Мерседес Лэки - Passages

Maja looked at him steadily. “I have seen that she seems to notice cute boys—and comment on their looks.”

Sven-August now looked truly miserable. “We’re trying to keep my mother from finding out.”

“Finding out what?” Maja asked cautiously. Please don’t let her be pregnant .

“That we’re in love and want to get married.”

I did not see that coming, so I guess they’re making a really good job of it . “Are you sure? You’re both rather young, and marriage is a lifetime commitment. At your ages, that’s how many decades together?”

“We’ve been seeing each other for two years. Our families lived next door until hers lost their money. They wanted to send her to the Sisters of Ardana, because they could have paid her dowry with books they were going to sell anyway, but she didn’t want to go there.”

“Why not?” Maja asked. “It’s probably a much easier life than this one.”

He chewed his lower lip. “It’s not my secret to tell,” he said at last.

Oh, joy. I can see an interesting interview coming up . “Are you certain that she still wishes to marry you? With the change in her family’s circumstances, your mother is going to be difficult.” Knowing Lady Efanya, very difficult .

“Once we’re married, there’s not much my mother can do,” Sven-August pointed out. “The law says that we both become adults when we marry.”

Maja rubbed her aching forehead. “You know, Sven-August, there is a big difference between legally grown up and really grown up. Think about that while you’re spending today in your cell.”

“That’s fair,” Sven-August conceded. “And you’re right when you say we should think things through. But I’m not going to change my mind. I’ll wait if I have to, but Stina is the one I want to marry.”

“Go,” Maja said. “Grab some breakfast and take it to your cell. Stay there.”

“Yes, Sister.” Sven-August smiled at her and left.

Maja decided to go to breakfast herself before her next interview. It was time anyway, and perhaps it would help her headache. She went to wash up properly before taking her place in the refectory.

They were eating in silence this morning, and Maja found her mind going back and forth between her dream and the prayers she should have said that morning, something about stumbling stones. Maybe we need some to slow things down here. In her mind she saw the smooth stones of the threshold of the Temple gate in Haven. Or maybe not .

She pulled Stina into her office as soon as the girl finished her morning chores. The first words out of Stina’s mouth were, “Is Sven-August all right?”

“Mostly bruised, I think,” Maja said. “Is it true that you want to marry him?”

Stina nodded. “Yes. We’ve been secretly promised for over a year. We were going to talk to our parents when we turned sixteen, but . . .” Her voice trailed off miserably.

“But your family’s finances changed,” Maja said sympathetically. “So why not the Sisters of Ardana? Were you afraid they wouldn’t let you go?”

Stina stared at her lap and mumbled something.

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t hear that.”

“I’m stupid, all right?” she said resentfully. “I can’t read!”

Maja considered her. “The law says that every child has to learn to read, write, and do sums. Did you not get your certificate then?”

“No, I got it. I can do sums, and write, and I memorized the reading part.”

“If you got your certificate without being able to read, that doesn’t make you stupid. Quite the opposite, in fact. A good memory is a useful thing to have. I’m guessing you never told anyone.”

“Sven-August knows I can’t read.”

“I thought he must. He told me that why you didn’t go to the Sisters of Ardana wasn’t his secret to tell.”

“Are you going to throw me out?”

“Because you can’t read? Of course not. The animals don’t care.”

“At least Sven-August doesn’t think I’m stupid. Or a lightskirt,” she added defiantly.

“Nobody with any sense thinks you’re a lightskirt.”

“Karl said—”

“As I said, nobody with any sense.” Maja frowned. “Has Karl been bothering you? Or have any of the boys? Or anyone else?”

Stina kept shaking her head, and Maja relaxed a bit. “So why are you doing the ‘what a cute boy’ routine?”

“It was Sven-August’s idea. Because of his mother. She’s, um . . .”

“Back in Haven. And the only way to get her anywhere near here would be forcible abduction. I’ve met her.”

“You have?” Stina said in surprise.

“Yes. She mistook me for Lena’s maid.” Maja grinned. “But she’s not here, she’s not going to be here, and you can drop the act. And speaking of acting, do you actually like animals?”

“Better than books.”

“But you’re mostly here to wait until you and Sven-August can get married? And to be able to see him?”

“Yes,” Stina admitted, “but now I’m here and he’s going to be in Haven.”

“I’m sure he’ll find plenty of reasons to be here as much as he can,” Maja assured her. “I’m going to be sending him to Haven on an errand soon, but it’s one he’ll have to come back from.” I’m pretty sure now that I know what we need for the God’s Peace, and it’s not an altar.

She waited two days to give Sven-August time to heal enough so that he could ride easily, and to find the right words for her request to the Prior. Then she sent him off, waited, and prayed.

Sven-August returned with the stone from the threshold of the Temple’s gate and a note from the Prior, which said, “Why did it take you so long to figure out what you needed?”

I guess I’m not as up to the job as he thought I was. But I will be.

Maja slept that night under the Peace of the God. When she woke, the sun was rising, and there was a lump of fur at the foot of her bed. “Good morning, Dexter,” she said contentedly. Then she looked more closely. “Who is your friend?”

:Her name is Alma.:

As Alma stretched, Maja realized that she hadn’t been paying much attention to what Dexter was up to since they arrived here. There was going to be another addition to her Temple in a few moons. A nursery of raccoons.

“Right now, I’m glad to be bored,” Rinton said, staring out from under the overhanging branches at the steady rain. On his right, his Companion stamped a foot and tossed his head in agreement.

They were crowded under what seemed to be the only fir tree for miles, with branches spaced high enough for two horses, but with a full enough canopy to provide some protection from the wintry rain. Even Kiyan, Rinton’s giant crow, came gliding down to settle on the Herald’s shoulder, shaking water from bedraggled black feathers.

The young woman standing to his left nodded, her pale green Healer Trainee robes splotched darker with raindrops. Her own horse stood on her other side, so that the horse and the Companion framed the two of them beneath the sheltering branches. “Glad I am that the weather did not interrupt our journey until now. It was good to walk the snowy woods again with Grandmother.”

It had been Mirideh’s first request, after the astonishing alliance with Karse was formalized, that she be permitted to visit her home village. Equally astonishing was that the Healers’ Collegium and Queen Selenay had agreed to it, allowing her to travel during the Midwinter break from classes at the Collegium. When he had heard about it, Herald Rinton had volunteered to accompany her, still acting as her protector, as he had been since he had brought her out of Karse.