by Robin Roseau
"Where do we go now?"
She turned and pointed, not quite straight up. "There."
I looked, and high above us I saw, glinting in the morning light, a stone arch carved into the side of the mountain.
"How do we get there?"
"There is a path. Small wagons can go, but not the carriage."
"Do we walk, or are you actually going to let me touch a horse."
"Will you promise me no mischief, Yallameenara? There will be people before you, and people behind you, and there is nowhere to go."
"No mischief," I said. "Today."
"Today," she agreed.
Hours later, we arrived.
Heart of the Goddess
The temple wasn't in the mountains the way a home is in the mountains. It was dug out of the mountain, a vast network of caverns dug into the stone. My escort led me to the front, but the guards stopped at the arch, dividing for me.
I stopped as well, and stared. The arch was at least the height of three men tall, and wide enough for five carriages to pass within together, if only they could have climbed the trail to the front.
The arch was perhaps four paces deep, boring into the mountain before widening even further, although the nature changed to stone carved smooth from the mountain rather than fit into place after being quarried elsewhere.
We were expected, and there were a dozen women of all ages arrayed before us, not blocking the entrance, but at an angle along one side. I imagine they had all watched us approach and only lined up as we drew near. It began with three very old women to the far left, and then it proceeded down until the two girls at the end were half my age. All of them were watching me.
"Is this everyone?" I asked.
"These are all the priestesses currently in residence," she said. "There are others, who see to the material needs." She gestured. "The trail continues, and in a half mile there is a high valley with a small village. Most live there."
"The maids?"
"Will share your quarters. There is a separate room for them."
"You?"
"To be decided."
"Does anyone speak Framaran?"
"You and me."
"How much influence do I have?"
"A great deal."
"Who is in charge?"
She smiled. "Normally you would be. But it has been Vérundia."
"The eldest?"
"No. The one in the middle with black and white hair."
"Why, Larien, you have made a joke." I said. "It was nearly funny. What do they expect now?"
"They won't greet you until you pass the arch," she replied. "Until you do, they wait."
"You and I are about to come to a particular agreement. And then you are going to confirm the agreement with Vérundia. Did I say it properly?"
"As your accent allows. What agreement?"
"I am going to stand right here," I said, looking out over a sheer cliff to my left. "Until we have agreement. If anyone approaches me, this is a good, long fall, and you can look elsewhere for a high priestess."
She froze. "Please don't."
"I do not want to, but am I clear?"
She called out in loud Altearan. Around us, everyone froze. She spoke again, and some moved further away.
"You take me seriously," I said. "Good. The agreement is only what you have already promised. You promised to serve me however I desired. Are you withdrawing that offer?"
"No. We all serve you, Yallameenara. There is no need for this drama."
"You said your place was to be determined. No. It is not. It will be in the quarters closest to mine. Not the closest that are convenient. The closest. If that cannot be arranged, we will take other quarters. I do not require my mother's. Anywhere will do. You agree to this, and you agree it will not be rescinded without mutual agreement."
"Will you say why?"
"You are the only one I can talk to."
"That will change."
"If and when it does, if you wish to be separate from me, we will discuss it. As you will not allow me to leave, perhaps I will decide you should suffer with me. Consider it penance."
"The very nearest rooms are Vérundia's. It would be inappropriate to displace her, Yallameenara. Can you compromise at all?"
"How close can they get you?"
"We can put a cot in your quarters if you want. They are ample."
"You should have your own room, and I should have the option to scream and throw you out when I am unhappy."
She smiled.
"The passages are stone," she said. "It is not like a home in the palace. Will you accept this? We will satisfy your requirement as much as is reasonable."
"I agree that the older women should not be displaced, and I agree the leader should not be displaced. I want the maids close and you close, and you remain here for as long as I remain here. If I don't get to go home, then neither do you."
She nodded.
"Go talk to Vérundia," I said. "I'll wait right here."
Larien called out, and no one approached. Once she was satisfied, she crossed the space. Larien called out once again, and a woman stepped from the line. She and Larien stepped to the other side and spoke for several minutes. Finally they turned, and Larien nodded to me.
I called out. "Both of you come over here."
"Yallameenara."
"I'm not going to hurt anyone," I said. "But I want to hear it from her over here while I have the slightest ability to do something about it if she's refusing."
"She's not refusing, but she must greet you properly, in our way. You will get what you want. Now give her something."
I snarled for a moment, but then I stepped forward. As soon as my intentions were clear, Vérundia moved back into place, and then Larien stepped into the line as well, about three quarters towards the back.
I shook my head but strode forward. But I came to a second stop, right at the beginning of the arch. "If you don't tell me what they expect, I'm just going to walk in and go exploring."
Larien smiled. "Enter," she said. "When you reach the midpoint, stop and turn to us."
"Fine." I took three big steps under the massive arch, turned to my left, and came to a stop.
The entire line of women knelt to me.
"Larien, we have talked about this."
None of them moved, which frustrated me to no end. "Tell them to get up."
"Tell them yourself," Larien said.
"Fine. Do what you want." I turned away and stepped past them all. They could stay there all day if they wanted. I certainly would have preferred a different greeting. Like, oh, I don't know. "Hello. Welcome. We're sorry we arranged to have you kidnapped and framed as a traitor to your country, but we're really glad you're joining us in this prison." Something like that.
I made it another dozen steps but then came to a sudden stop, staring.
The cave opened up, the ceiling high above me, the floor three or four heights of a man below. There was a path to my right that circled around the outside to the bottom, and then down below, a smaller opening into the rock.
Above me, the ceiling glittered. It was not smooth. It was sharp, almost like spikes, lots and lots of spikes all together, and they glittered in the light. They glittered brightly, almost dazzling me.
I stared, and I felt people step up behind me and beside me. I glanced over, and Vérundia was to my right. I felt Larien on my left.
"It's beautiful," I whispered.
Larien spoke. And then Vérundia spoke. Larien translated. "Welcome to the Heart of the Goddess, Lady Yallameenara."
"Are those diamonds?"
"No. I do not know the word in Framaran. A common stone but in uncommon display."
"How did you dig this place?"
"We didn't," Larien answered. "The Goddess did."
"I think she had help of some sort."
"It is the type of mountain, somehow. It smokes. I do not know the name."
"Neither do I," I said. "Are they expecting some
sort of speech?"
"There are no expectations."
"Good, because I don't feel like making a speech. Do they all know how you got me here?"
"Vérundia does, of course, and a few of the others. Not all. Are you going to tell them?"
"Like they would understand," I said. "I do not want any more of that kneeling."
"Only during rites."
"We'll see."
I turned to look at Vérundia. She wasn't looking at the cave. She was watching me. When I turned to her, she lifted her hand to my hair and sighed. But I let her turn my head this way and that.
"Did she know my mother?"
Larien spoke. Vérundia nodded and said a word, then several. "They were little girls together. Does she live?"
"I don't know," I said. "It has been six years since I was taken from her. Explain about life on The Hippa."
"I will. Perhaps later," Larien said, speaking briefly in Altearan. Then Vérundia spoke, and Larien said, "She knows you are unhappy. She asks you to give us a chance."
"Tell Ralalta the truth, and bring me proof you've done so, and you get a chance. Otherwise: no."
"Is that really what it would take? What if we offered to bring Zana here."
"Tell Ralalta the truth, and we'll see. Otherwise we have a saying on the Hippa. You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."
"I believe people everywhere have a similar saying," she said. She switched languages. Partway through, Vérundia frowned, but she said nothing until Larien was done.
"Perhaps you will change your mind," Larien translated.
"Vérundia," I said. "We have an agreement. Larien stays near me, for as long as I am forced to remain here." Then I turned my head. "If the maids hate it here, I wouldn't hold them against their will."
She nodded and spoke, and then Vérundia nodded agreement.
"Well then," I said. "Show me my new prison."
Larien sighed but didn't translate.
* * * *
The caverns were vast, and they showed me only a portion. In the time ahead, I would see more, but I would never see them all, and I couldn't say whether any single person ever did.
They varied, however. In places, it was rough stone, sometimes opening into large chambers. In other places, it was narrow, quite narrow, although not to the point I grew claustrophobic.
For light, there were lamps connected by a network of pipes. I had seen gas lamps before, but never so many, and I didn't know where the gas came from. Perhaps the Goddess supplied it somehow. I never learned.
And it was warm, although not uncomfortably so. Larien told me it was the mountain itself that was warm, and there were places so hot a person could die, but none were near the places they used for homes.
I was offered a full tour, but I said, "I wish to see where I will live. And then we will see." And so they led me through a maze of passages until we came to a door, a regular wooden door against the rocks.
"This was your mother's," Larien said. She stepped past me and opened the door.
Inside, it could have been a space in the palace. It was quite comfortable, clean and dry. There were several rooms. One was large and arranged for entertaining, and this was where I would spend most of my time when awake. There was a sleeping chamber, and a second for the maids. There was a closet and a small room for seeing to personal needs.
"There is nowhere to bathe," I said.
"We have communal baths," Larien said. "It is quite wonderful. The Goddess provides."
I turned to Vérundia. "Translate as exactly as you are able, Larien. These rooms are beautiful, but I am not the leader here, and I will never be the leader." I paused for the translation. "If this is the space you have for me, I will not question. But I do not need such space."
Vérundia's answer was clear. She tapped my chest then pointed to the floor.
"Where is her room?" I asked. "And where is yours?"
"We will show you."
Vérundia's quarters were close, not quite across the hall, but only a handful of steps away. It was somewhat further to another space, and that was where she tapped Larien and then pointed to the door.
"Who is here now?" I asked.
"You don't need to know. The current occupant does not mind moving."
"What is it like compared to mine?"
"Smaller."
"Tiny? What?"
"Half the size, or about, but I do not have two maids or a wardrobe such as yours."
"That wardrobe is ridiculous, you know."
"Perhaps, but the high priestess normally serves many roles. We didn't make the space for you. We put you into the space reserved for her."
"All right," I said. "Do they need me for anything? Or am I free to do nothing."
"You are free."
"Good. My preference is for you to spend your time in my chambers unless you have duties that pull you away. I will not insist." Then I stepped past Vérundia and walked to my room, leaving the door open as I stepped inside. I plopped down, closed my eyes, and didn't worry about anything.
Pestering
The maids settled everything in. As I had requested, Larien did spend much of her time in my quarters, sometimes reading, sometimes writing. I didn't know what, and I didn't ask. We didn't talk much.
I did little. I read. I examined the violin the queen had found for me. It was a fine instrument, far finer that was reasonable for someone of my poor abilities. There was music as well, but all of it beyond my ability to play. I tried working through it, but it sounded absolutely terrible.
After torturing everyone's ears for a half hour, I gave up. "I told you," I sighed.
"Is it that you can't play, or that you can't play that part?"
"It is well beyond me," I said.
"I will find easier music for you," she offered. "It may be some time coming." And so, for the first few weeks I was there, I brought out the violin rarely, and then only to play those few songs I had memorized. Those I played with some small skill, and no one appeared to find somewhere else to be. But no one stopped by to listen, either. I wouldn't have in their shoes.
Breakfasts and lunches were informal, and I got away with asking for the maids to fetch for me. But Vérundia came to me for the first dinner and put her foot down, quite literally, actually. With Larien to translate, she said, "We eat together. You will join us, or you will not eat at all."
And so I had relented.
Those meals were served in one of the larger caverns, two long tables set in the middle of the room, not far from the kitchens, or so I understood. And it wasn't only the priestesses, but everyone who actually had a home inside the mountain, and any villagers who were present at the time.
One table was clearly for the priestesses, and one for everyone else. Vérundia tried to give me the place at the head, but I said, "It is far too much effort to speak to everyone through Larien. Can we just sit down at the other end?"
She wasn't happy about that, but she acquiesced. And it was after we were seated that I realized seating was by priority, and so I had put Larien and me down at the end past the youngest girls. But that was appropriate, at least for me. They had undoubtedly been acolytes for some time, and I couldn't even speak the language.
The meal started with some sort of prayer to the Goddess. I had never prayed in my entire life, and I wasn't about to start now. But I sat quietly while the rest prayed. I didn't need to be that rude, just to point out that I could be.
Of course, Vérundia noticed my lack of reverence, but she said nothing to me.
I ate quietly, as did Larien. Perhaps people would have tried to talk through her to me, but I didn't encourage it, and clearly they had all learned enough to realize I was going to be standoffish. I paid no attention to anyone else and ate the meal.
The food was actually quite good, if somewhat unfamiliar, and so at the end, I said, "Larien."
I waited until she was looking at me.
"Are all the meals like this?"
I gestured.
"It is summer, so the food is fresh."
"But this was not a special meal for the occasion?"
"No. Do not be offended."
"I am not. I wish you to extend my compliments as appropriate."
At that she nodded and spoke in Altearan for a moment. Later, she took a moment to speak to people seated at the other table, but I ignored them, so I did not see who received my compliments. I didn't care that much.
Other meals were much the same, and beyond meals, I largely kept to myself. Vérundia called on me three times during the first three days, each time to inquire how I was settling in.
The third time she did so, I said, "It took three minutes to settle in. What does she really want, Larien?"
"What do you think she wants?"
"I think she wants me to ask what my duties are. You and I both know I am never going to ask. Do you know? My tutors taught me many things beyond letters, numbers, and music. I learned about war."
"War."
"Yes. Did you know in war, there are rules? I would not have imagined. Well, I suppose in a way, I did. On The Hippa, there are rules. One would never, for instance, poison the wells."
She looked aghast at that.
"That is how Princess Juleena secured the peace treaty with the Arrlotta," I continued. "She poisoned several wells only enough for people to grow sick, and then she waited. When a clan grew sick, her men rode in and presented demands. And that was the end of the raids and the start of the process whereby I became Framaran. But to me, the thought was horrible. In my eyes, Princess Juleena had broken the laws of war when I didn't even know there was a war, and wouldn't have thought there were laws. But she ended the raids in a way no one died, and I understand that."
Vérundia listened to all this then asked for a translation. Larien spoke for a moment only then said, "You are going somewhere with this."
"Ah, of course. There are laws of war, and great nations agree to these laws. I don't really understand it, I suppose. But one of the laws is that if a soldier surrenders, the capturing army is obligated to see to his needs. He must be clothed, housed, and fed, and if he is an officer, it must be according to his rank. He may not be singled out and isolated, except as punishment for breaking reasonable rules. There is a long list of how a prisoner can be treated."