The Duelist 9, page 18
Namely, how we were going to tackle the Prophetess problem.
The Order still wanted a Prophetess, and it still wanted Amaya to be that Prophetess, even though we were all pretty sure by this point that the oryx-woman wasn’t actually the Prophetess and was simply an especially talented augur.
I gathered everyone in the family room, and Zoie immediately made a beeline for her pillow nest. Once she was snuggled in and everyone else was sitting down, I began to explain.
“So, now that we’re out of Om, I figured now would be a good time to put more focus on one of our other problems-- the Order of Mercedes.”
It was maybe a little harsh to paint the entire Order as a problem, but I knew when issues were this rife in an organization, at some point you had to look at the roots. A healthy tree didn’t produce rotten apples. And those rotten apples had been trying to kidnap Amaya in all but name and turn her into their figurehead, set to be tormented with visions and prophecies, unable to feel love.
Like hell I was going to let that happen.
“It kind of got sidelined with… everything,” I went on, and I thought of Jenner’s illness, and Amaya and Anwaar being captured, and everything else that had happened in the past two days alone. “But we have decent reason to suspect Amaya isn’t the true Prophetess. In which case, we need to get her away from the people in the Order who don’t care, and safeguard the real Prophetess against those who would seek to harm her.”
“You sound very confident Amaya is not the Prophetess,” Jenner remarked, and I wasn’t especially surprised he seemed in the dark about this, given the curse that had been planted in his mind, but I was a little dismayed he hadn’t recovered those memories yet. “Why is that?”
“Because you and I were discussing the strange book Gavlain gave me,” I said. “The one Nova can translate.”
Nova, at the sound of her name, made a small squeaking noise.
“Me?” she asked. “I don’t… don’t read. Too… tricksy.”
“I know, honey,” I said gently. “But we were hoping that, with some help from Jenner, and some practice, you might be able to translate it. There’s something about the Prophetess in that book. Maybe even a scheme to end the Prophetic line.”
“End the line?” Shay echoed, and her eyes went wide. “Why?”
“Because the Prophetess is a position of incredible influence,” Anwaar answered in her calm, even-toned voice. “Even as she herself does not have much autonomy-- or, that’s what many members of the Order seek to do, anyway-- her words have power. If the Prophetess line is ended, people would look increasingly to their political leaders for guidance and instruction. They would pay more attention to how they are governed, and place less importance on spiritual leaders.”
“Separation of church and state,” I murmured. “Which would obviously weaken many of the Order members’ influence by extension, and weaken many politicians’ religiously-based arguments.”
“The Order is corrupt in places, no one is denying that,” the ibex-woman agreed with a grave expression. “But to cut it all out, root and stem, would be a grave loss to Aventoll, and an insult to Mercedes. As grave an insult as letting those carry out self-serving acts whilst pretending to be her servants. The termination of the Prophetic line might be a… happy middle.”
“Does that mean we have to… to kill the next Prophetess?” Shay asked in a small voice, and she cast a nervous glance over at Amaya.
“We’re not killing anybody,” I said firmly. “Besides, it doesn’t seem to be directly inherited, otherwise finding the next Prophetess would be much easier. Your mother wasn’t the previous Prophetess, was she?”
I directed this question to Amaya and Anwaar, and they both shook their horned heads.
“In fact,” I continued, “Jenner and I reckoned your mother was the previous Prophetess, Nova.”
The siren-woman’s jaw dropped. “Mother? Prophetess?”
“It’s just a theory, but it would explain why Krev Alda was so interested in her,” I said. “Why he had this ‘witch’ person who tried to get you and your mother to tell Krev about that secret language.”
“Trust you,” Nova said, and she reached over to squeeze Zoie’s hand. “Trust you all. But the witch… cruel woman. Bad woman.”
She shuddered at the mere thought.
“You’re quite safe from her now,” Shay said encouragingly and patted Nova’s green shoulder. “But it seems the best course of action would be finding the next Prophetess so we can explain everything to her, and put her somewhere safe-- where the Order can’t get to her.”
“Well, I think I have part of that problem figured out,” I said, and I finally let my eyes slide over to Vel-Rala.
The cockatoo-woman was perched on a seat next to Bodin, and when she realized my gaze had fallen onto her, she stiffened a little.
“What?” she asked me.
“You and Amaya,” I said. “You share a birthday, right? You were both born on the day of the Renewing Cycle.”
“I… yes…” Vel-Rala said slowly. She was still eyeing me with concern. “I… I never told you that, though. I didn’t tell any of you my birthday.”
“You didn’t need to,” I said. “Because you started giving us prophecies. Vague but very accurate prophecies. Like the blossom in Zoie’s hair, and my silver bell.”
“But I… I was just… trying to help.” Vela frowned. “It just seemed sensible to me. Didn’t it to you?”
“To us, it seemed a little eccentric,” Zoie said delicately. “But we’re in no place to criticize. You saved us with those eccentricities.”
“Do you have any more details about your past that we could use to make sure?” I asked the cockatoo-woman. “We’re headed to Eng next, and Jenner reckons he can find something in the Archives that would help us confirm things. But details would help.”
Vel-Rala worried her bottom lip, and Bodin reached over to take one of her hands between both his own.
“I… don’t actually remember,” she confessed in a small voice. “A lot of my past, it’s… it’s strange. I don’t actually have many memories. Not since before I was married. Everything before then is… murky.”
“Is it an enchantment?” Zoie asked and looked over at Jenner. “Like the one on your mind?”
“An enchantment, possibly, but not one like mine,” the koala-man answered. “I’m less studied in the minutiae of prophecies. They tend to be, well, vague. Imprecise.”
“They do,” Amaya agreed. “But the prophecies I was told included how the next Prophetess would be from the Ocean. Which was why I was assumed to be the next Prophetess.”
I winced as I remembered how Amaya’s mother had walked into the sea while pregnant.
“From… from the Ocean?” Vel-Rala asked. Her voice sounded misty, distant. Like she was caught up in some dream or memory. “The Tears of Mercedes?”
“Unless Aventoll has a second Ocean I don’t know about,” I said. “Why? Does that mean something to you?”
“I… I’m not sure.” The cockatoo-woman swallowed. “It just... snagged, I suppose. Never mind. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize,” Amaya said fervently, and she stepped forward to kneel before Vela and place her hands on the cockatoo-woman’s shoulders. “Perhaps Ani and I can help you recover some of your lost memories. I was decently skilled at that sort of thing before the Order began to push my studies more in the direction of what they would want from a Prophetess.”
“You would do that for me?” Vel-Rala asked in a soft, slightly awed voice.
“Of course,” Anwaar said as she, too, came to stand by the cockatoo-woman. “We are devoted servants of Mercedes, regardless of whether there is an Order, or whether we are actively part of it. We serve her, not the Order itself. If you are the Prophetess, you have been chosen to help guide Aventoll through the darkness. Amaya knows better than most what a terrible burden that can be if you are not prepared. We would never want you to feel like you have to carry such a burden alone.”
Vela looked like she was on the verge of tears, and she pulled her hand from between Bodin’s to fan at her face in an attempt to stave off her crying.
“Thank you,” she said to the augur-mage sisters. “Thank you so much. I thought… Alex said I might be the next one… I saw how you suffered, poor Amaya. I-- Mercedes, I don’t know why I’m so emotional, but… oh, I’m a terrible coward, I thought-- I thought I didn’t want to go through the same.”
“You’re not a coward, Vela,” Amaya said gently. “I wouldn’t want to go through that, either. I didn’t. So, Ani and I will do everything we can to help you, and to make sure the Order cannot entrap you.”
“Incidentally,” I said. “Do we have any idea how to do that? On a long-term basis, I mean?”
It would eventually get out that Vel-Rala was the true Prophetess. It was obvious once you spent enough time with her. She had a vague disposition at times, plus her intense warnings to do something that seemed innocuous. Not to mention, I could hardly deprive her of her divine destiny. None of us wanted that, we just wanted to make sure it didn’t enslave her and doom her to be a puppet of the corruption within the Order.
“I’d have to check the Archives in order to confirm, or to get an exhaustive list of stipulations,” Jenner told us all. “But there are a few rules that would exempt a woman from having to take up the full duties of Prophetess.”
“Such as?” I prompted.
“Well, the first one would be if she was pregnant.” Jenner shrugged. “Nova’s mother was likely the previous Prophetess, but she was never approached by or taken into the Order of Mercedes. It’s unlikely the Order were not looking for her and could not find her. I’d suspect it had more to do with the fact she had had a child. A ‘true’ Prophetess is supposed to be a virgin.”
“A virgin?” I echoed.
Amaya hadn’t been a virgin in quite a while.
“Not quite in that context,” the koala-man said, as if he could physically see my thoughts and track them like game through the woods. “A… familial virgin, shall we say. A woman who has never had a child. Sexual activity doesn’t really factor in ritual senses.”
“Right…” I said slowly.
“More specifically,” Jenner went on, and he began to speak in that excited way again, like a professor eager to impart his knowledge onto the students. “Krev Alda was an Asher, which made the whole situation even more complex. Asher children, due to Passing Rite, would be considered even more important, and there would be no way the Order would be able to separate the Prophetess from her partner or child in order for her to truly fulfill what they would consider her ‘duties’ as Prophetess.”
I frowned. We couldn’t exactly marry Vela off to another Asher. She seemed to like Bodin well enough, I supposed, but her last marriage hadn’t exactly gone well, and I didn’t want to force her into another one if it was going to dredge up a lot of bad memories for her.
Then again, if that was our only option, I wasn’t about to let her get carted off to the Order, either.
“Actually,” Bodin said. “That might work.”
I-- and everyone else in the room-- all stared at Bodin. Was he about to propose to Vel-Rala? Literally a day after my own wedding? I didn’t know whether to laugh or just gape in surprise.
But, as it turned out a moment later, I wasn’t quite correct.
“An Asher’s heir, you said, Mr. Jenner?” Bodin asked, and the koala-man nodded. “I think we might have our solution, then.”
And he reached out to place his hand over Vela’s belly.
Chapter 14
“You’re pregnant?” Shay squealed, and she jumped up from her seat and launched herself across the room to pull Vel-Rala into a tight hug. “Oh, bless Mercedes! Congratulations!”
Vela gave a little laugh that seemed to be as much from nerves as from genuine delight.
“Thank you,” she said to Shay. “I… I never expected anything like this. But it seems Mercedes really has blessed me.”
“This is practically proof she disagrees with how the Order is treating the Prophetess these days,” Anwaar said with a thoughtful expression. “Both Amaya and Vela have found themselves in love with Ashers. Vela, as the true Prophetess, is now comfortably exempt from the most grueling duties of such a role.”
“We don’t actually know if Vel-Rala is the true Prophetess just yet,” Jenner said pointedly. “We still need to check the Archives in Eng, to make absolutely sure. I would hate for some poor, unsuspecting woman to be dragged into this with no context for what’s happening just because we assumed Vel-Rala is the one.”
Honestly, I had already fully assumed Vel-Rala was the true Prophetess, and I couldn’t imagine there was another woman out there having peculiar visions, it just seemed like too big a coincidence. However, I did understand Jenner’s desire to make sure, because regardless of who the next Prophetess was, she would need safeguarding from the Order, and we were going to get into a hell of a lot of trouble if we kept her away from the Order.
“This is so exciting! It will be so good for the children to have other babies to play with!” Zoie smiled enthusiastically, and she took one of Vela’s hands between both of her own.
“That sounds lovely.” The cockatoo-woman smiled back at her, but her smile was watery. “Oh, I still don’t know why I’m crying so much!”
She raised her free hand to wipe at her eyes, but the tears had finally spilled over and were trailing down her cheeks.
“It’s just hormones, my dear,” Amaya said with a laugh as she, too, embraced the cockatoo-woman in a tight hug. “Between those and your Prophetess ability, it’s no wonder you’ve been a bit scatter-brained recently.”
“I have, haven’t I?” Vela said with a small laugh. “I must thank you all for being so patient with me.”
“No thanks needed, and don’t you dare apologize,” Shay told her firmly. “You’re about to be a mother, and you’re taking on one of the most significant roles in Aventoll as the Prophetess. You can be afforded a little scatter-brained-ness.”
“I suppose we should be offering you congratulations, too,” Horus then said, and he cast a wry grin over at Bodin. “An Asher, a noble family, a bride, and a child, all in one day? You’re just full of surprises.”
“Well, none of them were surprises to me,” Bodin said with a sheepish smile. “I just… wasn’t sure how to go about telling everyone else.”
“Still, I’m happy for you,” I said, and I moved over to pat him heartily on the back. “It’s obvious you two adore each other, and since she’s pregnant, she’ll be safe from the Order and allowed to live peacefully with you.”
“For now,” Jenner warned, and we all turned to look at him.
“What?” I asked.
“Well, Vel-Rala isn’t going to be pregnant forever,” the koala-man said. “And once the child is a few seasons old, the Order will expect her to resume full duties of the Prophetess. We’ve bought ourselves time, of course, but this is not a permanent solution.”
“That’s fine,” I said, because I was the leader of this Crew, and if I panicked, everyone else would panic, too. “Like you said, we have time. Time to figure out a proper plan to deal with the corruption in the Order.”
Bodin looked a little more nervous now, but I gave him a warm smile.
“She’ll be safe, I promise,” I said to him. “None of us want to see her hurt or enslaved. Amaya especially, she understands what’s at stake. And she can be pretty fierce when she wants to be.”
“You seem to like that in a woman,” Bodin said dryly, with a glance over at my other two wives and Nova, who were all still cooing over Vel-Rala.
“What can I say?” I grinned sheepishly. “It’s an attractive quality.”
It was getting pretty late by this point, so now that we had a clearer idea of how to deal with the Order problem, we all decided to head to bed, so we could be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for our arrival in Eng the next day. Nova retired to her tub in the bathroom, as per usual, and I snuggled up in bed with my wives, with all of us curled around Shay, since it was more than a little obvious she’d been shaken by Vel-Rala’s announcement.
“I am happy for her, truly,” she said as she burrowed into my chest. “I just…”
I had my arms around her as Amaya spooned me from behind, with her chin resting on my shoulder. Zoie had assumed the same position behind Shay, and she was stroking the phoenix-woman’s hair gently.
“It’s difficult, seeing someone get something you wanted for yourself,” Zoie said in a kind tone. “Something that should have been yours.”
“We love you no matter what, Shay,” I said. “It doesn’t matter to me. I didn’t marry you to have kids, I married you because I love you. We all do.”
“We do,” Zoie echoed and pressed a kiss to Shay’s shoulder. “I’m sorry if we… didn’t make that clear.”
“No, you did,” the phoenix-woman sniffed. “You really did. I just… it was something I wanted. My own mother… I don’t remember much of her, but she was so kind. I miss her so much, my heart aches. And I thought… I thought I would be able to give that love to a child. I would feel closer to my own mother in becoming a mother myself. Oh, I don’t know. I’m not making sense.”
“I think that made perfect sense,” Amaya murmured. “You’re a loving person, Shay. You have so much of it to give that, well, you’re practically the mother of Aventoll, as the Incarnate. I know it’s not quite the same, but… maybe you can feel closer to your own mother like that. I’m sure she would be very proud of you.”
“She would,” I said firmly, and I thought of what Sha-Kane had told me, for the millionth time. It was as though the knowledge of that secret had glued my jaw shut, because the next words I almost had to force out of my mouth. “She would be incredibly proud.”
I locked eyes with Zoie over Shay’s shoulder, but mercifully, my cat-wife didn’t say a thing. There wasn’t the slightest flicker in her expression that might clue someone in to the fact she knew something.
“That’s… one way to think about it, I suppose,” Shay admitted, but I could tell it wasn’t quite what she wanted. “Mercedes, I must sound so horribly selfish. Here I am, with a family who love me, a kind husband and sweet wives, one of the most powerful people in Aventoll, living in a handsome manor and traveling the world… and the one thing I want is the one thing I cannot have. One thing many women cannot have. It doesn’t make them lesser, it doesn’t mean they can’t lead fulfilling lives, so… why do I feel this way?”
