‘And, Sir Official, when the child, Hu’ao, was brought to me that I might see that she was well cared for, well fed and clothed, I looked into her eyes. When I looked into the child’s eyes, Sir Magistrate, I saw the Goddess peering at me from within. For is it not written that the purposes of the Holy shall appear in the eyes of children?’
There was a general murmur in the court, and the magistrate threw a quick, embarrassed glance at Jasmine. Visions were notoriously tricky things to prove – or disprove. The magistrate had a premonition that he would be outmanoeuvred.
Eldest Sister went on unperturbed. ‘Later, when I was alone, the Goddess came to me again. She told me that the child’s mother had sinned against Her…
‘I never did,’ said Jasmine, indignantly, only to be shushed by the magistrate.
‘… had sinned against Her in Her attribute as Divine Virgin …’
‘That’s not the attribute I worship,’ cried Jasmine, stung.
‘… and that the mother’s love for the child should be her sanctification, for she should be sent upon a quest for the Girdle of Chu-Namu, the Girdle of Binding, that Lak Island and all of Lakland may be bound safe from the darkness. The Goddess told me that the woman, Jasmine, would do this for the love of her child, and the child will remain with us until that sanctification is complete.’
‘This doesn’t make sense!’ interjected Jasmine.
‘In what way?’ asked the magistrate, biting his underlip.
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake. If I were chaste as these old sticks I’d sin against the Goddess in her attribute as Divine Wanton. If I’m not chaste, I sin against her attribute as Divine Virgin. If I never get pregnant, I sin against her as Divine Mother. I mean, you can’t be a woman in Lakland and not sin against the Goddess some way. For heaven’s sake, that’s why we pay Temple fees….’
The Eldest Sister went on calmly, ‘This is the mystery of the Goddess upon which we in the Order meditate each day. It has nothing to do with the command of the Goddess that we take the child Hu’ao and that I tell the mother of that child of a quest which the Goddess commands. There is only one issue here. Shall the mother of Hu’ao obey the Goddess? We in the Order will obey the Goddess. What will the Magistrate Official do?’
The magistrate knew at that moment that there was no way out. If it were nosed about town that a male official had ruled against a command of the Goddess, there would be a general uproar. The High Administrators did not appreciate uproar. There would soon be a new magistrate in Lak Island. He waited only long enough to let it appear that he had weighed the arguments and to plead with Jasmine to understand his position, then he ruled. Jasmine, bereft, went among her friends. They were all her friends, still her friends, but helpless. She reached for them, and they melted between her fingers, running out of her hands in chill drops. ‘The Goddess, Jasmine. If it is the will of the Goddess…’ Jasmine went home and wept for hours. Then in the evening there was a knock on the door. The person standing on the doorstep was wearing the long, blue robes of the Order, and out of the sheltering hood peered a round, rather frightened face. There was something furtive about the half-crouched figure, and Jasmine stood aside to let her enter.
There was much nervous hand twisting. ‘We didn’t want you to think we were all – well, we wanted you to know that many of us are sympathetic. Eldest Sister is responsible for recruitment, you know. It isn’t everyone who wants to be a Sister. Lots of us didn’t. We get sold into it, or we get convinced when we’re too young to know any better. Well, we wanted you to know that some of us want you to go on the quest very quickly and find the silly thing and get back here to Hu’ao. She’s such a little love….’ The robed woman rubbed at her eyes with a crumpled kerchief.
‘You mean Eldest Sister is doing this in order, to get Hu’ao as a candidate? She wants Hu’ao to be a Sister?’
The woman wiped at the tears which were making unattractive runnels down the sides of her nose. ‘And we think you should go on the quest. If you stay here, she’ll say you’re defying the Goddess, and you’ll never get Hu’ao back.’
‘Please stop crying,’ Jasmine was torn between fury and pity. ‘I know you want to help, but you’re just making me very angry. I don’t have any idea how to go on a quest. I don’t even know what the Girdle of Chu-Namu is. I never heard of it until this morning.’
‘We know. We’re trying to help. The Library Sister is finding out everything about the Girdle. We’re putting it all in a book. With maps. And some things for you that you’ll need. If you’ll come to the little gate in the east wall of the Temple Garden tomorrow, at sunset, we’ll have it ready for you. That’s what they want me to tell you. And now I have to get back before Eldest Sister finds out I’m gone.’ She turned to flee into the night, leaving Jasmine’s door swinging slowly to and fro.
The next day Jasmine went to the gate in the Temple wall, though she had decided nothing. It seemed rude not to go if there were some trying to help her – still, she had not decided. Not at all. She was met with conspiratorial whispers, led through the gate and swiftly across the dusky garden into a half-hidden doorway burrowed through a swollen buttress to a flight of stone stairs cupped deeply by centuries of footfall. They went down into darkness broken only by dim lanterns between walls incredibly massive,
