Even though Xyda was taller, Sábria’s command presence made it seem as though she was towering over her. “You keep challenging me, Xyda. Challenging my authority over you. Maybe not in so many words, but it’s written in your stance, your posture, and in that steely glint in your eyes. Before we go any further, I need to hear you say one thing. What are you?”

  Xyda crossed her arms again, this time more as a defensive gesture than as an aggressive one. “I’m a Hunter, My Lady.”

  “And what is a Hunter?”

  “The Blades don’t consider us one of their own. We’ve been on our own for well over a turn now. More like almost two. You’ve known that. You have to have known.”

  “Answer the question, Xyda. And answer well because your life as a Hunter depends on what you say.”

  Xyda lowered her arms again and paced to the other side of the fire, giving herself time to think. A tiny spark of hope had her heart beating just a bit faster than normal. She could choose to fan those flames or snuff them out entirely by repeating what she’d said so many times before. If she denied she was a Blade, she knew, without a doubt, she’d no longer be a Hunter, either.

  Wanting Sábria to understand what was in her heart, she returned and let go of all the anger and hatred she’d locked inside. “Two turns ago, I believed with all my heart that I was a Blade. I don’t know exactly when that changed, but when the first hints of anger began to appear from other Blades, I didn’t know how to handle it. Their hatred began like a hissing snake. It was insidious. Unrelenting. It started out as whispers behind our backs. Then came the angry glares, and some began spitting on the ground as we walked past. “

  Sábria stepped so close their toes touched. “Put that out of your mind for right now. Right now, at this moment, this is what you need to know and believe with all your heart. You are my Blade, Xyda. I don’t care what other people have told you. I don’t care what’s being said in the Temples.”

  She emphasized her next words with sharp taps on Xyda’s chest. “You are my Blade. That is the single most important fact you need to understand. Yes, I’m livid you ran away when I ordered you to stay. Yes, I’m angry that you spoke disrespectfully to me. But more than anything, my heart is breaking from the fact that you don’t believe that despite everything, you’re still mine.”

  Sábria took Xyda’s hand and placed it over her own heart. “I hold you and your well-being in my heart. You, Xyda. If you take nothing else away from our time together, please understand what you mean to me as a person and as one of my Blades.”

  Xyda wanted more than anything to believe what she was hearing. The gentle beating of Sábria’s heart beneath her hand calmed her racing mind. She let her hand drop and pulled in a steadying breath. “What you don’t understand is that many of the Hunters were talking about leaving Elyon’s service. They spoke of running, of leaving Cibía, and they asked if I’d hunt them even if they ran to the furthest archipelagos. The only way I could convince them to stay was by separating us from the Blades.”

  Of all the things Xyda could have said, the fact that she’d precipitated the separation of Hunter from Blade rocked Sábria back on her heels. “You? The Hunters look to you for guidance, and you convince them that they’re no longer Blades? To what end?” She wracked her brain, trying to see the logic of it all. “What? Then it won’t matter that those they hunt despise them? As though, instead of fellow Blades, you’re nothing more than hired thugs who hunt down their prey and drag them back to the Temples?”

  Xyda’s temper flared. The color rose in her cheeks, and she stepped back to distance herself from the incredulity she heard in Sábria’s voice. Her own voice rose several octaves as her anger spiked. “And what was I supposed to do? Let them run? And besides, where were you when all this was happening? Are you seriously telling me that you had no clue your Blades had turned against us? From everything I’ve heard, you have your finger on the pulse of the Empire. Not only that, you’re the voice of Elyon. Surely the Goddess saw what was happening and told you? Isn’t that how it works? Aren’t you the all-knowing Voice of the Goddess?”

  Biting back her livid response, Sábria knew that turning this into a shouting match would do more harm than good. Pulling in a breath to steady herself, she took Xyda’s arm and turned her towards the fire. “Come sit with me, Xyda. There’s so much we need to talk about.” She made herself comfortable with her back up against the log, and Xyda reluctantly joined her.

  They were silent for quite a while, watching Ailith standing rock-still with her knife poised above the water, waiting for a fish to swim into her kill zone. Knowing that Sábria could have struck her down for speaking with such blatant disrespect and had instead chosen to de-escalate their confrontation helped Xyda calm herself. She bought some time to collect her thoughts by changing the subject. “I’ve met a few Dreyuthan mountain peasants. They’re a different breed altogether.” She allowed herself a small grin. “I can’t believe you took one on as a shiv. If the Hunters still exist when she becomes a Blade, it would be an excellent place for her. She has the skills and a natural climbing ability I rarely see.”

  Pleased that her silence had produced the result she’d hoped to bring about in her Blade, Sábria temporarily went with the change of subject. “She has the skills and the ability, but I’m not sure I’d ever encourage her to be a Hunter. Your life is a lonely one made even more lonely by these latest developments.” Sábria used that thought to segue back into their conversation, this time intending to keep a better grip on her anger. “We’ve rarely met, even though both of us have been Blades for a very long time. You’ve kept to the outer edges of Cibía, serving those Temples furthest away from Sarlogne. The times I visited White Cliff, you were nowhere to be found.”

  “That’s where my family home is, where I was raised. It’s where I’m most comfortable. I hate coming into the bigger cities, especially Sarlogne. I hate the Codpiece and the suffering of the people there, and even more, I hate the nobility. Unfortunately, there are nobles throughout the Empire, so I find it very difficult not to have some interaction with them.”

  Again, Sábria wanted to pull the conversation back to the main issue. “Since you and I aren’t familiar with one another, you wouldn’t know that had I known what was happening, I would have ridden out to every Temple—which is what I plan to do, by the way—and I would have put a stop to what was happening before it got out of hand. Had you come to me instead of convincing the other Hunters that they were no longer Blades, we could have stopped this in its tracks. You’re their unofficial leader, Xyda, and you should have either come to Sarlogne or written telling me what was going on. Did you go to any of the High Priestesses? Or did you just assume that they knew what was happening?”

  “They had to have known.” Xyda’s face clouded with anger.

  “Like you say I knew? Even now, you tell me I had to have known, when, in reality, I had no idea my Hunters were suffering abuse from their fellow Blades. And I’ll tell you this. If there are any High Priestesses who knew and did nothing or who were complicit in the abuse, they will no longer serve Elyon in their present capacity. Not only that, I’ll strip them of their Blade status and they’ll become the lowliest of the low within the Temples.”

  Xyda whispered, “How could they not have known?” She stared deeply into Sábria’s eyes. “How could you not have known?”

  “Don’t you think it’s telling that it’s happening everywhere in the Empire except here in Sarlogne? You’re a leader, Xyda, with advanced training in tactics. What does it tell you that the abuse is happening everywhere but here? I know you’re familiar with the concept of divide and conquer.”

  Xyda didn’t want to think that she’d been duped into being an unwilling part of some sordid conspiracy to breed unrest and distrust within the Daughters of Elyon. The thought disturbed her enough that she needed time to think about what Sábria was implying. Instead of answering, she returned her attention to Ailith, who’d just speared a trout and thrown it onto the rocky shoreline. “What did she mean, ‘my other friends?’ And who is this Quariss she was talking about?”

  It was obvious to Sábria when her words hit home. She knew the Hunter would need time to work through the implications of what she’d been worried about from the start, so again, she went with the change of subject. “I believe she’s your lover.”

  “My lover?” She huffed, “Better not let my wife hear you say that.”

  “She refused to give me her name, so I gave her one. I like her quite a bit. She was very fierce and quite adamant that I release you.”

  For the first time since Sábria had known her, Xyda actually laughed out loud. “You mean my wife? Your Quariss is my wife?” With an affectionate glint in her eyes, she nodded. “Yes, she’s definitely a fierce defender, I’ll give you that. And she wouldn’t give you her name?”

  Sábria shook her head.

  Xyda raised her chin while she thought about just how much she should reveal to the Arch Priestess.

  “Xyda. Now isn’t the time to protect her. I need to know everything if I’m to help her and the rest of the Hunters. You have to trust me.”

  After staring into the fire’s flames, Xyda silently spoke to Elyon, asking her what she should do. She’d always trusted her Goddess, even in the darkest of times. She jumped when Sábria put her hand on her arm.

  “If, as you told me at the Temple, you trust Elyon, then you can trust me as well.”

  The hand on her arm was comforting, but, after her recent experience with the Goddess, Sábria’s words unsettled her. “Can you read my mind?”

  With a squeeze of her arm, Sábria affectionately smiled at her Blade. “No, but Elyon knows your heart and hears your prayers. I’m the Voice of Elyon, and quite often, she gives me insight into what one of her Blades is thinking. Over the turns, I’ve become very adept at paying attention to the feelings that I used to attribute to a fanciful imagination.”

  From the time she first met Sábria, a spark of hope had kindled in Xyda’s heart. The more time she spent with her, the larger that spark became. Silently nurturing it into a flicker of a flame, she made the decision to trust the woman who led the people who’d tormented her and her fellow Hunters. “She’s estranged from her family and has made it a point to keep her whereabouts secret from them. If they could, they’d drag her back to their estates and hold her as a prisoner. Her father is a controlling tyrant and someone who’s taken personal offense at the fact that his daughter has openly defied him.” Xyda grinned up at Ailith as she brought two more trout and left them next to the fire before turning to fetch more sticks.

  “He sounds charming. She obviously has a warrior’s temperament. Is he the reason she never petitioned to join the Blades?”

  The muscles in Xyda’s jaws jumped, and her nostrils flared when she pulled in a deliberate, calming breath. “He is. He threatened to wed her three younger sisters to his bullyboy friends if she joined. She was at least able to challenge him in front of credible witnesses to publicly pledge to find them good, kind husbands if she stayed out of the Blades.”

  “And High Priestess Medelé did nothing to intervene?”

  “I doubt she knew. My wife isn’t someone to go running to others for help with her problems, so she stayed out of the Blades and became a sellsword instead.” She brushed off an ant that had found its way onto the top of her boots. “It was a real loss for the Blades, but she’s good at what she does, and her services are in demand from the various caravans.”

  “She must use some name with the merchants who hire her. Why didn’t she simply tell me that instead of outright refusing to name herself? That, in and of itself, aroused my suspicion.”

  Xyda wasn’t sure why. She put herself into her wife’s boots and tried to understand what must have been going through her mind. “I’m not sure, but there are two possible reasons, and they’re kind of connected. First, she worships Elyon. Second, she doesn’t mind giving a false name to the merchants or even to the other Hunters, but doing so with Elyon’s Arch Priestess would have felt wrong, somehow. Not to mention you’re well known for being able to spot a lie. But honestly, I don’t think she would have ever lied to you, even if you didn’t have that gift.” She lifted a shoulder. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I’m pretty sure she idolized you after you became Arch Priestess. Like most of us, all she ever wanted to be growing up was a Blade, and that evil bastard father of hers knew it. He killed her dream and laughed as he ground its dead carcass beneath his heel.”

  Sábria watched Ailith while she thought. “Does she accompany you on your Hunts?”

  “No.”

  “Then how was she here when you brought Girta in?”

  “I can only assume she came in with a caravan. I don’t know, honestly. What did she do, anyway? I can only guess if she heard you were holding me captive, and you know how word travels in any city or town.”

  This was where Sábria thought things might get heated, so she squeezed Xyda’s arm again and waited for the Blade to look her in the eyes. When she did, Sábria watched intently, wanting to know how Xyda would take the news she’d imprisoned her wife. “Unfortunately for her, she threatened to burn down the Temple if I didn’t release you. She had archers with flaming arrows standing by, ready to do just that.”

  Xyda leaned against the log with a groan. She covered her face with her hands and thought of all the consequences that might befall her headstrong lover.

  “I’m afraid she and her followers have been arrested, Xyda.” Sábria continued to watch her.

  Xyda sat up, and it was impossible to see what was going on behind those dark, brooding eyes. “I know her very well, My Lady. There’s no question in my mind that she was frightened and desperate. We both know of your power and of your relationship with Elyon. We’ve talked about it before, spoken about what she should do if you ever….” A wry smile quirked her lips, “Well, if you should ever get your hands on me.”

  Sábria rolled her eyes, amazed at how one of her Blades could have gotten so twisted around in her thinking.

  “Yeah, well.” Xyda grinned sheepishly before continuing. “I brought your shiv into your Temple, and you lowered the portcullis, so I can only imagine what she was thinking.” Shifting to get more comfortable, she tried to explain what must have been going through her wife’s mind. “Any time a Hunter goes into a Temple, if there’s another Hunter nearby, they wait outside to make sure the original Hunter comes out unharmed. There have been times, not a lot, mind you, but enough, when they caught Blades or Temple civilians sneaking out with the Hunter bound and gagged, hoping to get them to a private place to deliver a beating.

  At Sábria’s gasp of incredulity, Xyda nodded. “Aye, and since we pay people in the cities and towns to defend us, the Hunter waiting near the gate can usually summon enough people to scare the Blades into abandoning the first Hunter who went in with the runaway Blade or shiv.”

  “Blessed Goddess. I swear to you, Xyda, I had no idea. And what do you mean, you pay people in the cities to defend you against the Blades? That’s appalling.”

  “It doesn’t happen regularly. Maybe three or four times a turn, but it does happen. So, if there aren’t any Hunters close enough to keep watch, my wife and I have paid people in the cities surrounding the Temples to watch whenever a Hunter rides through the gates. We pay them out of our own pockets. I hope you’ll take that into account if and when she and her followers go to trial. Because of what we’ve been through, I think she was terrified that if anyone could trap me and kill me, it would be you, of all people, who would take me away from her for good.”

  For the first time in a very long time, Sábria was speechless. Without realizing how she got there, she was standing looking down on Xyda. With a quick shake of her head, she absently walked to where Jenx was building a watchfire they’d set later that evening.

  Jenx looked up, curious to know what Sábria needed. “My Lady?”

  With her mind reeling with the implications of what she’d just heard, Sábria didn’t register that Jenx had spoken. She turned and paced back the way she’d come. As she was wont to do when upset or stymied by something, she ran her hand up into her bangs and left it resting on her forehead.

  As she walked to the edge of the river, Sábria’s lips were moving as she had a mental conversation with herself. “There’s no way this could be going on under my nose, and no one has told me about it. Besides that, none of the High Priestesses would allow anything like this to happen.” She stopped in front of Xyda and lowered her hand as she stared down at the other woman.

  Xyda considered getting up but decided Sábria needed time to digest everything she’d just been told. If it was true that Sábria hadn’t known about the abuse, and that certainly appeared to be the case, she understood her bewilderment. She and her wife and the rest of the Hunters had had a full turn to come to terms with what had been happening. Realizing that she’d been a fool not to contact her Arch Priestess, she mentally kicked herself for all the damage she’d unwittingly done in the name of protecting the Hunters.

  The others had looked to her as their leader, and she’d done her best to protect them. It had been frustrating not having anyone to turn to for advice. She’d prayed to Elyon. Oh, how she’d prayed to her Goddess, and she wondered why she’d never answered. To her knowledge, Elyon rarely overtly meddled in the lives of her Blades. Maybe bringing Xyda to the Temple in Sarlogne was how she’d chosen to deal with the problem.

  Xyda knew in her heart there was no way Elyon would intentionally allow a shiv to kill herself to further her own goals. But there’d been a point after she’d struggled to bring the shiv up the cliff face that she’d thought of taking the body to Frayham instead of Sarlogne. As she thought about it, she realized that there’d been something driving her towards Sarlogne even though she hated the capital city with a vengeance.