One Hunter pushed off the stall door she was leaning against and stepped into Ailith’s path. “Well, if it ain’t th’ baby shiv with tree trunks fer legs. Think you’re somethin’ eh, baby shiv?”

  Having dealt with bullies her whole life, Ailith stared at the ground as she tried to move past as unobtrusively as possible.

  The woman, who stood half a head shorter than she was but looked tougher than nails, shoved her into the chest of a big, bay gelding.

  Knowing the Hunter meant trouble, Ailith called out to Ty in Dreyuthan. “Fie to th’ manor, Ty. Wait there fer me.” Thankfully, Ty was used to following orders because she immediately turned her string of horses loose and raced back to the keep.

  The Hunter who’d shoved her stepped forward and growled into Ailith’s face. “What did ya call me, ya fowkin’ Dreyuthan bitch?”

  If Ailith hadn’t been so tired, she might have seen the backhanded slap in time to duck. As it was, the woman’s knuckles rocked her head back, and she went flying beneath the horses’ hooves, panicking the beasts. One stepped on Ailith’s shoulder, and she rolled out of the way of the others as they raced back the way they’d come.

  The other two Hunters laughed as the first grabbed the front of her tunic in two fists and hauled her to her feet. “Wanna know what yer fowkin’ Blades have been doin’ to us, shiv?” Ailith had never had a Blade, let alone a Hunter, attack her before, so when the woman slammed her fist into Ailith’s belly, all she could do was try to dodge and block the blows as they came raining down on her.

  After what seemed like fifty hard fists and boots had landed, bodies started flying as first Sábria and then Shirin and Sela each grabbed a Hunter and sent them hurtling in separate directions. Sábria knelt beside Ailith and shouted over her shoulder, “Get them in that stall and hold them there until I’m finished checking her.”

  Ailith propped herself on her elbow and watched the Commander and the Senior Guardian herd the Hunters into a stall. The women were sullen as they walked through the gate on their own. She turned to see Ty outside the double doors working to gather up both strings of horses. With Sábria’s help, Ailith pushed to her feet, brushed off her trews, and looked at her Arch Priestess. “It’s all good, Milady. No harm done.”

  With that, she limped to Ty, thanked her, and took hold of her string of horses. Together, they led their charges to the other end of the barn, where the stableboy waited next to an open gate, his eyes wide with fright. “They...they go in here, Mistress.”

  Ailith reassured him with a friendly grin. “Ain’t no Mistress, here, ya chuckle-brained bucker boy. Just a fowkin’ Dreyuthan peasant what needs a place fer her horses to kip fer th’ night, aye?”

  The lad visibly relaxed and grinned with a row of teeth that had a few blank spaces, either from natural causes or a horse’s hoof, Ailith couldn’t tell. “That there gate opens onto a holdin’ pen. If’n they’s all fine bunched up, just tie th’ strangles on th’ rails and I’ll unsaddle ‘em and rub ‘em down. I be here all night an’ kin keek ‘em fer ya. No problem.”

  One at a time, Ailith tied the reins to one of two rails and stepped aside to let Ty do the same with her horses on the other. When she moved out of Ty’s way, Ailith accidentally ran into Sábria standing near a side wall, waiting with her arms crossed. The steely glint in her eyes was worrying, and Ailith raised her brows, wondering why the Arch Priestess had followed her after she’d told her she was fine.

  Sábria pointed to the gate and told the lad. “Leave us, please.”

  The boy pulled on his forelock and then bowed for good measure before running into the center aisle and disappearing from view.

  Not sure what she’d done to make Sábria mad, Ailith crossed her arms and stared at her boots.

  “Turn around.”

  Thinking she was about to be disciplined, Ailith’s head shot up so fast she nearly lost her balance.

  Sábria pursed her lips and worked to calm herself. She put her thumb and finger into her eyes and silently counted to ten before blowing out a breath and starting again. “You’re not in trouble, Ailith. You have a hoofprint on the back of your tunic, and I need to check to ensure you’re not badly injured.”

  Ailith’s mouth rounded in relief, and a whispered “Oh” was all she could initially manage. “No, I’m fine, Milady. Weren’t nothing.”

  Still trying to contain the anger roiling inside her over the fact that her daughter had needed to come running into the keep to drag her outside and lead her to the barn, where three Hunters were pummeling one of her shivs, Sábria simply pointed to the ground and swiveled her finger in the air, telling her to turn around.

  When Ailith turned, Sábria lifted her tunic and saw a perfect horseshoe print in the middle of her shoulder blade. Several boot prints and other bruises were also starting to form. She gently placed her hand beneath Ailith’s wrist. “Can you lift your arm?”

  “Oh, aye. It’s—” Ailith’s breath rushed out when she lifted her arm a bit too high and much too fast. Pain raced from the middle of her back up through her shoulder and down into the upper part of her arm. She wheezed, “See, I’m fine. Nothin’ that’s no been done before.”

  She was surprised by Sábria’s livid, ominous growl. “Not while I’m around.”

  “Well, no, but a warrior’s a warrior’s a warrior, Milady, and I can take a beatin’ from anyone and be just fine. Look, ya said they were gonna be fasched and to take what they hand out, so…I ken it’s important to ya to start their healin’, aye? Well, I’m takin’ it, and I’ll try to talk to ‘em and help ya make ‘em see that we’re not all bad, aye?”

  After slowly lowering the tunic, Sábria stepped around and stood in front of her shiv. She couldn’t believe what she’d just heard and simply stared into Ailith’s guileless eyes, wondering how she’d been so lucky to have Elyon bless her Temple with this young woman. “No, Ailith. I don’t want you around these Hunters. Xyda, Cladine, Maida, and maybe Harda, yes, but none of the others. Taking a beating isn’t what I meant when I told everyone to put up with the Hunters’ anger.”

  Ailith shrugged, “It’s okay, Milady. I can⁠—”

  “No.” Sábria practically barked the order, and when Ailith straightened, she added in a softer tone, “No, Ailith. I’m giving you an order that I expect to be obeyed. You’ll stay away from all of the Hunters except those I named. Now. Report to the healer’s hall and show Kara your back and that bruise that’s starting on your cheek. Understand?”

  “Aye, after I finish helping Ty with th’ horses.”

  “No, now.”

  “Milady, I don’t think it’s safe fer her to bring ‘em on her own.”

  “Neither do I. I’m assigning Soirin and Tarvin to help her. Now go.” She gently turned Ailith and gave her a little shove. With a sigh, she watched her walk away and then turned to Shirin. “Take them to the bailey and wait for me there.” With that arranged, she took Ty to find two Blades to guard her daughter and help her put away the horses.

  CHAPTER 20

  Satisfied Geller and Sela were seeing to the injured and the prisoners, Sábria asked Lord Ashden for a private room where they’d neither be disturbed nor overheard. Despite her flagging energy, her instincts told her that putting off the first conversation with the Hunters until they returned to the Temple wasn’t an option. Her go-to response had always been to deal with her problems head-on, and that’s what she intended to do.

  She and Shirin met with the remaining fourteen Hunters to explain what they’d learned about the nobles’ divide-and-conquer tactics. After servants had brought in enough comfortable chairs and sofas and the kitchens had provided food and drink, Sábria finally strode in and sat.

  Ashden had provided them with a well-appointed but seldom-used room in a back wing of the mansion. One darkly stained bookcase held books arranged by topic rather than size or color, both of which varied considerably. This made for a rather haphazard backdrop to the rest of the room’s furnishings.

  A large table with intricately carved legs had pride of place against the far wall. Five busts of the last five masters of Ashden Manor were displayed from one end of the table to the other. The face of the current Lord Ashden was so eerily similar to the big man that one couldn’t help but wonder whether the others were as remarkably faithful to their subjects, as well.

  A large, intricately woven rug took up much of the floor. That it was ancient was a given as there were wear marks here and there where items of furniture had rubbed away the pile. Far from being a snub to the Arch Priestess, the rug was a proud reminder of how far back the Ashden line had served Cibía and their Goddess. Typical to most mansions, shields and weapons hung on the walls, along with tapestries and mirrors placed strategically around the room.

  Sábria chose an overstuffed wing chair and sat.

  Taking that as their cue, the room’s other occupants set their plates and mugs on a sideboard and took their places on the ring of chairs brought in for the occasion.

  After looking each woman in the eye, Sábria turned her attention to the ones she hadn’t met more than two or three times. “I know all of your names from reports, but some of you I haven’t seen in turns. Forgive me if I’m not immediately able to put names to faces.”

  Geirin, the one who’d backhanded Ailith, sneered. “Maybe if ya’d done yer fowkin’ job and paid more attention, none of this would of happened.” She was one who looked more like a man than a woman, squarely built and imposing and not in the least bit soft.

  Prior to the meeting, Sábria had met with Shirin and Xyda, telling them that if any of the Hunters needed correcting, she’d be the one to do it. When neither spoke up at Geirin’s rudeness, the woman took that as tacit permission to continue. “I’ve heard every one of ya pissin’ and moanin’ about th’ fowkin’ Arch Priestess this and th’ Arch Priestess that, and now yer sittin’ there like a bunch of whipped pups.”

  “Funnily enough, Geirin, on this one point, I agree with you. Yes, I should have been paying more attention despite all that’s happened this last turn with the festival riot, people kidnapping my shivs, killing my Blades, the problems with the nobles, and other matters you know nothing about.” She turned to the other Hunters again, “And for that, I sincerely apologize. The fact remains, though, that I was deliberately kept in the dark about the abuse you were suffering. We’ve discovered proof that several members of the nobility have been plotting to bring down the Blades for quite some time.” She shrugged, “For how long, I don’t know. Unfortunately, their first step included severing the Hunters from the Blades and turning us against one another.”

  Sábria paused long enough to have them introduce themselves, and once she could put names to faces, a lengthy discussion ensued during which Sábria asked each woman to detail what had happened to them, what they’d witnessed, and whether or not they knew who had administered the beatings.

  While each one told their story, Hesta sat in a corner unobtrusively taking notes. Many senior Blades had privately questioned why the shyest person in the Temple would be tapped to come along on a mission like this. Her intelligence and note-taking ability were precisely why Sábria asked Shirin to include her on the list of those she specifically wanted.

  When they finished, Sábria took the time to tell the story from her point of view. There was a lot of angry grumbling when Falla’s role in the plot came out, something Sábria didn’t have the heart to stop. “Now, as I’ve already explained to Xyda, Harda, Cladine, and Maida, despite what you decided among yourselves, you’re still Blades. I’m going to go around the room, starting with you, Xyda, and have you tell me that as a Hunter, you are first and foremost, a Blade.”

  When several faces darkened, and some more grumbling ensued, Sábria continued, “If you persist in denying that fact, then I’ll be forced to strip you of your service to Elyon as a Blade, and you’ll serve out the rest of your life in a civilian capacity. Once we establish whether or not you intend to remain a Blade, I’d like to know whether you’d like to continue as a Hunter. No one will hold it against you if, after this nightmarish experience, you want to leave the position and resume your place at one of the Temples. Xyda?”

  Xyda looked at her fellow Hunters. “I’ve said this to all of you many times, but I was so very wrong when I tried to handle this problem on my own. I was wrong when I declared that Hunters were no longer Blades.” She turned to Sábria. “I’m a Blade first and foremost, My Lady. And I’d like to remain a Hunter.”

  Since Xyda had already spoken to them on the trip back to the Temple, no one was surprised by Sábria’s request. While some were reluctant, the first eleven agreed that Hunters were Blades, and ten of those eleven asked to be allowed to remain Hunters. The only exception was Maida, who hadn’t wavered in her desire to leave the Hunters and stay in Sarlogne to resume her duties as a Blade.

  When she came to the last three, Sábria caught and held each woman’s gaze. “Geirin, Meshi, and Neba, you beat one of my shivs. That’s an unforgivable offense in my book. My first inclination was to summarily remove you from Elyon’s service as a Blade.

  All three women’s eyes opened wide, and Geirin jumped to her feet. “That’s fowkin’ typical.” She jammed a finger in Sábria’s direction as she stared around the room. “She’s lyin’ about not knowin’ what was happenin’. Yer all fools if ya believe her.” She turned to Sábria. “Fowk you and all yer fowkin’ Blades.” She stormed toward the door, intending to leave altogether.

  Shirin and Xyda both rose and blocked her exit. In a calm voice, Shirin ordered, “Sit down, Geirin.”

  Puffed up like an angry bull, Geirin grabbed Xyda and rammed her against the door. “This is yer fault. Yer th’ one what brung ’em to us. Yer fault.” Her voice caught in her throat and broke on her last words.

  Xyda sighed and gently pried the big hands off her tunic. “I’m sorry, Geirin. I’m sorry about everything.”

  With a long sniff to pull air into her lungs and force herself to relax, Geirin turned around and glared at Sábria. “These two not lettin’ me go. That mean we’re yer prisoners, then?”

  “The three of you attacked a shiv, and for that, yes, you’re my prisoners. If you’ll take a seat, I’ll explain.”

  Since she knew there was no way to force her way through both Shirin and Xyda, Geirin grudgingly returned to her seat.

  Sábria continued as though nothing had happened. “As I was saying, normally, I’d remove you from Elyon’s service altogether. However, knowing all three of you were, at one-point, exceptional Blades who, as Hunters, suffered humiliation and beatings at the hands of people who should have stood with you, I’ve decided to make exceptions in your cases. While you’ll no longer be Hunters, if you choose to remain Blades, I’ll allow that.”

  Meshi and Neba looked up at that, but Geirin continued to stare at her boots.

  Sábria’s voice hardened, and her blue eyes turned to ice. “But, because you chose to beat my shiv, you’ll be on probation during this next turn. First, you’ll serve three full moons in a cell in Magistrate’s Court, separate from the other inmates. The next three moons will be served in the Temple doing menial tasks. After that, if I think you’ve reformed, I’ll allow you the final six moons of your probation on the streets as a regular Blade. You’ll all be placed on different shifts and won’t be allowed to work with one another. Meshi. Are you a Blade?”

  Meshi, a thin, sharp-faced woman with nondescript, shoulder-length brown hair, blushed. “Yes, My Lady. I want to remain your Blade. I’m ashamed of attacking a shiv, and before this meeting, I asked Xyda to take me to the healer hall, and when we found Ailith, I apologized to her.” Tears came to her eyes then. “When Geirin hit her, something inside me snapped, and I jumped in and helped her beat the shit out of someone who’d done nothing to me. Do you know what Ailith did?”

  Sábria did know, but she remained silent.

  “That stupid little shiv hugged me and said she was sorry about everything that had happened.” Wiping away her tears, she shook her head and fell silent. Shirin pulled a wipe from her pocket and handed it around the group until it reached Meshi.

  Sábria’s gaze softened. “I’m aware of that, Meshi. When you were a Senior Blade at Frayham, I received innumerable reports praising you for your abilities as a handler. That one fact played a big part in my decision to allow you to remain a Blade.” She turned to the second of the three. “Neba?”

  Neba sank down in her chair, crossed her arms, and glared out from under shaggy, black bangs that hung almost to her nose. “Swear to me by that fowkin’ ring on yer finger that ya didn’t ken what were happenin’ to us.” She held up her right hand. “They smashed me hand and laughed that I’d never hold a blade again. They smashed it, and if it weren’t fer Xyda what tracked me and come and found me in th’ trunk of a tree where I’d went to die—” She stopped when her voice cracked, swallowed, and tried again. “She took me to a healer. A good one. One what cost more silver than I could ever repay her and her wife. It’s because of her I’m here, and it’s because of her I’ll stay bein’ a Blade, but only if ya swear by that fowkin’ ring that ya didn’t ken what were happenin’.”

  Unsure of why she felt compelled to do it, Sábria followed her instincts and rose, stood before the Hunter, and held out her hand. “Cover the ring with your hand, Neba.”

  After hesitating for quite a while, she stood and grabbed Sábria’s hand.

  Neba stared anywhere but at her Arch Priestess, who said, “Look at me.” As soon as her gaze fell on Sábria’s eyes, heat flowed across their joined hands. Neba’s eyes grew wide with fright as the ring burned beneath her palm and she found herself unable to let go.

  Everyone listened as Sábria gave the declaration they needed to hear. “I, Sábria, Arch Priestess of the Temple of the Daughters of Elyon, twenty-third Sovereign chosen, marked, and blessed by the Goddess Elyon, Defender of the weak, Avenger of the lost, give you my word that I knew nothing of what was happening to you, my Hunters. My heart breaks for what you’ve been through, and I swear to hunt down those responsible and bring them to Elyon’s Justice.