Page 173 of The Priory of the Orange Tree

The man was back. Ead smoothed her skirt.

“Yes,” she said. “Take me to her.”

When Cleolind Onjenyu had founded the Priory of the Orange Tree, she had abandoned her life as a princess of the South and disappeared with her handmaidens into the Vale of Blood. They had named their haven in defiance of Galian. At the time of his coming, knights of the Isles of Inysca had said their vows in buildings called priories. Galian had planned to found the first Southern priory in Yikala.

I shall found a priory of a different sort, Cleolind had said,and no craven knight shall soil its garden.

The Mother herself had been the first Prioress. The second was Siyati uq-Nara, from whom many of the brothers and sisters of the Priory, Ead included, claimed descent. After the death of each Prioress, the next one would be chosen by the Red Damsels.

The Prioress was seated at a table with Chassar. Upon seeing Ead, she rose and took her by the hands.

“Beloved daughter.” She placed a kiss on her cheek. “Welcome back to Lasia.”

Ead returned the gesture. “May the flame of the Mother sustain you, Prioress.”

“And you.”

Hazel eyes took her in, noting the changes, before the older woman returned to her seat.

Mita Yedanya, formerly themunguna—the presumed heir—must now be in her fifth decade. She was built like a broadsword, wide in the shoulder and long in the body. Like Ead, she was of both Lasian and Ersyri descent, her skin like sand lapped by the sea. Black hair, now threaded with silver, was pierced with a wooden pin.

Sarsun chirruped a greeting from his perch. Chassar was midway through a concoction of yogush and braised lamb. He stopped to smile at her. Ead sat beside him, and a Son of Siyati set a bowl of groundnut stew before her.

Platters of food circled the table. White cheese, honeyed dates, palm-apples and apricots, hot flatbread crowned with pounded chickpeas, rice tossed with onion and plum tomato, sun-dried fish, steaming clams, red plantain split and spiced. Tastes she had craved for nearly a decade.

“A girl left us, and a woman returns,” the Prioress said as the Son of Siyati served Ead as much food as he could fit on her plate. “I am loath to hurry you, but we must know the circumstances under which you left Inys. Chassar tells me you were exiled.”

“I fled to escape arrest.”

“What happened, daughter?”

Ead poured from a jug of date-palm wine, giving herself a few moments to think.

She began with Truyde utt Zeedeur and her affair with the squire. She told them about Triam Sulyard and his crossing to the East. She told them about the Tablet of Rumelabar and the theory Truyde had drawn from it. A story of cosmic balance—of fire and stars.

“This may have weight, Prioress,” Chassar said thoughtfully. “Therearetimes of plenty, when the tree gives freely—we are in one now—and periods where it offers less fruit. There have been two such times of scarcity, one of them directly after the Grief of Ages. This theory of a cosmic balance does something to explain it.”

The Prioress seemed to contemplate this, but did not voice her thoughts.

“Continue, Eadaz,” she said.

Ead did. She told them about the marriage, and the murder, and the child, and the loss of it. About the Dukes Spiritual and what Combe had implied about their intentions toward Sabran.

She left out some things, of course.

“Now she is unable to conceive, her legitimacy is under threat. At least one person in the palace, this Cupbearer, has been trying to murder her, or at least frighten her,” Ead finished. “We must send more sisters, or I believe the Dukes Spiritual will move toward the throne. Now they know her secret, she is at their mercy. They could use it to blackmail her. Or simply usurp her.”

“Civil war.” The Prioress pursed her lips. “I told our last Prioress that this would happen sooner or later, but she would not hear it.” She cut into a slice of muskmelon. “We will meddle no more in Inysh affairs.”

Ead was sure she must have misheard.

“Prioress,” she said, “may I ask what you mean?”

“I mean precisely what I said. That the Priory will no longer interfere in Inys.”

Confounded, Ead looked to Chassar, but suddenly he was deeply involved in his meal.

“Prioress—” She fought to keep her voice in hand. “You cannot intend toabandonVirtudom to this uncertain fate?”

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