Мерседес Лэки - Passages

Mariah nodded. “Why are you so upset about this?”

“Because it’s against everything you’ve ever taught us. To have integrity in everything we do. To be honest with each other and ourselves.” The tears came despite her trying to keep them at bay.

“You did the right thing.”

“Then why does it feel so terrible?”

The older woman’s face softened, and she sighed. “Because you are friends. Because you want everyone to work to your same level. Because sometimes doing the right thing hurts.”

Tressa looked up when Mariah took her by the shoulders. “What’s going to happen now?”

“What I had already decided to do when I first discovered what Soren was doing more than a month ago.”

“You knew? You were testing me?”

Mariah nodded. “I did. And I was. Now that you have told me, I have several things I need to do. Thank you for not letting me down.” She sat at the kitchen table. “But first, we need to talk.”

Fury rose and fell in the space of a heartbeat and the blink of an eye. Fear replaced it. Mariah looked old and sad. Tressa sat on the edge of a stool. “About what?”

“Your future, much to my sorrow.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know. I didn’t plan to test you, but when the opportunity presented itself, I had to. For a couple of reasons. The first of which was for my own sake. Soren doing what he was doing made me question everything I’d ever taught you apprentices. Had I not imparted the importance of personal integrity? Had I failed?”

Tressa shook her head. “You didn’t fail.”

“I know. With you, I didn’t. With Soren, I did. But he isn’t who we’re talking about now. It’s you. Are you angry with me?”

Tressa blinked and opened her mouth to say “no” then closed it again. After a moment’s thought, she shrugged. “A little. But it also took me weeks to tell you. I’m sorry. You must think the worst of me.” She realized how tired Mariah seemed.

“No. Of course not. Even if you hadn’t told me. However, if you hadn’t, we wouldn’t be having this talk.” Mariah lifted her chin. “Tomorrow afternoon, you are going to go to the Palace to meet with the head chefs—Jala and Enri—and you will go there with a written recommendation from me. I’ve known them for years, and they’ve been looking for a couple of senior apprentices to train to bake for the Palace . . . but every person who works at the Palace must be above reproach. You’ve proven to me that you are.”

“The Palace ? Me?”

She smiled. “Of course. Why do you think the Heralds stop here so often? They love your baking. The Palace would benefit from someone like you. For both your skill and your integrity. You rose to the occasion, and I am so proud. I knew there was something special about you when you came back and asked for work. Now, I know you’ll excel at the Palace—personally and professionally.”

Tressa bowed her head. “Thank you. I learned from the best. I am your legacy.”

“You are, and I will miss you . . . but not just yet. Tomorrow, you’ll help me open the shop.”

Tressa smiled. “Yes, ma’am. There are Heralds who can’t do without our cheese biscuits, and we don’t want to let them down.”

He’s really cute .

The words echoed in Maja’s head, causing her to turn to glare at Stina, the girl who had been making the most comments about cute boys. Fortunately, before Stina noticed the glare, Maja realized the comment had come not through her ears but through her Gift, which meant an animal had made it. The horses they rode and the crows flying overhead didn’t think that way, and the raccoon riding on the front of Maja’s saddle was male. Female raccoon? she wondered, but she decided not to worry about it now. She had more urgent problems. She was on a horse, in charge of a group of people—several of whom probably wouldn’t obey her—in a part of Valdemar she had never seen before, and it was getting dark. Already some of the crows who had been scouting for her had decided to roost for the night. The only bright spot was that she thought they could reach their destination before full dark.

Maja was still wondering just why she was in this mess. She had been perfectly happy living in obscurity in Haven in the Temple of Thenoth, Lord of the Beasts, where her Gift of Animal Mindspeech was both welcome and useful, and her being an introvert who didn’t talk to people much didn’t bother anyone. She was good with animals, got on with the Brethren and the novices, and obeyed the Prior’s orders. She had generally managed to stay out of public view, leaving contact with unfamiliar humans to the more extroverted members of the order. The problem was that now, at age 26, she had become the most senior of the female novices, and the Prior had given her a command that was completely changing her comfortable life.

Lady Magdalena Lindholm, commonly called Lena, had come to live at the Temple when she was ten, and the fact that she had Animal Mindspeech that needed to be trained outweighed her being a highborn heiress. As she got older, however, the balance had shifted, and she had married the previous winter. Being Lena, she had married another highborn novice, and the two of them had left Haven to live on an estate she owned. And, being Lena, she had promptly donated a good-sized chunk of that land to Thenoth’s order so that they could set up another temple there. None of that surprised Maja, but the fact that the Prior had put her in charge of what he called a daughter house had completely stunned her.

So here she was, riding to their new land adjoining Lena’s estate, accompanied by all of the current female novices, several male novices temporarily in the charge of Brother Thomas, who was there to help them get set up before returning to the main Temple at Haven, and—for some reason that nobody had explained to her—a sixteen-year-old boy named Sven-August, who was the son of a wealthy merchant’s widow and lived at the Temple as a fosterling. He didn’t have Animal Mindspeech, but he was very good with birds, so at least he would probably be useful. Lena had written that the estate had a lot of interesting birds.

Maja had been getting encouraging letters from her friend at frequent intervals, and it was clear that Lena was looking forward to having a temple next door. Apparently she was so eager she couldn’t wait for them to arrive.

Maja saw a small party approaching comprised of Lena and several men. The men carried unlit torches, and they didn’t even try to keep up with Lena when her horse surged forward to meet Maja’s. Not bodyguards, then .

“Maja!” Lena’s horse pivoted and dropped into a position right beside Maja’s, matching its pace exactly. Lena leaned over to give her a hug that would have dragged anyone not expecting it out of the saddle. Maja dropped the reins she had been holding for appearance’s sake and hugged her back.

“It’s good to see you, Lena.” She looked at the men, who had pulled aside to the verge. “I hope those aren’t supposed to be guards; they don’t appear able to keep up with you.”

Lena laughed. “No, I just brought them along in case you were farther away than I thought, and we needed to light the road for you. I expected you at least a candlemark ago.”

“That’s because you’re impatient. Have you ever traveled with your own baggage?”

“Only what I could fit in my saddlebags and on a fast packhorse. Anything else can follow at its own pace.” Lena grinned. “As for needing a bodyguard, everyone in this neighborhood knows me, they firmly believe that anyone who tried to harm me would be attacked by every animal in range, and they don’t know how far my range is. I’m safer than I was in my mother’s arms.” She looked around. “It’s a good thing we’re almost home; I can feel the crows settling for the night.” She fell silent for several minutes as their horses walked onward. “I sent a mental picture of the new Temple to all the crows. They can find us in the morning.”