Then suddenly, as everyone realized at once that I was not going to formally respond to the challenge, conversation began among those seated. My mind was immediately bombarded with sendings. The tastes mixed in my mouth, banishing any appetite that I might have had left after that piece of playacting. I lowered my head and raised my hand, a sign that I was not going to listen to any more. Then rising to my feet, discipline still clamped about my thoughts, I saluted the High King and walked out into the garden.
Cool air greeted me as I exited, offering a refreshing contrast to the oppression of the dining hall. I stepped into the darkness, away from the glow of the assembly behind me, embracing the solitude it offered. Choosing the path toward the familiar water gardens, I started down them at a quickened pace. Others would follow me and I wanted to gain distance and time before I had to face them. I needed time to formulate my response to the obvious challenge.
The night was clear and bright with moonlight. I found my way easily among the murmuring pools of water and the whispering plants until I reached the haven of the willows. There I stepped deep within their shadowy embrace, finding the trunk of the central tree. Leaning against its reassuring solidity, with my face lifted to heaven, I lifted the restraints on my thoughts.
Fear came first in a tidal wave. He truly intends to kill me. It wasn’t as if the thought hadn’t occurred to me before. I had considered all the options before accepting Neleck’s selection. I just thought it would take longer for this conflict to reach the level of death threats. After all, I had only been Sept Son a handful of days.
However, I should have seen the signs. The Mesitas was a fanatic. He whole heartedly believed in the goddess and her supreme deity, probably just as strongly as I believed in the one true God. I sighed and closed my eyes, leaning my head back against the tree behind me. I reached out to the eternal presence that carried me through each day.
Father, it has come. Just as I feared, the challenge lays at my feet. I am weak, and without You I cannot face this. Please strengthen me. Give me wisdom and focus. I know that I need to leave this with You; for only You can handle it. Assist me to lift it into Your sovereign hands and leave it there.
A breeze lifted off the water and swept through the willows’ skirts to brush my face. I waited and listened. My heart slowed to a calmer tempo as the peace of my God fell over me. My thoughts filled with the meditations of the poets on the Almighty and His mercy. I formed the words with my mind, sending them broadly out into the silence. It helped to proclaim His beauty and grace.
“I hate to interrupt.” Korneli’s voice came from my right, breaking into my thoughts. “But Tristan is organizing around the clock bodyguards for you, and someone else is looking for a volunteer taste tester for you.”
“That isn’t necessary.”
“I told them, but nobody is listening to me.”
I frowned. “And the High King?”
“He requests that you repent and seek to petition the goddess for mercy.”
“I thought so.”
Silence fell over us. I gathered my renewed peace about me like a shield. I go forth in Your name with my life in Your hands. I am Yours. Do what you will.
I stepped away from the willow and turned to my friend. “Where is Tristan?”
“In your quarters driving Giles to distraction and sending out searchers to find you.”
“He is that desperate?”
“What do you expect? If you die, he loses his promotion.”
I laughed. “Thank you, Korneli. You are good for my pride.”
“I help where I can.”
I smiled at him in the darkness before making my way back to the palazzo. The night was young and there was much to do before I could leave this place behind me.
Zezilia
THE FIRST WEEK, FIVE days, passed in a blur. I joined the family in cleaning, unpacking, and organizing the house. Though Errol checked with me to make sure I was practicing the exercises that he assigned me on the trip, he did not give me any new lessons. To be honest, I was thankful he didn’t. Every day overflowed with tasks, scrubbing floors, washing cloth for curtains, sewing the curtains, whitewashing the rooms, and repairing chimneys. I learned more about setting up a household in that week than I had learned in my lifetime to that point.
The second week, while Errol still disappeared every morning with Delmar, the groundskeeper, to work on the outdoors, I received instruction in cooking.
“I cannot believe you don’t even know how to boil water,” Eloine was quick to exclaim as we entered the kitchen the first day of the week. “Even Galatea knows how to do that.”
“Stop teasing her, El,” Adreet scolded. “Her mother didn’t think it was a skill that she would need. However, things have changed and I am overseeing her upbringing now.” She bustled past me with a smile. “Don’t look so worried, Zez. I will have you making dumplings and stew to best all my girls before I am through. Now, go fetch that pot over there, and Galatea, clean the cutting board.”
I proved Adreet wrong. No matter how I tried, I could not get my dumpling batter to look like hers. It took four batches before she finally gave up.
“Apparently there is a reason that you never learned,” she observed while examining my lumpish looking mixture. It lay on the bottom of the wooden mixing bowl like a dead mole, gray and unappetizing. “However you managed to make it gray, child, I shall never know.” She sighed and dumped it into the garbage bin to be fed to the newly purchased pigs. “Take over cutting up the vegetables from Galatea.
