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The bells ceased clanging, and a wary silence engulfed the Temple City. News of the death of the emperor and empress frightened people, even in Uban which lay far from the Imperial City and outside the Empire. My Lady summoned Tegani to personal attendance. Instead of performing her duties as instructress of acolytes, she sat in My Lady’s room waiting. She concentrated on a meditation crystal as a heated debate raged between My Lady and Arturon. He paced, his long braids swinging their onyx beads angrily. My Lady stood, her gray braids touching the floor. Her pale eyes remained calm.
“And what makes you think they won’t attack the Temple City?” Arturon demanded.
“They aren’t stupid enough to violate the Writ of Neutrality and go to war with the Seven Kingdoms,” My Lady reasoned.
Tegani listened in silence as the two argued back and forth. Arturon was more upset than she had ever seen him.
My Lady raised her hand. “Enough! Once we have the girl in the Temple City there is nothing Lord Hanoree can do.”
“So, who is this girl? Where can I find her?” Arturon asked.
“Not you, Brother, it is Tegani’s time.”
“But, My Lady, I have never been outside the Temple City. How will I know what to do?” Tegani dropped her pretense of meditation. A simple mission where she could see something of the world was one thing; this was much more dangerous.
“You are more capable than you know.” She stepped toward Tegani and embraced her. With surprising speed, My Lady took a pair of sheers from her pocket and cut the bottom half of Tegani’s braids. Tiny beads woven into each braid spilled across the floor. “The Royal Nephew must never know the Temple Order is involved. What you must do has to be done in secret. Many Sisters and Brothers stand ready to assist you when they can.”
Tegani fell to the floor and covered her face. Cutting off the braids happened when a Sister disgraced themselves. They were dismissed from the Order and cast from the Temple City. It was a thing of shame.
Arturon lifted the sobbing Tegani to her feet. His expression spoke louder than his words. “My Lady, I cannot stand in agreement with what you are doing.”
“Then don’t stand against me, Brother. I love this Sister like my own daughter. If there was another way, I would choose it.”
They let Tegani cry out her pain, giving her a glass of wine when the worst of the tears were shed. There were many questions churning inside her. She didn’t know where to begin. The time for her mission outside the Temple City arrived and came with a terrible price. She would appear to be stripped of her position as a Sister and dishonored. Few would know the truth. My Lady pressed a single page of instructions into her hand.
Tegani covered her head to hide her shame as she hurried to prepare for the journey. In her room, she removed the remaining beads from her hair, adding them to those retrieved from My Lady’s floor. Before she could focus on what she must do, Tegani painstakingly counted the beads. She sighed. They were all there. She placed them in a jar and sealed the top. Loosening a brick on the side of her fireplace, she placed the jar in a small hole where she kept her few valuables. She replaced the brick and used paint, salt, and flour to make mortar and filled in around the brick to conceal the spot. It wouldn’t last for years, but if she wasn’t back in a few months she was dead anyway, so it wouldn’t matter. She scrubbed her face clean of ornamental makeup and trimmed her hair before twisting it into a common knot.
Sixteen hours left her no time to grieve and barely enough time to study what was written about the mysterious woman who carried the royal heir. My Lady’s note did not even tell the woman’s name or age. She was to contact Madama Ector, a mother of dumas in one of the Imperial City’s wealthier neighborhoods. This Madama would be able to provide information and perhaps help.