shortsightedness and move on from the shock and awe of it so that we can speak in complete sentences.”
Halina looked down at the floor and said, “If you’ve come here to take me hoto take me to your house, I’m afraid I will not be going with you.”
“I’ll do nothing of the kind,” he said. “I made promises to your mother, my younger sister, that I would see to your care after her death. Surely I can’t allow you to just wander off without explanation.”
“I’m sorry, Uncle,” she muttered, still not looking at him.
Marek stepped back from her and let his attention drift to the many potted plants that lined the glass room. He touched the petal of a large red flower.
“I can’t say I’ve ever been to this part of the Third Quarter before,” he said. “It doesn’t smell as vile right here as it does in the rest of the quarter.”
The Sisterhood of Pastorals sat only one major thoroughfare east of the Golden Road, barely more than a stone’s throw from the north gate. Across the street to the east was the impoverished and crime-ridden Fourth Quarter.
“The sisterhood is a beacon for the people who call this part of the city home,” Halina recited. “It reminds them of the beauty of nature and the loving embrace of the Great Mother.”
“Yes,” Marek drawled, “I’m sure the beggars and drunkards of the Fourth Quarter are delighted to accept the Great Mother’s loving embrace in lieu of food.”
“Please,” Halina whispered, and her voice had a desperate sound to it that grated on Marek. “Please don’t say things like that. Not in here.”
The Red Wizards looked around and smiled. He was in Chauntea’s temple after allenemy territory in some ways. He made a show of shrugging and moved to another potted plant that he pretended to examine.
“If you intend to stay here,” said Marek, “I will be happy to be rid of you.”
Halina let go a long, hissing breath then said, “I’m just trying to lead a good life.”
That perked Marek’s interest. “A good life?” he asked. “And what is a good life? Planting flowers in pots at the command of a pack of” He stopped before saying “nature witches” aloud. He was, after all, surrounded by nature witches. “Well, there now. I’ve done it myself. Perhaps there’s something in the air here that makes it difficult for one to finish a thought.”
He smiled down at her, and Halina looked up at him. She returned his smile, but it was half-hearted at best. Brushing the dirt from her gown, she stood and faced him.
“I don’t know what a good life is,” she said.
“No?”
She shook her head and told him, “Maybe it’s a life spent crying less than I do. I would like that life, good or evil.”
“Indeed,” Marek said with a sneer. “Crying, Halina, is not a legitimate form of expression. It’s a sign of weaknessof a loss of control. You know I forbid it in my house. Are you telling me you’ve cried under my roof?”
She couldn’t look at him anymore, but to her credit at least she didn’t back away.
“Every day,” she whispered.
“You’re forgiven,” he said, speaking quickly so as to keep her off balance.
“No,” she said. “No, I’m not. I’m sorry.”
“Do you think I’ve led a good life?” he asked.
He waited for longer than he should have for her to answer and was about to go on when she said, “No.”
“Really?” he replied, glancing at her only briefly before returning his attention to the plant.
“I don’t know. I don’t know if you’ve led a good life, or even if I’ve led a good life. I just know I want to lead a good life.”
“That Cormyrean did things to you, didn’t he?”
He could feel her vibrate from a distance, she squirmed so terribly. Marek resisted the urge to laugh, and instead made himself wait for her answer.
“He did nothing I didn’t want him to do,” she whispered. “Don’t make me talk about that.”
“He seemed happier after he’d been with you,” Marek said. And he wasn’t simply torturing herthough he was doing that, tooit was something he’d actually noticed. Willem Korvan was in love with her.
“Did he?” she asked. “I could never tell.”
“Did he throw you out?” he asked. “Is that why you came here to dig in the dirt?”
“No,” she replied, “he didn’t throw me out.”
“But he didn’t marry you.”
She sighed and shook her head.
“What are you doing here, really?” he asked, and looked her in the eye.
She met his gaze for only a heartbeat before turning away and saying, “I’m helping people.”
“How?”
“The Sisterhood of Pastorals teaches people how to tend to the soil and harvest the bounty of the Great Mother. We teach people how to feed themselves, and if we can’t do that, we feed them. We help people to live.”
“Do ‘we’?” he asked. She seemed quick to include herself among Chauntea’s Pastorals. “You’ve only been here a few days, Halina. How many people have you helped?”
“No one, yet, I suppose,” she replied. “But if I stay, if I work hard, I could help hundreds, maybe thousands.” He laughed, but just a little.
“You shouldn’t laugh at that,” she said. “That’s not funny here.”
“The idea that by planting flowers in pots you’re going to help thousands of people is funny anywhere, Halina,” he said, risking Chauntea’s wrath. “But leaving that aside, are you telling me that altruism alone guides your actions now? If you can’t satisfy one eager young Cormyrean, why not feed the masses?”
“That’s cruel to say it like that.”
“Is it cruel to say it, or cruel to do it?”
“I don’t understand,” she admitted.
“No,” he teased. “No, I guess you wouldn’t.”
“It’s not altruism that brought me. here,” Halina admitted. “And no, I don’t think that I’m going to single- handedly feed thousands of starving people.”
“Then what do you want, girl?” he pushed. “Say it.”
“Happiness.”
“And what makes you think you deserve that which has eluded so many?”
“I said I want it; I don’t think I deserve it,” she whispered. “And that’s why I’m here.”
“You don’t know why you’re here.”
“I’m here because he wouldn’t marry me,” she said.
“And that’s what you wanted?” he asked. “That’s what would give you this elusive ‘happiness’?”
She nodded and sighed again. She sounded as tired as she lookedas beaten.
“I’ve told you before, Halina, that your happiness, your needs, are of no consequence,” the Red Wizard said. “You are not some goddess, or some lone creature inhabiting a plane of her own. You are a young woman who is a part of two societies. You are a part of the community of the city-state of Innarlith, and you are a citizen of Thay. Those communities require your service, not your happiness. They require your obedience, not your opinion. They require that you do as you’re told. At times, I’m afraid, they require that you don’t run off to some convent to wallow in self-pity, digging in the dirt while you cry over a lost love.”
A tear rolled down her cheek, and he grimaced at the sight of it.
“Halina,” he said, “I want you to listen to me very carefully while I tell you precisely how you will live every day of your miserable existence from this day forward. When I am finished, you will have the choice of doing what is required of you or”
“Pardon me,” Willem Korvan said.
Marek almost gasped.
“Master Rymiit,” Willem said, “please excuse me, but may I ask that you step out for a moment and allow your niece and I a moment to speak with each other?”
Rymiit was less surprised to see Willem Korvan standing there than he was by the young man’s appearance.
