CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
A woman in her thirties was striding toward me, her sword drawn as she approached. A guard? Had she been posted solely because of me? Had someone guessed at my intentions and shared them with someone in charge? Was I about to be expelled?
Given that I didn t know exactly what was happening, I considered my options-I could run and hope that I didn t get caught or say a fervent prayer to the goddess that I would only be punished and not tossed into the street for trying to sneak out.
Where are you going? she asked, and I ran through possible excuses in my head.
I couldn t use the obvious one, that I needed to relieve myself, because the toilets were inside. I finally settled on, What time is it? I m supposed to go clean the temple.
At that the guard sheathed her sword and I let out a tiny sigh of relief. Not for a few more hours. You need to go back to bed. There is a curfew and you can t be out here at night.
Oh. I didn t know. And that was the truth. No one had told me about a curfew. Most likely because they didn t expect me to try and sneak out in the middle of the night.
There is. I saw three other women gathering behind her, ready to offer support if she needed it.
How many guards were there keeping watch?
I felt foolish for not even considering this as a possibility. Of course someone like Antiope would make certain that the temple grounds were being watched over at all hours.
I m sorry. I suppose I was just excited to serve.
The guard smiled slightly. I understand. Go on. Back to bed.
I nodded. Yes. I m sorry. I wasn t sure why I felt compelled to tack on another apology. I hurried back into the dormitory. That could have gone so much worse.
With a sigh I realized that sneaking out was going to take a lot more planning than I d initially thought.
The next morning I arose before dawn, still sleepy, and still able to feel the phantom imprint of Jason s lips on mine, his hands on my body. I had dreamed of him again.
After I got ready and gathered my tools, I went down to the temple. The guard on duty outside the dormitory nodded to me and I noticed that it was someone different from the night before. I wondered what time they changed shifts. That would be helpful information to know.
The courtyard in front of the temple had been diligently scrubbed, but the stones were still stained with blood. It would take a long time for the sun to bleach the stains away.
I heard a buzzing sound and turned my gaze to the archway. The bodies of the men who had dared to broach the temple grounds and had been killed by Antiope were mounted on pikes. Some kind of loud insect hovered near their bodies. My stomach turned at the sight but I supposed that was the point. It was a gruesome warning to anyone who would dare to break the goddess s laws or question the resolve of her servants.
After I cleaned the steps and patio, I went into the temple and held my breath, hoping that I would be alone.
But there was a guard stationed at the top of the stairs. I let out a sigh of frustration. How was I ever going to be able to investigate the statue?
Creating detailed battle strategies had never been a particular skill of mine. In the past I made a general plan and then just hoped that I d be fast enough and strong enough to find a way to reach my goal.
It had served me fairly well so far.
At some point the statue guard would make a mistake. They would fall ill or need to use the toilet or there would be a miscommunication about who was supposed to be on duty.
And I would have to wait until an opening presented itself. What else could I do? I had just discovered that there were guards everywhere, both day and night.
The only thing I could do was to learn their patrols, what times they changed shifts, and use that to my advantage.
Which meant more waiting.
I went about my new normal day. A private session and breakfast with Maia in the morning, then off to training, lunch, afternoon classes, chores, dinner, and bed.
In our acolyte classes, Maia was teaching us about the relationship between the earth goddess and the sun god.
The sun god fell in love with the earth goddess, bathing her in the light and warmth of his devotion. They were joined and had twins-a boy and a girl. But the sun god began to suspect that the goddess had fallen in love with another, and his jealousy and bitterness consumed him. The goddess banished him back to the sky, where he circles around her day after day, burning with hatred and envy of all that he has lost.
I supposed my teacher wouldn t be interested to hear that the theory that the sun circled the earth was incorrect. It was better to keep my mouth shut.
When the sun god comes too close, scorching the earth, the goddess will call forth storm clouds to block his view, and send rain to soothe the ground. The goddess s silver daughter inherited her father s light, glowing like the stars in the heavens, made of aether. The goddess s bronze son took after his mother, having many of the same abilities, along with dominion over the metals of the earth. He rebelled against his mother, rejecting her and her ways. Even now he seeks to usurp her, to remove her from her throne. The goddess had to banish him and he took the earth dragons with him when he left, which is why they haven t been seen in centuries. What did the son do that caused the goddess to send him away?
Someone behind me raised her hand and Maia called on her. He captured his sister and forced her into marriage with a god of war.
Yes! The goddess didn t know what happened. The sun hid himself away for three days to hinder her search. With a torch in hand, she scoured the whole earth for her child. When she couldn t find her, she went into a deep, dark cave to lament her loss. The moon goddess had witnessed the bargain and traveled to the cave to tell the earth goddess. The earth goddess went to the war god s home, demanding her daughter s return. A council of gods, including the earth goddess s parents, determined that the war god had done nothing wrong, being unaware of the son s treachery. They ruled that for four months of the year, the daughter was to remain with her husband but would spend the remaining eight with her mother. That is why wars are always fought after the harvest, when the war god has been separated from his wife for too long and riles up the hearts of men to go to war because of his own grief. When she returns to him, he is soothed and mortal men go back to their lives. But when the daughter rejoins her husband, the earth goddess laments her loss and doesn t allow anything to grow while her beloved daughter is gone.
I wished I could write this down. My grandmother s book had not mentioned the goddess s children at all and I didn t understand why, as it seemed very important. Why had it been excluded?
Maia was still speaking. It s why we allow women the right to choose whether or not to marry. They cannot be forced or sold into it. The goddess will not permit what happened to her daughter to happen to any other daughters.
We were released shortly after that to attend to our chores. Io explained that the chores would change on a weekly basis and this week we were responsible for tending to the flower garden and assisting with gathering the annual harvest of the honey from the temple s private beehives.
I wasn t worried about the bees until one of them stung Zalira. She cursed as she swatted at her arm.
Are you all right? I asked.
It really hurts, she said with clenched teeth. She didn t seem to be the sort of person who would complain about pain, so I knew it had to be bad.
I saw a woman die from a beesting once, Io said, sounding as worried as I was starting to feel. Bees could kill someone? Her face and throat swelled up until she couldn t breathe.
It would just be the height of irony if I had survived everything that I had so far only to lose my life to a tiny yellow-and-black-striped menace.
You just have to be calm and unafraid, Ahyana said. They can sense fear and view it as a threat.
That is the opposite of how I m feeling right now, I confessed, and we hung back as Ahyana did most of the work. The bees didn t even seem to notice that she was there.
What did you think of class today? Io asked, her gaze also on Ahyana as she stood in the midst of bees, unharmed.
I couldn t help but be honest about it. I found it utterly fascinating. I ve never heard any of those stories. I m still trying to comprehend the fact that there are more deities than just the goddess.
Of course. There are so many. And she has parents and children, just as we do. Mortal lives are patterned after the gods lives.
Except for the children part, I reminded her.
She shrugged. Maybe with the sorrow and grief her own son has brought her, she s trying to prevent her servants from suffering the same fate.
That couldn t be completely true. I know there can be heartache from being part of a family, but there is also a great deal of joy.
Yes. Io had a faraway look in her eyes, like she was remembering something. I used to have that kind of happiness in my life. My youngest half brother was born when I was six years old. I adored him and we were so close, until my stepmother drove a wedge between us. He hates me now.
I had a hard time imagining that anyone could hate her. And I privately wished for a painful accident for her stepmother, a woman so horrible that she would try to hurt someone as sweet as Io.
After Ahyana finished with the honey, we went to the dining hall. The prayer at dinner that night was disconcerting. The priestess offering it was long-winded and the entire thing was focused on Theano s greatness. Again going against the structure Maia had taught me.
There was no way to tell what Theano thought of it with her face covered. It was almost like the priestess worshipped Theano instead of the goddess.
What is happening? I asked, but Zalira just shook her head, indicating that I should remain quiet.
Perhaps the high priestess was being given this kind of honor because she was the goddess s mouthpiece.
The goddess must hold her in high esteem, Ahyana added in a whisper, as if she had heard my thoughts. And so it seems that the other priestesses believe that we should also treat Theano with the same kind of respect.
Her words made me think that my adelphia didn t like the high priestess any better than I did.
Theano shifted in her seat and there was the unmistakable clanking of metal against metal. The keys. She always wore them around her waist. Io had told me there was a key bearer, but so far, each time I d seen Theano, she d had the keys on her person.
Including the night I d fallen through the roof.
I had come up with a number of ridiculous scenarios for how to get my hands on the keys. Sneaking into Theano s room late at night and stealing them. Although that wouldn t work with the patrols. I d get caught long before I even got close to her bedroom. If she ever did give the keys over to a key bearer, maybe I could bribe them to loan them to me briefly. But I was fairly certain that whoever I asked would immediately turn me in.
I considered asking Ahyana to train Kunguru and his associates to steal keys and getting them to go to Theano s room for me. But I would somehow have to buy a key from a metalsmith or locksmith and I would have to tell Ahyana what I was up to and why I needed her help. Not to mention that the ravens might be completely uncooperative.
Ahyana s allegiance was to the temple and the goddess. The same was true for all my new sisters. I couldn t ask for their help.
The only other path I saw was to be selected a Chosen, to become someone the high priestess trusted. A person who would have access to her office and possibly her keys. The eye was somewhere in this complex, or there had to be information about how to find it. But to become one of the Chosen would mean excelling in both training and my studies. Something that would take time.
The problem was that it felt like I was trapped inside a giant hourglass and time was slipping away from me far too quickly.