Eventually, Natasha put down her empty mug and rose to go. She stopped in the shop to reclaim her muddy boots while Dani went ahead to wait by the door, ready to bid her guest good night. Natasha tied her laces and crossed the room, about to offer some polite words of thanks. And then their eyes met.
Natasha’s pulse leapt, and the tingling in her leg resurged. She knew she was standing too close and holding eye contact for too long, but there was nothing she could do. She was paralyzed in the battle to stop herself from wrapping her arms around Dani, pulling her close, and kissing her. The moment dragged on forever. In the end, it was Dani who moved away, backing off and dropping her eyes.
“Look, I’m a big, grown-up girl, and I can take no as an answer, but that isn’t the message I’m getting from you.” Dani’s voice cracked in pain.
“It’s...” Natasha squeezed her eyes shut. What could she say? “It’s just that...I do like you. But back in the Homelands...”
“You’ve left someone there,” Dani said quietly, clearly trying to make sense of Natasha’s words.
Natasha opened her eyes, grasping at Dani’s suggestion. “Er...yes.”
“Will she be joining you here?”
“No.”
Dani sagged against the door frame. “But?”
“But at the moment, I don’t feel ready for...that it would be right...” Natasha’s throat tightened. She could not make herself lie again.
Dani nodded slowly. In silence, she paced across the shop and then turned to look at Natasha. “So there might be a chance for me if I wait?” The softness of Dani’s voice did nothing to hide her emotions.
Natasha’s expression battled between a half smile and an agonized grimace. She all but fled from the shop.
Dani sighed, closed the door on the night, and wandered back to the fireside in the rear room. She surveyed the scene. While she had been away, the friend who had minded the shop had also kept the room clean and dusted but had done nothing to clear the piles of jumble scattered across the place. Finding homes for it all had been the job occupying Dani for most of that day. Her room had not been so tidy for years. She could see whole runs of floorboard.
“I must have it bad for her if I even tidied up before she came round.” Dani spoke her thoughts aloud. Her face started to crumple, but she concentrated on breathing. Crying would not help. The situation was not hopeless, and even though it had not produced the desired result, the time spent clearing the room was not a complete waste. She had found several items she had thought to be lost.
*
Three of the residents were huddled around the hearth in the common room as Natasha raced through. She kept her head down, anxious to avoid eye contact. Her mood was not up to exchanging pleasantries. Fortunately, Rohanna and Cal were not present. Neither were her comrades visible in their room, and no candles were burning. But at the sound of the door closing, Rohanna’s voice called out from the box bed, “Is that you, Jess?”
“Yes.”
“Where have you been?”
“At Dani’s.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes, sure.” The lie was no more blatant than those she had told Dani. “Good night.”
Natasha scrambled up the ladder to the loft. She could not bear to be pulled into a discussion. To her relief, no further questions followed from the room below.
Hurriedly, Natasha removed her outer clothing and crawled under her blankets. Then, despite all her effort, tears squeezed from beneath her eyelids—tears of shame at the lies she had spoken and despair that they had been necessary. Although maybe the impression she had given to Dani was not a complete lie. She had indeed left a woman behind in the Homelands—a truthful, honorable woman called Natasha Ionadis.
Chapter Eleven—The Blasphemous Imprinter
At the same time that Natasha was visiting Dani, another meeting was taking place in the center of town. Ash settled back in her seat and fixed her eyes on the red tiled floor. Gentle heat was radiating across the entire surface from the hot air circulating below. The fire in the hearth was purely for effect, making the domestic room look far more cheerful than Ash’s mood. She lifted her head and considered the faces of the other women gathering in the main room of Kim’s house. Nobody was smiling, but a few were casting hopeful glances in her direction. Ash again searched her memory for any clues she had missed, wishing that she had good news to pass on, or even definite bad news, so they could form a plan of action to counter it.
Once the last of the invited women were seated, Kim turned to Ash. “So. What do you make of them?”
Ash’s face twisted in a frown. “I don’t know. And that’s the most worrying part. I don’t know. After the journey we’ve been through, we should be closer than sisters...well, either that or ready to kill each other. But I’m left feeling I don’t know them any better after two months than I did after two days.”
“And what was your impression after two days?”
“They were far more intelligent and far more likeable than I’d expected. But you spoke to them at the outpost and rode back here with them. What did you think?”
“I didn’t get past the stage of being pleasantly surprised. I’d been ready for another case like Jo Elson, but she was just a very stupid woman. She honestly thought, since we don’t believe in a Goddess, we wouldn’t see theft as a sin, so we’d be quite happy for her to pick up anything in Westernfort that took her fancy.”
Now Lynn joined in. “Elson was a bit more complicated than that. She was so self-centered, she couldn’t see that she was in any way to blame for the trouble she got into. Therefore, it had to be the fault of the Militia and the Sisterhood. She thought that if she got away from them, she could carry on like she always had, without having any problems.”
“Either way, having her executed was unpleasant and not something I wish to repeat,” Kim said firmly. “But you’ve put your finger on something. You couldn’t spend five minutes with Elson without noticing the chip on her shoulder, whereas all these three seem well-adjusted.”
“I’m happiest with the daughter, Jess,” Ash said. “Though I’d be hard-pressed to explain why.”
“Try.”
Ash was silent for a while, collecting her thoughts. “It sounds odd, but it’s because you can see that she’s hiding something and she’s unhappy about it. And my first remark doesn’t apply to her. As the journey went on, I did get to know her better.”
“Perhaps we should have Dani here,” Mirle Lorenzo suggested. “She might have a better feel for someone her own age. You said they got on well.”
Ash laughed. “I’m afraid they got on slightly too well for Dani’s feelings to be relevant. Lack of privacy meant that nothing much happened between them on the trail, but she’s invited Jess over this evening. Even as we speak, I’d guess that Dani is in the process of completely compromising her objectivity.”
“Oh, that would explain it,” Mirle said, grinning. “I called around on Dani today to arrange a debriefing meeting, and she was tidying her room.”
“Dani was tidying her room!” Lynn exclaimed in astonishment.
Once the general amusement had faded, Ash asked, “Has there been any more information from Jules since I left?”
Mirle answered. “Just a quick note, apologizing profusely for landing us with them. Jules said she recruited the family shortly after they arrived in her area and only suspected later that they’d been less than honest with her. She can’t swear they’re horse thieves, but she has grave doubts. Soon after the family arrived, horses started to go missing. There was nothing in the way of proof, but Jules didn’t want to send them here until she’d had a chance to get to know them better, but they were denounced as heretics and had to flee. The worst part is that Jules thinks they may have informed against themselves anonymously to force her hand.” Mirle’s face became grim. “If Jules comes to harm over this, I’ll personally make sure they wish they’d never heard of Westernfort.”
“Di
d Jules have any idea why they wanted to come here?”
Mirle shrugged. “From one or two clues, she suspects that the family have heard of our imprinted horses. Maybe they haven’t got the first idea about life outside the Homelands and don’t realize they won’t be able to find buyers in the next valley.”
Ash shook her head immediately. “Not this lot. Certainly, Cal Rowse is familiar with the wildlands. You could tell on the journey, just from the things she watched and the things she ignored. She knows what to look out for. She claims that she used to work as a fur trapper.”
While Ash spoke, Chip Coppelli had been listening intently, with a slight frown on her face. Chip was captain of the Westernfort Rangers. She had an open, easygoing manner and a playful sense of humor that led many people to underestimate her on first meeting. Ash could have warned them that it was not a wise thing to do. Chip had been sitting beside the fire, toasting the soles of her feet. The news caught her attention. “Really? Well, if they turn out not to be thieves, that’s a useful skill to have around here. And I can put her on the reserves list for the Rangers.”
The frown on Kim’s face had been getting deeper while the debate progressed. “Something doesn’t add up. Despite what Jules wrote, I’m sure they’re not petty thieves.”
“So maybe they’re completely aboveboard,” Lynn said. “For all we know, Jules’ next letter might apologize for worrying us and say that the real gang of horse thieves has been arrested in her area.”
“But we’ll have to wait until spring now to get that,” Mirle added.
Chip let her head drop back and sighed. “Either they’re thieves, or they’re not. If things go missing around here, we’ll know where to start looking. And if they try running off with some horses, I’m sure we’ll have no trouble tracking them down. Then we can just dump them back on the border of the Homelands for the Militia to deal with. Now that the Sisterhood knows where we are, there’s no other information they could pass on. So we wouldn’t need to deal with them quite as decisively as we did with Elson.”
Kim looked thoughtfully at Chip. “So your advice is to do nothing until they step out of line?”
“Yes. I don’t see that we’re running any risks.”
“And how about you, Ash?” Kim turned her head as she spoke.
Ash drew a deep breath. She would have liked to have agreed with her captain, but nagging doubts churned inside her. “I don’t know. And like I said about Jess, she’s got a guilty conscience about something.”
“Maybe lustful dreams of Dani,” Chip suggested, smiling.
“I...I think it’s more than that. But I could be wrong.”
“I’ve had a thought,” Lynn said. “I need help with the animals, and the family needs work. So why not assign Jess to me? It will give us plenty of opportunity to chat without her parents around and allow me to give you a second opinion on her.”
Kim nodded. “That sounds like a good idea. Jess seems to be the one who’s most likely to let something slip...if there is anything to slip. But I also want someone to keep an eye on the parents. That will be you.” She pointed to Ash.
“I don’t know if it’s necessary. There isn’t a single thing I could point—”
Kim cut her off. “You have a hunch that something’s wrong. And I’d happily stake my life on one of your hunches.”
Ash opened her mouth and closed it again. Then she smiled and gave a lazy salute. “Yes, ma’am. And what exactly do you want me to do?”
“Watch out for suspicious behavior. Keep on their trail without spooking them.”
“I’m not sure if I’m any good at that.”
“Of course you are. Just pretend that they’re a pride of snow lions.” Kim smiled grimly.
*
Lynn’s animal enclosure was situated half a kilometer out of town, on the slopes above the lake. Snow was falling steadily the next morning as Natasha tramped toward it along the track. The work was not what Natasha would have chosen, but refusing the assignment would have drawn attention to herself. She could hardly explain to Mirle Lorenzo that she thought imprinted animals were unholy abominations.
Barking was the only reply to Natasha’s shout. She pushed open the barn door and slipped inside. It was warmer and less biting out of the wind. Once her eyes adapted to the dim light, she saw that the barn housed an assortment of animals, mainly cows, pigs, and sheep. A dog bounded over to sniff her. Natasha was not sure whether it was a guard or part of the experiments.
She looked at the creatures with distaste. The blessed Himoti had forbidden the imprinting of animals. What the heretics were doing in the barn was sacrilege. Natasha decided to take advantage of being alone to offer a quick prayer to Celaeno, asking forgiveness for assisting the blasphemous Imprinter in her crimes. Her pious endeavor was distracted by the dog butting its head against her hand in an appeal for attention, and before she had finished, she heard footsteps approaching.
“Good morning, Jess.” Lynn entered the barn and was immediately pounced on by the dog, with its tail wagging.
“Good morning, Madame Imprint—” Natasha’s formal greeting was interrupted.
“Forget the ‘Madame’ bit. Just call me Lynn.”
Lynn sidestepped the dog’s enthusiastic welcome and stood by the cows. “Good morning, girls.” The cows spared her a contemptuous glance and went back to chewing. “Have you noticed how cows never leave you in any doubt that they consider you dull and not worth bothering with?” Lynn threw the thought over her shoulder.
“Yes, ma...er...Lynn,” Natasha floundered. Horrified fascination gripped her. In the Homelands, Imprinters were revered as the chosen of the Goddess. Even as a Guard, Natasha had never before spoken with one. Yet Lynn had turned against Celaeno and willingly joined the heretics. And I’m going to help kill her. Natasha tried to reconcile her thoughts with the ordinary woman standing less than two meters away, talking to the cows.
Lynn turned around and faced Natasha. “Right. What have you been told about the work here?”
“Er...” Natasha paused to choose her words. “That you imprint animals, and you need me to help look after them.”
“I guess that sums up the main points.” Lynn grinned. “Up until now, these animals have been cared for by the general farmhands, but I want to have one person assigned to them exclusively, on the basis that there’ll be less chance of messages becoming scrambled. But I’m afraid your work is not going to be very interesting. Have you looked after animals before?”
“Horses,” Natasha answered truthfully. It had formed part of her training as a Guard.
“It’s the same sort of thing. Your work will mainly involve sticking food in one end and shoveling away what comes out of the other, with a few variations.”
Lynn went on to describe the diets of the different animals, show where the tools were kept, and explain exactly what needed to be done. Then she helped with the jobs requiring more than one pair of hands, showing no trace of the aloof arrogance expected from Imprinters. Once the tasks were over, they stopped to catch their breath. Natasha was hot from the exertion.
“I hear you visited Dani last night,” Lynn said conversationally.
“I…er, yes.” Natasha was caught off guard and felt herself blushing at the speculative look Lynn gave her. “I just had a mug of tea, and then I went home.” Her face grew even hotter as she heard how defensive the words sounded.
“Oh,” Lynn said. Then she grinned apologetically. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t pry, but Westernfort is nearly as bad as a temple sanctum for gossip.”
Natasha swallowed and tried to sound casual. “I wouldn’t have thought there was much to gossip about in the average sanctum.”
“Don’t you believe it. Most Sisters keep their vow of celibacy most of the time, but that just heightens the titillation value when one of them slips.”
“But...” Natasha was not sure if she was being teased. What Lynn was saying was scandalous, but there was no reason for her to lie.
The suggestion also brought to mind something that had been nagging at Natasha. The Chief Consultant had asserted that Lynn and Kim could not be lovers, since the loss of virginity would destroy an Imprinter’s power. Lynn was still an Imprinter. Natasha had already seen enough children running around Westernfort to prove it. Therefore, either the Chief Consultant was wrong, or Lynn and Kim were not truly lovers.
Natasha recoiled. The question was not one that she could come right out and ask, but suddenly, it was very important for her to know whether the Chief Consultant was infallible, and she had an opening to approach the subject.
“In the temple, do Imprinters ever...slip?”
“Imprinters are virtually held prisoner in the sanctum. They don’t get the chance to do anything much.” Lynn looked thoughtful. “But from what I know of human nature, I’d lay money that some have managed it. They didn’t go around boasting about it, though.”
“Wouldn’t it be noticed? I mean, doesn’t it have any effect at all on the ability to imprint?”
“Doesn’t for me.” From Lynn’s smile and tone, it was impossible to doubt that she was telling the truth. “I couldn’t imprint while I was pregnant. But that was due to the extra complexity in identifying DNA sequences, rather than loss of ability. One of the first things you learn is to screen out your own DNA when you’re in the imprinting trace so you don’t accidentally splice it in as well. But for nine months, I had another set of genes there as well.”
“You’ve got children!” Natasha could not help exclaiming.
Lynn looked a little surprised at the tone but then smiled. “Yes. Kim and I have five between us. And speaking of them, I’d better get back. Ardis is fond enough of her younger sisters, but she isn’t the most reliable of babysitters.” She became more businesslike. “You’ll be okay on your own here?”
The Walls of Westernfort Page 14