that what she proposed is impossible. You are all my Blades, first and foremost.” She moved her gaze from person to person with each word. “We…are…all…Elyon’s Blades.”
Harda shook her head with a glower and said quietly, “No.”
Cladine scoffed and looked away. “Not anymore.”
Falla shrugged and said cheerfully, “Of course we are, My Lady. Don’t mind any of them.” She glanced at Xyda, who hadn’t said anything. “I know you said we’re Hunters and not Blades, Xyda, but as Sábria said, you meant it metaphorically, right?”
Xyda simply glared at her before turning her attention back to Sábria, who said, “Let me make myself clear. If you wish to stop being Blades, I can and will make that happen. You’ll serve the remainder of your lives as civilians within the Temples. As you, above all Blades, know, when you choose to serve Elyon, you choose for life. Now, before we go any further, which of you choose to step out of your role as a Daughter of Elyon?”
She started with Xyda, whom she was reasonably certain would want to remain a Blade after her encounter with the Goddess. “Xyda?”
Xyda rubbed her brows and turned away slightly. Her regret was visible in her slumped shoulders. “I was wrong to separate us from the Blades. I just…didn’t know what else to do.”
Harda jerked around to face her full-on. “Wrong? Are you kidding me?” She was a short, compact woman with a muscular femininity common to many women in the Blades. Her brows were naturally sculpted into perfect arches, and they rose over a set of intense, brown eyes that were flashing dangerously at her leader. “You weren’t wrong. The fucking Blades—”
“Enough, Harda!” Xyda’s snarling bark had everyone except Sábria jumping in surprise. She’d gone from regretful to dominant in a heartbeat. “We’re Blades. I didn’t know what else to do because everyone was threatening to leave, and that, at least, I knew would be a disaster. I love Elyon, and I know you do, too.”
“I’m Elyon’s Hunter. We’re Hunters, not Blades.” Harda pushed to her feet, and anger flowed off her in waves.
In one graceful movement, Sábria stood and faced her. Her voice was gentle yet stern as she stared into those livid, hurt-filled eyes. “Harda, right now, at this moment in time, you’re my Blade, and I’ll do everything in my power to convince you to stay.”
She held up a finger when Harda opened her mouth to speak. “But, if you continue to repudiate the Blades, then you’re telling me you no longer wish to serve Elyon in any capacity, and certainly not as a Hunter. Regardless of what you fifteen decided amongst yourselves, Hunters are now and will always be my Blades.” She waited to allow Harda to digest that fact.
Harda was the first to look away. “You knew and did nothing.”
“What did I know?”
“That—” She choked on the words. Her lips pulled into thin, straight lines as she worked to control her emotions. Finally, she managed to get out what she’d been holding in for so long. “They, your Blades, beat me and threw me on the midden heap like so much trash.” She bared her teeth at Sábria, and a look of pure loathing came into her eyes. “On your orders, they said. Your orders!”
“Who said?” It sounded like Harda knew who’d beaten her.
“They did.”
“And who are they? And I mean specifically, who are they?”
Harda’s eyes jerked this way and that while she searched for the answer to the question. Her gaze landed on Falla, and she pointed a stiff finger at her. “You said they were right, that the Arch Priestess knows everything that happens in the Blades. You told me they were right. You know that she knew. Tell her!” That accusing finger pointed at Sábria now. “They said she knew, and you said they were right! Tell her what you told me!” She was shouting now, and tears glistened in her eyes.
Sábria held up a hand and took a step closer. “Harda, when you say, ‘they knew,’ who are ‘they?’”
Once again, Harda’s gaze shifted, and uncertainty flitted across her features as she ran a hand up into her hair and left it there. “I—”
Deciding to take a chance since she didn’t personally know Harda and wasn’t sure how she’d react, Sábria moved even closer. She put a hand on her Blade’s shoulder. “You’re upset, and you’re reeling right now.” She gently tugged her forward, hoping the Hunter would voluntarily come to her.
Harda took a single step forward, which was enough for Sábria to pull her into her arms. “I didn’t know. I swear to you on my oath to Elyon, I didn’t know.”
Harda began quietly crying into her shoulder as she whispered, “You knew. They said you hated the Hunters and told them to help you cleanse us from the Blades.”
Sábria blinked with concern as another piece was added to the puzzle. Holding Harda close, she turned questioning eyes on their leader. “Xyda, how many Hunters have been told that lie?”
Xyda looked from one Hunter to the next and received a nod from them all, except Falla, who pursed her lips and looked away. Xyda recalled her conversations with the Hunters over the past turn. “I think we’ve all heard some variation of that. That’s part of the reason we never came to you. What good would it have done if you were behind the beatings?”
A thought occurred to Sábria and she whispered loud enough for everyone to hear. “And despite believing I was behind the beatings, all of you continued to do your duty to Elyon. After what you’ve gone through, I find that devotion…astonishing.”
Everyone looked at her as though it should have been obvious. It was Xyda who eventually spoke. “We save Blades and shivs lives, My Lady. We hunt them. We find them as fast as possible because more often than not, they intend to kill themselves. You know better than anyone the stress every Blade out there encounters, and sometimes, it just becomes too much. We find them, talk to them, help them work through the overwhelming emotions they’re feeling. If we leave, who’s going to save them?”
Harda pushed away from the embrace and looked into Maida’s eyes. The two stared at one another as though silently communicating something they didn’t want to say out loud. Sábria narrowed her eyes. “What is it?”
Maida blushed and looked down when Sábria turned her gaze toward her, but Harda pursed her lips and came to a decision without Maida’s help. “We’re not as wonderful as Xyda makes out, My Lady. The stress gets to us, too. The only reason Maida and I are here is because we were told you’d captured Xyda. We decided to free her and then continue on our way. We ran into Cladine and after we told her what had happened, she had the same idea as us. Rescue Xyda and go.”
“Go? Go where?”
Harda pursed her lips at the question as though she’d already said too much. Sábria looked at Maida, who was still staring into the fire. “Maida? On your way where?”
The blush that rose in Maida’s face was immediate and spectacular.
“Maida. Look at me.” When she did, Sábria continued, “Is there something you haven’t told me?”
The words were barely above a whisper. “We were leaving.”
With her stomach plummeting at the thought that she’d been days away from disaster, Sábria pulled in a breath to steady herself.
Harda crossed her arms and turned her back to the group.
Falla sneered. “And we would have hunted you down like the traitors you are.”
Turning icy blue eyes on the Hunter, Sábria stepped to where Falla sat with a smug look on her face.
Since she’d been staring at Maida, Falla hadn’t noticed the reproachful look she was getting from her Arch Priestess. Sábria towered over her when she spoke. “Falla.”
The Hunter raised her green eyes, expecting to see approval and agreement reflected in Sábria’s face. What she saw instead startled her. For the first time, her face tightened into an uneasy expression, as though she had no idea how distasteful her words actually were.
Sábria wondered whether Falla thought she’d been doing her bidding whenever she put down her fellow Hunters.
The nervous giggle that emerged as Falla tried to justify her words was telling. “Well, that’s what we do, right? We hunt Blades who run, and as you just said, all Hunters are Blades. I know I wouldn’t shirk my duties simply because I’ve worked beside the Hunters who ran. I’d step up and do my duty.” Her look was hopeful when she looked from Xyda to Cladine as though expecting support from that quarter. “Wouldn’t you?”
While she wanted to strip Falla of her Hunter status then and there, Sábria forced herself to relax. Getting all the information she could out of these five was paramount, so she merely said, “Falla, perhaps you’d do better to simply answer questions put to you instead of commenting on what’s being said.”
Sábria turned her attention back to Maida. “Were you going to meet other Hunters?” When Maida nodded, she asked, “How many?” Maida lifted a shoulder, and Sábria looked at Harda. “Harda? Do you know how many Hunters have decided to run?”
“No. We… some of us… received a note. That’s all. I don’t know who it’s from, but I understood what it meant.”
“What did it say?”
Reluctantly, Falla pulled a strip of parchment from her pocket and handed it to Sábria, who looked at the other women. “Who else received one?”
Xyda shook her head, and Cladine scoffed. “I threw it on th’ midden. I’m a Hunter through and through, and I’ll be damned if I’ll run from th’ poxy Blades.”
That brought them full circle, and before Sábria read the note, she stepped over to where Cladine sat with her legs drawn up and her arms wrapped around her knees. With her dogmatic personality, there was no reason to comfort the warrior or attempt to change her mind. Either she’d remain a Blade or not. “As I said before, Cladine. Hunters are Blades. Do you intend to remain a Blade?”
The taciturn woman’s jaw worked back and forth, a gesture Sábria had grown familiar with over the turns. It didn’t take long for her to answer. “What didn’t ya hear? I said I’m a Hunter through and through.”
“Then tell me you’re a Blade.”
The jaw stopped moving and the muscles jerked up and down as Cladine clenched and unclenched her teeth. Without warning, she stood and glared into Sábria’s eyes before pulling herself to attention and pounding her fist to her chest. “Fine. Like it or not, I’m a Blade what’s sworn to ya, and that won’t change anytime soon.”
“Like it or not? So you don’t like being a Blade?” Sábria’s gaze hardened.
Those thick brows pulled down low over her brow. “I meant whether you like it or not, Sábria, not me.”
All the tension left Sábria’s shoulders as she grinned with relief. “I not only like it, Cladine. I love it, and whether you like it or not, I love you, too.”
“Pshh.” Cladine rolled her eyes and sat, but not before Sábria saw a telltale hint of a blush rising into her cheeks.
Sábria pointed to Harda’s seat. “Harda, please sit down. We’re not done, and along those lines, I need to hear you say it as well.”
With a resigned sigh, Harda sat, crossed her legs, and leaned back on her hands. She stared at Sábria before asking, “I need to hear you say it first, while I’m looking directly into your eyes. Did you, or didn’t you know what was happening in every Temple in Cibía?”
“It wasn’t happening in every Temple.” The statement held the suggestion of a question as she turned quizzical eyes on Xyda. “Not in Sarlogne, anyway. Were Hunters beaten in every other Temple? All twenty-nine of them?”
Xyda cocked her head, thinking. “I don’t think so.” She started silently counting on her fingers and before long, Maida was doing the same. When Sábria looked at Harda and Cladine, they were both silently counting as well. After a while, Xyda looked at the others. “I count, ten?”
Maida shook her head. “I got eleven.”
Both Harda and Cladine nodded. “Eleven.”
Sábria returned to her pad and sat. “No, Harda. I didn’t know, and I think that was intentional.”
At Harda and Cladine’s confused looks, Maida simply said, “Divide and conquer. Whoever’s behind this didn’t want Sábria to know. So, sever our allegiance to Sábria and hers to us, in our eyes, anyway, and turn the Blades, some of them, against the Hunters. Divide and conquer.”
They all turned to look at Falla, who’d barked out a laugh. “Ridiculous.” When she realized none of them were laughing at Maida’s notion, she turned to Sábria. “There was no divide and conquer. It was what you wanted.”
“Why would you say that?” It seemed to Sábria as though Falla actually believed what she was saying.
“Because. When you sent Demaria to Shelfield Temple, she told me you regretted making Maida a Hunter. She said you were always angry at her and had only made her a Hunter to get her out of your hair. She said—” Her words trailed off.
Sábria stared at her, dumbfounded. “Why would you believe the words of a disgraced ex-Blade?”
“Disgraced?” Falla scoffed. “It’s not a disgrace to decide the life of a Blade isn’t for you anymore. When the Blades wrongly accused and then killed her friend, Khaldo, she quit and decided to serve Elyon as a carpenter in Shelfield Temple’s carpenter’s shop. I go to Shelfield a lot, and we came to know one another. She told me a lot about you and Sarlogne and the Hunters she’d known when she’d served here.”
She was on a roll now, wanting Sábria to understand how she’d done what Demaria had said their Arch Priestess wanted. “She said you despised Maida, that she was nothing but trouble, and when we heard she’d been beaten, she said you’d probably ordered it and—” Sábria’s complete and utter astonishment must have bled through her outer façade of calm because once again, Falla’s words stuttered to a stop.
Sábria covered her eyes, cursing her stupidity at relocating Khaldo’s followers without more of an announcement to the Temples about why they were being sent out of Sarlogne. She lowered her hand and looked at Maida, “You were shivs with Demaria, weren’t you?”
Maida’s angry scowl said it all.
“And she and Khaldo bullied you, right? And you fought back?”
“Do you remember when Demaria came back one night beaten and bloodied to a pulp? She said some nobs had jumped her?” When Sábria nodded, Maida continued, “Do I look like a nob to you?” She sneered, “They never touched me again.”
Maybe she should have stepped down when Elyon had offered to take away her ring. Maybe she didn’t deserve to be Arch Priestess with all the mistakes she’d been making over the turns. Putting those thoughts aside, Sábria decided to move on. She looked directly at Harda and said for the third time, “No, Harda. I didn’t know.” Hopefully, by repeating the truth, Harda would come to believe she’d been ignorant of the beatings.
Harda pursed her lips. “Then, My Lady. Yes, I’m a Blade, and I intend to remain a Hunter if you’ll allow it.”
“Excellent. Since Maida has already told me she’d like to remain a Blade, I’d like to move on. I need each one of you to tell me your story. What’s been happening this past turn? What happened specifically to you, and what have you seen happen to other Hunters?”
She caught Maida glaring at Falla, and she shut that down immediately. “Maida, did you not hear what I just said? We’re moving on, and you glowering at Falla isn’t going to accomplish anything right now, so stop.”
When Maida looked into the fire, Sábria continued. “This is an open meeting. It’s not a time for you to confront one another. What’s happened and continues to happen between the Hunters and the Blades is like a snowball rolling downhill. As it rolls, it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger, and we, the six of us, are the ones who are going to stop it. In order to do that, I have to know what’s been happening. Xyda, since you’re the most senior, why don’t you start?”
