by Shannah Jay
'I can always find my way back.'
'What do you mean by that?'
'I don't get lost. I always know which direction to take.'
'Always?'
'Yes, of course.'
'That sounds like another Gift to me.'
Katia laughed. 'It's not really a Gift. Town folk can't do it, but many of the country folk in the High Alder can.
Grandfather trained me how to feel direction when I was very small.'
Herra filed this information, too, in her memory. It would later be recorded in the Archives. The child was full of surprises. She was beginning to think that the Sisters had lived in the city temples for too long. Maybe Katia had been chosen to teach them about the countryside. Maybe they all had new horizons before them.
'Herra - how do you know the world's shaped like a ball?'
'I know because my Novice Mistress told me.'
'Is that - is it because of the Forebears?'
Herra raised her eyebrows. 'Where did you hear such tales?'
'From my grandfather. He used to tell me tales in the evenings. He said our Forebears crossed the sky and then their flying ship was broken and they couldn’t return home. He says that's how the land of Tenebron was first claimed.'
'Possibly. We have such tales on record. But it's so long ago that no one can tell the truth of it all. The old legends persist in and around the city of Tenebrak as well.'
'It sounds a strange thing to do. I can't imagine a ship that flies, can you?'
'I've never seen one myself. But how else can our Brother live in the sky?’
'Are there tales of the Forebears in the Archives, then, Herra?'
'Yes. And of many other wonders. The Sisterhood has always sought and guarded knowledge - though we lose parts of it at times when Discord sets in. You'll learn about that in your training. Ah.' She pointed ahead down a steep rocky slope. 'There it is, our crèche. That's where we look after the children until they can be placed in suitable homes.'
The crèche was a long sprawling set of buildings made of rough wood. Some of the wood had faded into silvery greyness; some was new and still dark with sap. The buildings lay among a stand of very tall trees and the foliage soared over them, making the area shady.
A plump Sister stood waiting for them, as if she had sensed their approach. 'Herra, my dear, how delightful to see you! We had no word of your coming.'
'It was a sudden decision of mine, a whim, if you like. May we stay for a week or so? This is Katia. She's not been QUEST Shannah Jay 40
well. I've brought her out here to rest. Katia, this is Rianna. No one knows more about the ways of children than she does. That's one of her Gifts.'
Rianna nodded to Katia, then looked closely at Herra. 'What happened? You're even more tired than this child.'
'I had to stop a riot.'
'Which Disciplines?'
'Stilling, Compulsion, Breaking of Metal. Oh, and I was so angry that my wind blew strongly as well.'
'You did all that unprepared? With no help?'
Herra was meek as a child. 'I'm afraid so, Rianna. There wasn't time to send for help.'
'Oh, Elder Sister! What did I tell you last time?'
'There was dire need, my dear. People would have been killed, had I not intervened.'
'Well, now you have dire need of help, so you can just put yourself in my hands.' Rianna bustled them inside, ringing a bell on the wall as she passed. She found a chair for Herra and gestured to Katia to take another, then waited, tapping her foot impatiently, for someone to answer her summons. 'At your age!' she threw at the Elder Sister. 'You must learn to leave such tasks to others now.'
'It was necessary. Many lives were saved.'
'Oh, it's always necessary!' Rianna gave up trying to reason with such a stubborn woman and looked at Katia. 'And have you been ill, child? You look distinctly peaky.'
Herra answered for her. 'Katia's only been with us for six months. She isn't finding it easy to adjust. She's a child of the mountains and not used to being shut up indoors. She had her Second Choosing last night. She's a very special young woman to be chosen so young.'
Katia blushed hotly.
'Welcome to the Sisterhood, my dear.' But Rianna's main attention was on Herra. 'Ah, there you are, Sisters! Herra's been exhausting herself again.'
Two women joined them, greeted Herra and extended a warm welcome to Katia. At a sign from Rianna, they moved to form a small Circle around Herra and gestured to Katia to join them.
'You haven't joined in a Healing Circle before, child?' asked Rianna.
'No.'
'Just gather with us, then. Don't try to do anything else. Herra needs our help. Your presence will add to the strength of the group.'
Katia nodded. Already she looked forward to Gatherings and the wonderful peace of mind they brought.
Within seconds the air around them seemed to a bemused Katia to be flickering. She saw Rianna bow her head as they began, so she did likewise. For the first time she deeply regretted her lack of skills.
After a while the flickering stopped and Rianna became very brisk again. 'Well, that should start your recovery, my dear but foolish Elder Sister. Now, let's get both of you fed and you at least into bed.'
They went into a long low room with great open window spaces along each side. It was almost like being outside.
Katia sank down on one of the benches, more conscious of tiredness than of any desire to eat. However, once a bowl of savoury vegetable broth was set before her, she rediscovered her appetite. Even the bread and sharp cheese she had with it tasted better than food at the Temple. And the drink was fresh glowberry juice. Her favourite!
After the meal, Katia let out such a long happy sigh that Herra and Rianna both laughed at her.
'Better now?' asked Herra.
'Very much better, thank you.'
QUEST Shannah Jay 41
'Then I'll ask Berna to look after you. I must rest now. Help the Sisters where you can, child.'
As she showed Katia through the long low buildings of the crèche, Berna, who was a Healer-Elect, explained how things were run there. Most of the Sisters were engaged in looking after babies who were waiting for placement with families. The Sisters' well-known care for orphans gave them the chance to place their own babies in foster-homes, hard as that sometimes was for the mothers.
'Why are the houses built so - so huddle-muddle?' she asked Berna.
'To facilitate escape. Each house has its own tunnel.'
'Escape? From what?'
'It's not unknown in our history for rash lords, or lately for Those of the Serpent, to kill our babies in retaliation for some imagined offence, or even merely as a display of strength.'
'Kill babies!'
'And worse. It's against such Evil that we fight, my dear.'
Again there was the wrenching realisation that the lessons Katia had not bothered to learn in the temple had a very serious purpose. 'I didn't know. I really didn't know such things could happen. Not nowadays. Where I grew up, they didn't. People still followed the old laws absolutely.'
'You were fortunate. Most of us were raised in the midst of Discord.'
Katia loved helping with the babies. Living in the forest with her grandfather, she had had little to do with small children and nothing whatsoever to do with babies, and she found them fascinating. She was so ignorant of their needs and capabilities that several times the other Sisters burst out laughing, kindly laughter that brought her into their circle in a way she had never belonged to any group before.
A few of the Sisters there were very old and too frail for Renewal. All were around a hundred and fifty years old, and had been brought to live their last years in softer comfort than the temples could offer, helping with the children. Other Sisters were recovering from accidents or some exhausting ordeal - Sisters rarely fell ill. Two were there because they had been attacked and injured by mobs.
Of the younger Sisters, only Rianna, as Healer in Charg
e, and two others with the Gift of Nurture were permanently resident at the crèche. Berna had come to extend her training there. After a year or two, she would move on to another temple, to study with another Healer. Healing was a complex Discipline to learn. It was difficult enough to manage one's own body, let alone help others to manage theirs. It needed very special Gifts. People of all degrees came to the Sisterhood to seek the help of Healers and this was one of the things for which they were most loved.
Not until noon the next day did Katia see Herra again. 'Are you feeling better, Elder Sister?'
'Much better, child. And you? Can you think properly here?'
It was hard to believe this gentle, teasing person was the same one who had routed a group of Lord Benner's notorious black guards. 'Yes, I can. I feel so much better. This is a good place.'
'One of the best we've ever set up. Such a shame that we'll have to leave it in a few years' time. We're already searching for another site.'
'How do you know that you'll have to leave it?'
Herra looked into the distance, seeing her own thoughts, not the room she was in. 'They suspect that it exists, though they can't find our path, of course, because it has hidden wards along it. This Lord Claimant is beginning to grow too demanding of his possessions. He has a hunger to possess more and more land. He won't allow the Sisterhood to exist in peace much longer if he can help it. He is of the Serpent, an Initiate of the Inner Shrine. Our enemy. This is the worst Age of Discord on record, child.'
'We didn't realise that in the High Alder. Not really. Those of the Serpent seemed so far away and the Sisterhood so strong.'
QUEST Shannah Jay 42
Herra's eyes were pools of sadness. 'The Sisterhood is strong and it has survived many Ages of Discord, Katia, but often at great cost. Yet when these episodes have forced us to change, they have usually led to further progress in our Quest. Only a few Sisters know all the details of our history. With you - the God has put it into my heart that you must learn about our history too, and learn it quickly.'
It was as if her voice had a echo behind it, Katia thought, awestruck. Then she gaped openly as she heard Herra's next words.
'You are a Key Life, my dear child. I know not how, but you are involved in the prophecy.'
'Me? A Key Life! But I don't - I'm not - Why me?'
Herra's voice became stern, her eyes piercing. 'Let that be the last time you say that, Katia. You cannot shirk your burden, child. You've been chosen by the God, and you're essential to the Quest. You must do whatever our Brother asks of you.' Her eyes softened and she reached out to clasp Katia's hands in hers, as if to share her strength and her wil with the girl. 'But for the moment, enjoy this time of respite. When we go back, you must work harder than the others, harder than you've ever worked in your life.'
'I'll try, Herra.'
'I know you will, and I'll help you by seeing that you come here regularly to restore your spirit and that you spend as much time as possible out of doors. That'll make things easier, I promise you. Even after you've met the God and become a ful Sister, I'll still try to see that you don't spend your life enclosed in stone temples. More than that I cannot promise. Now, in return, will you promise me your co-operation, willingly and honestly, or must you still fight against our Brother's will?'
'There isn't really any choice, is there? Not when you see what's happening in Tenebron.'
'No, Katia, there isn't any choice at all. You can only delay your involvement by your resistance. In the end, you must accept your fate.'
Katia looked so young and vulnerable to be shouldering such a heavy burden that Herra gave her a hug. It was not easy to be a Key Life, as she herself knew only too well.
'Well, I'll do my best, Herra. But please - don't expect miracles. I won't shirk my burden, but I still can't understand why I should have been chosen. There's nothing special about me, really there isn't.'
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Chapter 8: KATIA - SISTER OF THE GOD
'No, Saryn, like this. Try again.' Gently Katia showed the newest of the novices how to feel and regulate her own heartbeat.
There was a titter from someone at the back of the class and Katia swung round. 'How perfect your skills must be, Vandrael, for you to be able to mock those of others. But you will need an extra hour of meditation tonight, I think, to consider whether you have the right to feel scorn for those less skilled than yourself.' She turned back to Saryn. 'That's better, Saryn. Just keep practising till you can do that every time.'
That evening, Katia went for a stroll in the gardens which Herra had given her the task of creating inside the temple five years ago, after they had come back from that first visit to the crèche. That task and the gardens themselves had, she often felt, saved her sanity, because she still found the stone walls stifling.
Herra had expected everyone in the temple to benefit from a better knowledge of plant and animal life, but even she hadn’t realised what a boon the long, plant-filled walks between the temple buildings would be to them all. Arbours and seats and little tinkling fountains had been created one by one, and any spare piece of ground, however small, had been QUEST Shannah Jay 43
filled with good soil and carefully stocked. Katia had utilised her extensive knowledge of plants to create miniature ecosystems that were easy to maintain. Nowadays groups of people could always be found in the garden walks of the temple complex, enjoying the green fronds or the sudden drifts of blossom in what had been stone alleys, bare courtyards and blind corners.
'Is something wrong, Katia?' Herra was sitting in her favourite niche, a small triangle of greenery with a fountain and a tiny pool.
'Wrong in general, or wrong in particular, Elder Sister?'
'Either. And don't prevaricate!' Herra's face shone palely in the light reflected from the water, which was rendered almost luminous by some phosphorescent fungi that nestled in miniature rock caves behind the pool.
'Both.'
'Come and sit beside me and share your burdens.' She patted the seat and Katia went to join her.
The bond between them was now more that of mother and daughter than leader and acolyte. It was Herra, not Cheral, who had guided Katia through most of the Disciplines and coached her patiently in those first months after their return from the crèche, until Katia's learning had acquired a momentum of its own, which carried her along faster and faster.
Cheral had grumbled audibly about the amount of time the Elder Sister was spending on one Sister-Elect, and the other Sisters had watched in puzzlement, but Herra had gone her own way, as ever, leaving more and more of the daily administration of the temple to Lara, the senior Healer, and pleading old age when they tried to draw her back into a more active involvement in their affairs.
Katia had more than repaid Herra's efforts by becoming the most skilful of her cohort of Sisters-Elect, acquiring the basic Disciplines more rapidly than anyone would have believed possible. Now she took her turn at instructing the novices and was almost ready to Meet the God, the ceremony which marked the transition from Sister-Elect to full Sister.
'What's wrong, child?' Herra prompted.
'Among other things, the new novices,' Katia sighed. 'There may be fewer of them this year, but they seem to dominate the classes. They're more unruly and more unkind to each other than any other group we've had in the past few years. I can't bear to see the gentler ones hurt, and I have to wonder why some of them were chosen in the first place.'
'Novices have always been troublesome.'
'Not to such a degree.'
'Wel , I hear you have a very sharp way with offenders.'
Katia looked up, startled. 'Oh! Does that mean I'm being too sharp?'
Herra chuckled. 'No. It means that the girls' meditation skills are improving with unprecedented rapidity.'
Katia smiled for a moment, then sadness crept over her face again. 'It's Discord, isn't it, Herra? It's spreading all the time. Even trying to creep in among us.'
'Yes. And it will grow w
orse before it grows better.'
They both fell silent, then Herra said, 'I think it's time you Met the God, Katia, don't you?'
Katia drew in a sharp breath. 'Are you sure, Elder Sister? Am I worthy?' Some Sisters waited many years before the Elder Sister judged them fit to Meet the God.
'Yes, child. I've been watching you carefully of late. You're ready.'
'When?'
'Tonight, after the Gathering.'
'But - I've made no preparations -'
QUEST Shannah Jay 44
'You've been preparing for this for several years. What other preparations are necessary? All you need is an ability to sit in peace, to listen and to answer him. Sometimes this Manifestation of our God asks many questions.'
'Is he - very awesome?'
'No, child. The God is also our Brother, who sends his Manifestation down among us in times of trouble. You've seen the statue of the God in all his Manifestations. Do you find the sight of them frightening?'
'No, of course not.'
'Nor will you find this Manifestation anything to fear.' She hesitated. 'Can you see the new shape forming in the darkness behind the statue?'
'Yes. Though not clearly.'
'I thought so. Most cannot even bear to look at that darkness.'
'Tell me about those other Manifestations, Elder Sister.'
'You can find out for yourself. The full tale is recorded in the Archives. After you've Met the God, you'll have the right to read them at will.'
Katia's eyes glowed. 'I shall enjoy that.'
Herra looked at her, trying to judge whether she might go further, and decided to risk it. 'My child, the God has spoken within me about you.'
'About me?'
'Yes.' The Elder Sister took a deep breath. 'I know not how, but I know with certainty that yours is a Key Life in our Quest. I said that several years ago, did I not?'
Katia's head bent. 'Yes.' Honesty impelled her to add, 'I’ve sensed this too, Elder Sister, but I've hardly dared believe it.'
'Is that al you've sensed?'
'Not quite. I'm waiting - I don't know what for, for something to happen, I suppose. I know that. Sometime soon, I think our Brother will reveal his wishes to me.'