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In the silence of the Temple, Meg took a deep breath and peered around her hands. She was stiff and unsure how long she had stood in the same place. She had heard voices, understood that the Brothers had watched over her and even thought that Brent had been there, reaching around her skirts and... She froze again. She glanced to the side. She had heard the gods, sure that they watched over her and kept her safe. But she stood alone. She turned slowly, thankful that her leg was healed, and breathed a sigh as she looked up at the gods lined up on their platform, looming over the empty expanse of the Temple.
And then two small beings flew around her, and she held her hand out as she dropped to her knees.
“Hello,” she said softly.
“The little raven is well,” one said.
“Kellin?” she asked.
“You are a silly raven,” the second responded. “We watched you sleeping,” she said.
“Did I sleep for long?” she asked.
“Only long enough to be sure that you were safe.”
“Am I safe?”
“You ask so many questions, little raven,” the first said.
Meg shook her head, but she smiled. “Can I ask another?”
“Ask, ask,” the second said.
“Is Kellin well?”
The first one shrugged.
“She must take the time to search,” the second said.
“What happened?” Meg asked, looking from the identical versions of Air in her hand to the faces of the gods smiling down on her.
“Evil,” one said.
“Darkness,” the other added.
Meg’s heart beat faster. She remembered the strange Sister standing before her, and then the world had changed.
“The gods watch over you,” the first said.
“Kion loves you.” The second smiled and gave her a little curtsy.
“You should not curtsy to me,” Meg said. “I am just a girl; you are Air.”
The little winged women smiled and giggled. “You are more than a girl.”
“How am I here now?”
“Kira loves you,” the first said. “Kira and Kion watched over you and kept you safe until they could release you from the darkness.”
“I heard them,” Meg whispered, looking up at the gods again. She stood as the two little versions of Air flew from her hand. She ran her hands over the feet of the gods and leant to kiss them. She looked up at the faces that still smiled down at her. Kira’s hand reached out to her, and without hesitation she reached up and towards her. “Thank you,” she said.
“Meg,” Brent called behind her, and she turned to find him running across the expanse of the Temple, and she couldn’t help but smile. He scooped her up and with his cheek pressed against hers, spun her around.
“Brent, put me down.”
He relented and she found another set of arms close tightly around her, and a deep sigh into her hair. She stood still and allowed the Brother to hold her. “They love you,” he said.
“They kept me safe,” she said.
“That they did,” he murmured, releasing her. “And I am very glad of it.”
She smiled up at the statues as two butterflies fluttered up towards the high windows.
“Did you find Kellin and Rainger?” she asked, looking up at Brent.
He nodded but gulped and she watched as his throat bobbed in a strange, slow motion, and then she focused on his dark eyes.
“Where are they?” she asked.
He shook his head. “You were stone for so long,” he muttered.
“Stone?” she asked, looking to Brother Erasmus. “How long?”
“Two days,” he said.
“Two days?”
Both men nodded.
“Where are they?” she asked more forcefully.
“We found the boat, but the raven was gone.”
She nodded, waiting for more, but he wouldn’t give it.
“Where is Rainger?” she asked firmly.
“He’s dead,” Brent whispered.
“No,” she said.
“I am afraid it is true,” Brother Erasmus said.
“I am telling you, he is not. You yourself said that he was important.”
“I did,” Brother Erasmus said quietly. “But even I cannot foresee all.”
She stepped forward to kiss the feet of the gods again. “Someone does,” she said. “Someone watches over all of us.” She turned to both of them. “Take me to him.”
They glanced at each other.
“It was not a question,” she said.
They led her out through the doorway at the back of the Temple into the Brotherhood, along dark hallways. Meg could feel Brent’s uncertainty rolling off him as they entered the small room. Rainger was laid out on a stone bench in the centre, and two sisters worked silently to wash his body.
“When did you find him?”
“Yesterday, not long after I left your room and sent you to the Temple.”
She took a deep breath and stepped forward. The sisters paused in their duty and bobbed a curtsy. She reached out to touch his arm. Strong and cool beneath her touch. He had been stripped bare, a stiff linen sheet over his lower body, his pale chest bruised, exposed. A deep cut on the side of his head had been cleaned and she could see inside it to his bones. She sighed and reached out her fingers to brush against the open wound.
“Your Highness,” Brent said, stepping forward. “We were too late.”
“No,” she said. She ran her hand down the side of his pale face, a dark bruise marking where he had been hit or had hit the boat. Had this woman done this? The Silent Sister with magic in her hands. “No,” she said again. “We are not too late. They were meant to be together for the child.”
“The child died,” Erasmus said.
Meg shook her head. Kellin had been right; she was sure now that the nurse she had seen was the same Silent Sister she had met in the Temple, and that Elalia was involved. “Jealousy is a terrible weakness,” she murmured.
“Meg?” Brent asked.
“He must live,” she said, turning now to face Brent. “It is the way of it.”
“But he is gone.” She heard in his deep voice his desperation for her to understand.
“No, he is not. He is right here. Bring fresh water,” she said to the Sister, and she bobbed and left.
“What will you do for him?” Erasmus asked.
“It is not I,” she said. “I cannot do anything. I am but a girl.”
“I don’t think that is true,” Brent said. “Recently you were a statue among the gods.”
“Among the gods?” she asked.
“They surrounded you, before the platform, to keep you safe.”
She smiled. “I heard them,” she said. “As I heard you.” She put a soft hand against Brent’s cheek, but when he moved to put his hand over hers she took it away.
“The water,” the Sister said.
She nodded her thanks, and as the two butterflies floated in and rested on her hand, she said, “Leave us.”
Brent made to stay but Erasmus led him out.
When the room was quiet and still, the two little versions of Air walked across his chest. “You are right, raven,” the first said. “He is not dead at all.”
The relief was overwhelming and she choked back a sob.
“How will you wake him?” the second asked.
“I hoped you would,” she said, uncertainty nestled back in her chest.
“Me?” they asked together.
She nodded.
“You expected Water to do something,” the second said.
Meg looked at the bowl, and her reflection smiled out at her and nodded.
“I don’t know,” she murmured.
Air looked at each other and then stepped forward. They held hands and then disappeared. Meg held her breath as a gentle breeze developed within the room, and then as it flowed into Rainger, his chest slowly rose and fell.
His eyes fluttered open and he coughed. She hastily cradled his head and lifted the bowl to his lips, the water splashing over his chin and down her dress. She laid him back down and he sighed, a long rush of air leaving his lungs.
Meg squeezed his hand and waited. Silently praying that she was right, and he wasn’t really dead at all.
He squeezed her hand in return, and the air that moved in and out of his mouth sounded more regular. She ran her hand slowly over the wound in the side of his head and squeezed her eyes closed. He groaned and mumbled and maintained his tight grip on her hand. And then the tension seemed to leave his body, and she feared he had slipped away again.
When she opened her eyes, he smiled up at her, an angry scar running down the side of his face where the wound had been, and she silently thanked the gods for bringing him back.
Brother Erasmus watched from the shadows as Meg talked in a soft, soothing voice to Rainger. He still lay on the table, but he could see his hand clutched hers and she ran her hand over the side of his head where the open wound had been. They were talking of a Sister, but he didn’t know who she was and he wasn’t sure that Meg would tell him.
As he had allowed Meg the silence and privacy of the chamber, Brent had filled him in on what he knew, that Kellin had somehow been turned into a raven, possibly by Elalia, but he wasn’t sure how. He had seen an image Water had shown to Meg of Rainger in the boat, but he stumbled over his words, muttering about how he had been hard on her, believing that Meg had magic and had changed her sister and hurt Rainger.
Despite Brent’s story of distrust, he knew that these men would follow her to the end of the world and back if she needed them to. She rightly trusted in them to do the right thing by her and the kingdom. Brent, he was sure, felt more than he should for the princess, but would do his duty first.
He wondered if Brodwyn would be able to reach her now.
When he saw the prince with Meg, he understood her father’s wish for her happiness and he was sure that she could have had it with Brodwyn. He was disappointed that it would not occur now, and that Elalia seemed to take such delight in the idea of selling her sister off to another land.
He longed to pray to the gods, ask them what they had done to save and return Meg to them. To ask if they saw the same in her as he did. But he needed to see Elalia, reopen the Temple and return some sense of security to the people of Rocfeld before the peace ended, for he feared it would not be long. Despite the reports of calm from the border.
He stepped forward from the shadows and placed a hand on Meg’s shoulder. He needed to reassure himself that she was indeed real. “I must talk with the queen,” he said. “I will not tell her what we know, and for the moment I believe we should allow the story of Rainger’s death and your missing status to continue.”
“But will that not put Rocfeld in more danger?” she asked.
“Perhaps,” he said. “Yet it is your safety I fear. Let us find who did this before it happens again.”
Meg gave him a small smile and he noticed the look that passed quickly between them. There was something that she was not telling him, but he was sure there was good reason.
“Brother Peras will escort you to rooms within the Brotherhood.”
“We would not intrude.”
“You do not intrude; I am sure we have hidden men before. You will be safe, and when the time is right you will return to the world.”
“Will Kellin be able to find me?” she asked. “Or Rainger—will she know of Rainger?”
“I cannot tell you, Meg. Let us keep you safe first and worry of Kellin second.”
“Where could she be?” Rainger croaked, still lying on the table.
“I would guess that she searches for your son. And her present condition may better allow such a search.”
Meg nodded. “Who will know we are here?” she asked.
Brother Erasmus shook his head. “Only those we know to trust.” It was on the tip of his tongue to mention Brodwyn, but he feared upsetting her. He couldn’t be sure that he could get a message to him, or if he would come if he received it.
Brother Peras stepped forward and a Sister appeared behind him. They moved straight to Rainger and helped him to sit up slowly. Meg stepped back a little and watched as they helped him to his feet before she stepped forward and placed herself beneath his arm.
“I will help,” she said, and Rainger smiled down at her, the sheet tucked tight around him.
“My feet are steadier than I believed they could be,” he said.
She smiled up at him and they followed the Brother through the doorway. Erasmus waited in the empty room, wondering what the gods had in store for them, and then followed them through the door. He emerged in the Temple a little while later, the space empty and quiet.
He stepped forward to the gods on their platform. All of them smiled down on him. He rubbed his old hands across the smooth feet before him, Kion then Kira, Kira then Kion. Then he moved along the line of Followers and back to the twin gods. “Thank you,” he said, his voice echoing through the empty expanse around him. “Thank you all for Meg, for keeping her safe and helping her do what she must.”
He rubbed the feet and walked slowly towards the door. In the silence around him, a deep but quiet voice whispered, “We love the little raven.”
“As do we all,” he said, striding forward and lifting the latch on the door. The two guards outside it turned at the sound. “Let them in,” he said, opening the door wide. “Let them in to worship the gods and give thanks for this day.”
They nodded and stepped back. Erasmus walked through the courtyard towards the queen’s solar, wondering how to explain the day’s events to her.
––––––––
Erasmus paused before knocking at the queen’s door. Uncertainty was a feeling he was not used to. Would she know what had happened and would she expect an answer? Could he maintain the ruse as agreed with Brent?
The young girl opened the door and showed him in. The silence echoed in the space.
“Brother Erasmus,” Elalia beamed from her position by the window. “Surely you bring news.”
He gave a slight bow, and then one to Malin, who sat at the table. Interesting, he thought. “News of any particular nature?” he asked, making his way to a chair.
“Of my sisters, I hope,” she said.
He gave a slight shake of his head.
“Oh.” She seemed deflated and came to join him at the table. “No news at all.”
“The Brothers have mended the fault in the roof of the Temple,” he said. “People are free to visit the gods again.”
She nodded. “But nothing of Megora.”
“I am afraid not,” he said. “Is there any news of where she may have gone?”
Elalia shook her head. “I thought she searched for Kellin, although I have no idea where she could have gone. I worried that she had run away with the soldier.”
“Commander Rainger?” Erasmus asked.
“That is the one, the father of the child.”
“I heard that he had died,” Erasmus said matter-of-factly.
“It is true then?” Malin asked. “What a shame.”
“Yes,” he answered. “A terrible loss.”
“Would he not be prepared for burial in the Brotherhood?” Elalia asked.
“I am sure that he would,” he said. “I should ask the Sisters. They all look the same laid out in their white shrouds for the gods.”
Malin nodded and Elalia sighed. “Perhaps,” she said. “Should we search more carefully for Megora?”
“More carefully than we already do?” he asked. “Where do you propose we start such a search?”
“She was seen entering the Temple,” Elalia said quickly.
“I think we would have found her easily if she were there.”
“Elalia, you do not suggest that the Brothers hide her?” Malin asked.
“Of course not. Yet I fear what the people will think. That she has been sent away again.”
Brother Erasmus tried not to stare, wondering if she realised what she had just admitted. “What do you propose?” he asked slowly.
She shrugged and moved back to the window.
“Do you wish to search the Brotherhood?” Erasmus asked, his voice soft. “Or send a delegation to Tands?”
“Neither, until I have some more answers.”
They sat in silence for a time.
“Who saw Meg enter the Temple?” he asked.
Elalia looked up but remained silent.
“You said she was seen, but not by the Brothers or the Sisters, for someone would have told me. She was often there early of a morning, but no one has seen her for days.”
“Perhaps a maid, or the like, that rise early.”
“Perhaps,” he said. “I did hear of an unknown Sister in the chapel. Perhaps she knows of Meg’s whereabouts.”
“An unknown Sister?” Malin asked. “Who could she be?”
“How could she be unknown?” Elalia asked. “What was different?”
“Different? Other than she was not a Sister of the Brotherhood and her behaviour in the Temple?” He checked himself, aware of how loud he had become. He had held himself this long.
“Her behaviour?” Elalia asked.
“Not praying as others do was the report I received. I worry that someone may be masquerading as a Sister who is not.”
“That is a strange thing to say. It could not be Megora?”
“Your sister knows how to pray,” he said sharply. “She spent every morning kneeling before the gods, even when her leg would not allow it.”
Elalia waved her hand dismissively. “Always keen to do her duty,” she said, and refocused out the window. “I am sure that wherever she is, she thinks she is doing her duty.”