Chapter 54 Aleys
Aleys
The church empties. Lukas comes to the parlor window.
“Where have you been?” Aleys demands. It’s been days. Everyone but Marte has abandoned her.
“Fasting. In preparation.”
“What for? The wedding?”
“No.” There’s an undercurrent of excitement in his voice. “I told you the swiftest route to God.”
“You said it was obedience.” She’s annoyed. “I’ve been obedient.”
“That’s the broad path.”
“The long path.” And it feels like a dead end.
“I know you’re weary, daughter. But . . .” She can sense him looking over each shoulder to ensure no one overhears, though the parlor is empty. He says, his voice growing animated, “There’s another path.”
“Sacrifice?” She thinks of Kat. She wants it in writing.
“Sacrifice? No.” His voice is barely audible. “Aleys, I have been sent signs. He has spoken to me.”
“To you?”
“You doubt.”
Yes, she doubts. She resists the urge to tear open the curtain to read his face.
He says, “There’s a hidden path.”
“That you’ve kept from me?”
“It’s shown only to the chosen.”
But I am chosen, she thinks. Or I was. “What path?”
“What is the antidote to snakebite?”
“Just tell me.”
“You must say the remedy.”
“Viper’s venom.” She has no patience for games. Is he serious?
“Yes.” He pauses, like it’s obvious.
“I don’t understand.”
“The poison is the cure. You see, don’t you?”
“No.”
“To honor our vows, we must break them.”
“That makes no sense.”
“You have spoken of it yourself,” he says. “You have the answer.”
He waits as though he expects the answer to come to her. She has no idea what he means. But the skin at the base of her neck has started to crawl.
The curtain stirs with his breath. “Union,” he whispers.
Deep inside her, a warning bell starts a wild clanging, her heart bashing against her ribs.
“Father, I don’t understand you.” Though she does. She wants him away, out of her parlor. Suddenly, she wants that more than anything in the world. She wants to be alone.
“I must pray,” she says. She shuts the window and slides the bolt, hard.