Chapter 2
The earthy, hot tea burned Corinne’s throat as she choked it down, just as she always did on the first day of the week.
Fifteen years of this ritual and she still wasn’t accustomed to its bitterness.
She squeezed her eyes shut as she knelt before the little altar in her room and finished her prayer.
Guide me, Goddess Helaera, as I enter your service.
She stood once more and checked the ties at her forearms for the fifth time since donning her armor, ensuring the vambraces were secure.
She’d waited weeks to put this armor on, gazing longingly at it in her modest room at the monastery.
The gold-accented steel and the white hauberk with the sun emblazoned on the chest would mark her as the recipient of the highest honor in the nation of Ashera.
Today, she would become a Lightguard.
It would’ve been nice if they’d held the ceremony in the morning, though.
Not a single part of her was visible below her chin, and she would be sweating by the time Vera arrived to retrieve her.
She’d left her chestnut curls unbound after washing them earlier that morning, but they remained out of her way, falling just below her jawline and cut so they wouldn’t obscure her vision.
A knock at her door sent her heart beating so fiercely she thought it might rattle the armor.
“Corinne, are you ready?”
Corinne glanced in the mirror one last time to ensure not a fiber of fabric was out of place before grabbing her sword belt and fastening it around her waist.
Vera waited for her in the hallway, her dark brown tresses pulled back into a braid. She was dressed in a white tunic with a little sun embroidered over her heart. Her brown leather boots fell far more softly on the stone floor than the heavy steel that wrapped up Corinne’s shins and knees.
“Corinne,” Vera said, stepping forward to take Corinne’s hands, eyes welling with tears. “I’m so proud of you.”
Corinne couldn’t suppress a smile. “Let’s just get going, shall we?”
“Aren’t you excited?” Vera asked, crossing her arms as Corinne closed the door to her room.
Sunlight filtered through intermittent windows in the second-floor hallway of the dormitory, shining in Corinne’s eyes each time they passed one of them.
“I’m more excited about finally being assigned my post.” Corinne nodded as they passed two other Lightguards before arriving at the stairs. “What if I say the wrong thing during the ceremony?”
“You won’t. You’ve trained for this for years, Corinne. And I’ll pray to Helaera you get assigned near me.”
Corinne subdued the hope that Vera was right. “All posts are of great honor.”
Vera nudged her shoulder, her smile wry. “They are. You’ll get an esteemed placement regardless. I know it, Corinne.”
Corinne shook her head as they entered the main courtyard, headed for the tallest structure at the heart of the monastery.
The sky was a beautiful clear blue as it spanned above them, the sun bright and blazing.
Even in the foothills of the Asheran Mountains, where the monastery was nestled, the temperature climbed high in late spring and summer.
Vera held the door open for Corinne to step into the Great Sanctuary.
As they entered, joining a dozen or so others who stood down the aisle at the front, they fell silent.
The ceiling was tall in the sanctuary, the stone bathed in sunlight from the six massive windows.
Rows of wooden chairs sat neatly on either side of the aisle that led to the front, many of them occupied for the Anointing.
Corinne tried again to suppress her pride and excitement, forcing herself to focus on her steps as she and Vera approached the front of the sanctuary.
The five other Lightguard trainees who were being Anointed today stood in a line before a large marble altar.
A shaft of sunlight beamed down from a skylight in the ceiling high above, making the altar and their armor gleam.
Corinne took her place among them, to the left of a trainee named Oskar, and Vera left to join the Lightguards seated behind them.
The doors at the back of the chancel opened, tall and gilded, and the four Priestesses entered the sanctuary.
Everyone in the room stood. Once the Priestesses were before the trainees, a Lightguard behind Corinne instructed her and the others to kneel on the marble steps, and they did so in unison, heads bowed.
“We gather today to anoint six,” Mother Creita said, her voice echoing around the room.
Corinne nearly shook with anticipation as they began the presentation of swords. How many times had she imagined carrying that beautiful blade in her hands?
“Tia Niaron,” Mother Creita said. She stood before Tia with her sword held aloft, the golden pommel in one hand and the flat side of the blade in the other. “Today Helaera takes you into her service. You will serve the Goddess at the Boundary on the Gleaming Shore.”
An excited murmur ran through the crowd behind them as Tia lifted her hands to receive her sword.
Please, Corinne prayed. Of course she was the last in line, and it became more difficult to conceal her nerves as each trainee was Anointed and given their assignment. Finally it was Oskar’s turn, and they assigned him to the Monastery Watch. All posts are of great honor, she told herself.
“Corinne Anastos,” Mother Creita said, her voice booming above Corinne.
Corinne lifted her head, as was expected of her, and gazed into the High Priestess’s porcelain face as she presented the sword.
“Today Helaera takes you into her service. You will serve the Goddess as the personal guard to Prince Aryel Serra.”
Another murmur rippled through the crowd, one of uncertainty this time, and Corinne herself blinked at Mother Creita.
Personal guard to the prince? Since when were Lightguards assigned to the royal family?
The High Priestess gave her a hard look, and Corinne remembered herself, lifting her hands to receive the sword.
Her stomach sank, her lungs constricting as she took the exquisite weapon, hardly noticing its weight in her hands as she stood alongside the others.
“Light by Light and stone by stone…”
Corinne forced her lips to move, almost forgetting to recite the Creed alongside everyone in the room.
“I am conduit alone.
This I vow, to be Her hand,
And never will I seek a throne.”
Her breath was shallow as she placed her sword in its sheath at her waist, glad the movement was so practiced that she hardly had to think to do it in perfect synchronization with her fellows at the altar.
“Servants of Helaera, stand and welcome your new siblings,” Mother Creita said, her arms outstretched.
Corinne turned with her fellows as all the Lightguards behind them stood and crossed their arms over their chests, their fists tight at their shoulders.
“May we be Her hands and Her swords,” they said in unison, and each of their arms lit up with the markings of their magic—the sun’s magic. Helaera’s magic, bestowed upon them at birth and honed as trainees in the monastery.
Corinne had been born with such magic, same as the rest of them. So why was she being relegated to guard duty for a spoiled prince?
That wasn’t fair, though. She didn’t know he was spoiled, just assumed as much about anyone with an exorbitant amount of riches at their disposal.
The storm of emotion in her chest began to rage as the ceremony concluded and Lightguards came forward to congratulate her and the other new appointees.
Corinne felt as though she were watching the scene unfold from outside her own body as she plastered a smile on her face and accepted everyone’s well-wishes.
The Priestesses exited the same way they’d come, and Corinne tried her best to find some calming thought.
Stay the course. Be the Light. “May Helaera bless you as well,” she said to another Lightguard. Stay the course. Be the Light.
Where was Vera?
“Corinne, did you know being the guard for the prince was even an assignment?” a Lightguard asked her, and Corinne forced herself to focus on the woman’s fair face. She recognized her, but didn’t recall her name.
“No,” she said, failing to hide the strain in her voice.
“The royals have never had Lightguards in the castle, have they?”
“I wonder if it will be dangerous,” another Lightguard said.
“Perhaps,” Corinne said, hardly looking at them. She was lost in a sea of faces, but finally the one she sought appeared several feet away.
Vera approached her as the other Lightguards dispersed to either leave the sanctuary or talk amongst themselves, several of them glancing in Corinne’s direction.
“Come,” she said quietly, her voice soft and her eyes full of understanding.
She shepherded Corinne to the side exit of the sanctuary, and as soon as they were in the relative privacy of the little corridor, Corinne let the panic come forth.
“It’s all right, Cori,” Vera said, placing a hand on her armored forearm. Corinne hated that nickname, mostly because Vera only used it when she pitied her. “Just breathe.”
“Why would they…I thought I…what am I supposed to…?” Corinne forced herself to take several breaths, furious at her lack of control.
“I don’t know,” Vera said. “But it will be all right.”
“Do you think it’s because—?” Corinne couldn’t bring herself to say the words out loud, but Vera understood. Vera was the only person besides the Priestesses who would understand.
“No,” Vera said, taking Corinne’s hand. “Why don’t you go speak with Mother Creita? If that’s the assignment they chose for you, it must be important. There’s something they know that we don’t.”
It took Corinne a few more seconds and several more deep breaths to calm her heart and racing mind.
She nodded. “You’re right,” she said. “I’ll go find her.”