Taken aback by the unexpected news, Sábria stared at the Commander. Like Shirin, she knew exactly where Drethemere was located. “A Lady Knight from Dreyutha? Here? Do you think she’s the help Duke Ravenkind promised?”

  “I don’t know. It wasn’t my place to ask her business, so I brought her straight here to you. I’ll introduce you, and then I’ll arrange for some refreshments to be sent up. Judging by the dust on her clothing and the sweat on her mare, it looks as though she’s had a long, hard ride.”

  Sábria considered changing into the official tunic of her office but decided against it. She stood, pulled down on the hem of her tunic, jerked her sleeves a few times, and looked at Shirin, silently asking whether she was presentable. When Shirin nodded, she stepped around the table and waited for Shirin to open the door.

  Unlike normal circumstances, Shirin pulled open the door and preceded Sábria into the anteroom. She stepped to Isobel’s side and waited for Sábria to enter. “Lady Sábria, Arch Priestess of the Daughters of Elyon, may I introduce you to Lady Knight Isobel of Drethemere? Lady Knight Isobel of Drethemere, may I present Sábria, Arch Priestess of the Daughters of Elyon?”

  Isobel pulled her shoulders back, snapped her heels together, and bowed low. When she straightened, she held Sábria’s gaze. “My Lady Sábria. I come at the behest of His Grace, the Duke of Ravenkind.”

  Sábria couldn’t help herself. At the words, she closed her eyes and breathed out a deep sigh of relief. “Thank the blessed Goddess.”

  A hint of amusement showed in those cool, gray eyes. “She’s gotten that bad, has she? She was a handful to begin with. I can’t even imagine dealing with her now.”

  Shirin excused herself to arrange for the refreshments, and Sábria smiled at the woman’s forthright manner. With a wave of her hand, she invited the lady into her office suite. She indicated the sofa on the right. “You must be exhausted. Please make yourself comfortable. The Commander has gone to arrange for some refreshments, but while we’re waiting, may I offer you some Omune Chiaretto from Lord Reinard’s vineyard in Tuviste?”

  Isobel cocked her head, and when she smiled, those serious gray eyes twinkled. “I have to tell you, Lady Sábria, when Ravenkind asked me to come here and told me I was to be visiting the Temple, I never expected to be offered such a fine wine.”

  “I’m sure you noticed that my Blades don’t wear crimson robes tied with ropes around their waists, and neither do we eat dry bread and nearly rotten vegetables.” Sábria smiled, knowing exactly what people expected when they came to a temple. “We are a warrior sect, Lady Isobel. We worship the Goddess, but we don’t spend our days bowing and scraping to her. She expects us to protect womankind, and by doing so, we follow her edicts, thereby offering her our worship.”

  Sábria walked to the small bar located to the left of the door. She selected an ornately decorated bottle and two wine glasses. Pouring a generous portion into each, she took them to where Isobel waited in front of the sofa. Sábria indicated the sofa once again. “Please sit. You must be exhausted.”

  “My Lady. I would never dare to be seated while you stand.”

  Belatedly, Sábria remembered that in Dreyutha, no one sat until the High Priestess was seated. She chose to sit in her wingback chair, facing the knight. When Shirin reentered the room, Sábria indicated the bar with a tilt of her head. Please, Commander, serve yourself. We’re treating ourselves to the Omune Ciaretto.”

  Shirin politely declined. “Thank you, My Lady, but if you don’t mind, I’ll have my usual lemon-infused herbal tea instead.” She preferred nonalcoholic beverages when there was even the slightest chance she might have to defend the Arch Priestess. There was very little, or in fact, practically no chance that Isobel would attack Sábria, but alcohol slowed her reflexes, and she always wanted to be on the safe side when protecting her charge.

  Isobel raised her glass in a toast. “Commendable, Commander. Commendable.” She knew perfectly well why Shirin refused such an exquisite wine, and her estimation of the Blades rose another notch. She hadn’t known what to expect when Ravenkind had sent her. She’d heard of the Daughters of Elyon but had never paid them much mind. This would be a learning opportunity for her, one she would take back with her to Dreyutha. Not as a spy but rather as a knight who has acquired a little more education than she had when she began her quest.

  Even though Sábria hated to offer hospitality because she was anxious to hear what the woman had to say, manners dictated she offer Isobel a bed and a room to freshen up. “We’ll prepare a room for you in the Sanctum, Lady Isobel. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, the Commander has already set that in motion. Perhaps you’d like to freshen up before the refreshments arrive? Our bathing rooms are quite nice.”

  “No, actually, I’d like to speak with you, the Commander, and perhaps your Master Healer sooner rather than later. I’d like to explain what we believe is happening before Ailith discovers I’m in the Temple. Hopefully, she won’t recognize my battlemare in the stables.”

  “I don’t think she’ll even see her. She’s out behind the stables filling in a very deep, very wide ditch that she dug of her own volition because there was a leak in one of our pipes. Normally, we have Temple laborers to do that type of thing, but Ailith got it into her head that she was going to dig to the other side of the world if she needed to in order to find that leak. So now that the plumbers have fixed the problem, she’s decided it’s up to her to fill in the hole again.”

  The knight chuckled and rubbed her eyes with her thumb and forefinger. “This is going to be interesting.” She glanced up at Sábria again, “Anyway, I would appreciate you hearing me out sooner rather than later, My Lady.”

  “Of course.” Sábria rose and went to a door at the back of her office. She opened it and went inside, and Shirin indicated Isobel should follow. There was a light tap on the front door of the office, and Shirin went to answer.

  Once again, Mistress Fullman stood there with a cart full of food and two Blades standing by, ready to assist. This time, however, the serving girl had accompanied her as well.

  Shirin waved her into the office. “Please take that to the conference room and set up in there.”

  Mistress Fullman nodded and wheeled the cart expertly across the room to the conference room door. Even though the door was open, she knocked on the frame, and when she heard, “Come,” she wheeled the cart through with the servant not far behind.

  The two Blades made to follow, but Shirin stopped them. “Soirin, I need you to find the Master Healer and tell her she needs to come to Sábria’s conference room immediately. Marzet, you remain on guard outside this door. No one except the Master Healer comes in. You understand?”

  “Yes, Commander.”

  It wasn’t long before Master Healer Haria joined them.

  Mistress Fullman and the serving girl had plates set before Sábria and Isobel, and there were settings in front of two empty chairs.

  When they took their seats, Sábria nodded to Mistress Fullman. “Thank you, Jessen. If we need anything else, we’ll send for you.

  The dining hall matron took that for the dismissal it was, bowed to everyone, and she and the serving girl left, shutting the door behind them.

  Sábria introduced the healer to the knight. “Lady Haria Kestrasin, Master Healer of the Temple of the Daughters of Elyon, may I introduce you to Lady Knight Isobel of Drethemere.”

  Both women inclined their heads.

  Sábria smiled at Shirin, “Well, since I dismissed Mistress Fullman and the serving girl, would you mind doing us the honors?”

  Shirin rose. “Of course not, My Lady.” She deftly served each person a portion from all of the different dishes, and when she’d finished, she picked up the wine bottle and asked, “May I fill your glasses?”

  Isobel covered her glass with her hand, “As much as I hate to say it, I’d better not. Perhaps some of that infused tea you had earlier?”

  Shirin nodded, “Of course.” She turned to Haria. “And you, My Lady, may I serve you some wine?”

  “I’d like that very much, thank you. I never knew you were so good at serving, Commander, or I would’ve requested your presence at my table long ago.”

  “It’s something we all learned as pages, My Lady. Nothing I do on a regular basis, however. But, if you ever need my services, they are at your disposal.” She bowed her head with a self-deprecating nod.

  Isobel picked up on the term, page. “From your accent, I would place you from somewhere in Tuviste, correct?” At Shirin’s nod, she continued, “And I would further guess that you’re a member of the nobility.”

  “You have a good ear, My Lady. I was a member of the nobility, yes, however as you know, or perhaps you’re not aware, when we enter service in the Temple, we renounce any and all claims to our previous lives.”

  “I think we can dispense with My Lady. Please, all of you, call me Isobel. That will make things much easier from here on out.”

  After Shirin filled a new glass with tea for Isobel, she sat and Sábria called the meeting to order. “We don’t always stand on protocol, and I know you must be hungry. Please feel free to eat while you explain what it is Duke Ravenkind believes you can do to help Ailith.”

  Even though Isobel was famished—she hadn’t had anything to eat since early that morning—she started in on her tale. “First, perhaps I should tell you how I’m acquainted with Ailith. As you know, after she saved the Duke, he was searching for a way to improve her lot in life. He thought that perhaps, even though she’d never trained as a page or a squire, she could serve me. I enjoyed having her in my company as I traveled around Dreyutha, despite her mischievous turn of phrase.”

  The other three rolled their eyes and chuckled.

  “Well, that lasted as long as I was traveling as an itinerant knight. One day, I returned to the capital, and Queen Sophia asked me to the castle for dinner. She knew that Ailith had become my shadow and requested that she come and serve me as a pseudo-squire.”

  Shirin rested her forehand on her fingertips. “Oh, great Goddess.”

  Isobel grinned at her. “Exactly. The only reason she wasn’t spitted on the end of a spear by the time the dinner was over was that Queen Sophia and I and Duke Ravenkind had been pages and squires together, not to mention the fact that Queen Sophia has a wonderful sense of humor. Luckily, the King hadn’t attended the dinner, or I’m not sure we could have saved Ailith from herself. Anyway, to make a long story short, the Duke and I decided that perhaps being the flag bearer of a senior knight who quite often spends time in the company of royals was not the proper placement for the lass.”

  Shirin mumbled under her breath, “Now, there’s the understatement of the century.”

  There was definite amusement in Sábria’s eyes when she admonished the Commander, “Shirin.”

  Shirin shrugged and looked at Isobel, waiting for her to continue.

  Isobel had taken a bite of pork, and she quickly chewed and swallowed before wiping her mouth with a napkin. “Well, on to why I’m here. Are you familiar with the term, berserker?”

  That took everyone by surprise. Sábria answered for them. “Yes.”

  “If you don’t mind my asking, what is your understanding of what a berserker is?”

  “From what I’ve heard, it’s a warrior who basically goes insane during a battle and begins randomly killing anything and anyone in his path.”

  Isobel shook her head. “I was afraid of that. That’s not exactly true. Let me give you a brief lesson about a period of our history that we’d all rather forget. Approximately three hundred turns ago, one of a long line of our slightly eccentric kings decided he wanted to breed the perfect warrior. He sent one of his Master Healers up into the mountains to begin a breeding program. Well, apparently, the man was no fool, and he set out to create not only extremely strong soldiers with quick reflexes, but he also bred in a greater intelligence than is normally found in our Blacktip mountains.”

  She looked around the table. “That probably sounds condescending, and I imagine it is. I haven’t found the mountain people to be particularly dense, but the records do indicate that enhanced intelligence was definitely one of the traits he wanted in his berserkers. Well, the end result didn’t come during that King’s lifetime, nor the next. Another healer replaced the first when he died, but eventually, a soldier emerged who, when presented with the chaos of battle, became extremely focused. When under great duress, all of the fighting skills they’d ever learned came racing to the fore. They became killing machines.”

  She held up a finger. “Intelligent killing machines. In all of our records, there’s never been an instance of a berserker killing anyone other than the enemy. They have never turned on their own people. On the contrary, they seem to have a hyper-awareness of what’s happening around them.”

  Isobel took a moment to sip her tea and take a few bites of food. “Now, I talk about them as though there are many in our armies. There are not. About one hundred turns ago, rumors spread that the berserkers were exactly as you described, My Lady—a warrior who goes insane during a battle. The nobility and general populace began asking questions, such as, what would keep the berserkers from killing everyone in the kingdom? The King at that time became mistrustful of the berserkers. He felt that if they gained any power, they could overthrow the monarchy.

  “So, the healers returned to the mountains where they began reversing the breeding program. They sterilized all of the male berserkers they could find and, through the King’s edict, declared that no one from one line was allowed to marry anyone else from any other lines. In other words, even though they believed they’d sterilized them all, to avoid accidental breeding, berserkers were not allowed to marry other berserkers. Luckily, excellent records were kept, and today we find very few of them anywhere, including up in the Blacktip Mountains.”

  Sábria sat forward, “There must be a reason you’re telling us this, and I’m afraid to ask what it is. But I’m going to anyway. Did Duke Ravenkind gift us a berserker, and that’s part of the problem we're seeing in Ailith?”

  “Well, yes, in a way. After Ailith saved his life, Duke Ravenkind wondered how a fourteen-turn child could be in the middle of a chaotic battle, kill the soldier attacking her, and in the blink of an eye, recognize that another man was just about to kill her Duke. Without thought to her own safety, in the time it took for that eye to blink, she threw herself on top of the Duke, directly in the path of a downward swinging axe.”

  Isobel looked each woman directly in the eye, letting her words sink in.

  The three women were quiet as each pictured Ailith on the battlefield. Of course, Sábria and Shirin were familiar with Ailith’s injuries, but Isobel’s words had put what she’d done in perspective. To kill an attacker and, basically, before your stroke had finished, fling yourself directly in the path of a downward striking axe was an extraordinary act of coordination and bravery.

  When she’d seen that her words had the intended effect, Isobel continued. “He sent one of his people, Sergeant Ahearn, up into the mountains to find the historical archives pertaining to Ailith's birth. By meticulously researching her lineage, he discovered that a young woman, who happened to be descended from the Kethin line of berserkers, wed a young man who didn’t realize he was from the Geirin line. You have to remember, only two or three berserkers have been born, that we’re aware of, in the last fifty turns. Ailith was the result of that union.”

  She sat forward and pinned Sábria with her grey eyes. “But she is not dangerous, My Lady. I can’t emphasize that enough. Berserkers do not randomly kill. They are more than aware of their surroundings. They are hyperaware, and they are an asset to all of their fellow warriors fighting within their vicinity.”

  Shirin nodded. “That explains why a young shiv, that’s what we call our trainees, was able to kill three attackers and save one of our Blades.”

  “Exactly. But, when you sent your request for help to the Duke, explaining what was happening to Ailith, it struck a chord with him. But he wasn’t sure why. He only knew that somewhere along the way, perhaps in something he read or something he’d been told, what you described sounded familiar. That’s what took me so long to get here. He asked me to go into the mountains and find one of the healers there.”

  Sábria nodded. “Cori Lesfur.”

  Isobel sipped some of her tea. The fact that these women were listening instead of reacting spoke well of their intelligence and training. The only experience she’d had of temples and Priestesses up to this point had been with the fat, sadistic Priestess of the Temple of Finea in Dreyutha. She’d almost declined to help Ravenkind because of what she knew about that Order, but since it involved Ailith, whom she’d developed a fondness for, she’d agreed to come. “Indeed. Cori said that you might remember her.”

  “Remember her? The woman saved my life and the lives of every woman in my Temple. I’ll be indebted to her for the rest of my days.”

  “Well, she hoped you’d remember and that you’d keep that in mind as you’re hearing what we discovered in the history of the mountain people. She’s not only their healer. She’s also their historian and archivist. She has a room filled with parchment going back several hundred turns. The woman’s amazing. Anyway, when she read your letter, just as with Duke Ravenkind, it struck a chord. It took several days of us sifting through the records, but we finally found it. It was in the journals of the first Master Healer to be sent into the mountains. He described an aberration that he believed he’d bred out of the berserker lines. Since the condition hasn’t been seen in over two hundred turns, that was an excellent supposition.”

  Sábria put her head back against the chair and closed her eyes. “Oh, Blessed Elyon. Ailith?”

  Isobel couldn’t help the amusement that flashed in her eyes. “Ailith.”

  Haria was spellbound by what she was hearing. “I’ve read extensively about the breeding programs in Dreyutha. They fascinate me, and I’ve specifically studied the period of the berserkers. Can you tell us what the aberration is, or was…or…is, I guess, if Ailith has it?”