Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky, #1)(26)

“My apologies for bearing dark news,” she said, “but Yatliza Carrion Crow is dead!”





CHAPTER 10




CITY OF TOVA

YEAR 325 OF THE SUN

(19 DAYS BEFORE CONVERGENCE)

Just as Cuecola values the sacred power of seven, so do the Tovans esteem the number four. This can be seen in both the Sky Made clans, numbering four, and the priestly societies of the Watchers, also four. The Watcher societies are healer, assassin, historian, and oracle, with oracle holding the highest seat in the hierarchy. I have heard that it is forbidden for the oracle to divine their own fate, but that seems unlikely. What use is a power to read the heavens if it cannot be turned to your own benefit?

—A Commissioned Report of My Travels to the Seven Merchant Lords of Cuecola, by Jutik, a Traveler from Barach



Murmurs of shock rippled through the crowd, and even Abah looked stunned. A matron murdered? Surely not, and on the same day an attempt was made on the Sun Priest’s life? It was impossible to see this as a coincidence.

But mostly Naranpa thought of a great aching hole in the heart of Carrion Crow. Their matron dead, one of the four seats of civil leadership vacant. Unrest was bound to follow. The cultists would latch on to it as a sign of something nefarious, likely blame the tower. The rest of the Sky Made must act, and act quickly, to assure the people that things would continue as normal, that whoever had done this would be brought to justice.

And the priesthood must help facilitate it.

“Dedicants are dismissed,” Naranpa said, seizing control of the meeting. “Priests, if you will stay. And you, too,” she said, singling out the servant who had brought the news.

It took a moment, but the dedicants complied, voices still raised in chattering disbelief. Haisan approached, joined by Abah, who to her surprise did not argue at Naranpa’s taking control of the Conclave. Iktan, who had used the cover of the dedicants’ departure to take the mask from xir impostor and hold it in xir hands, as if xe had been wearing it moments ago, joined them.

“How was she murdered?” Naranpa asked the servant.

“M-murdered?”

“Yes. Who killed her? Do we know?”

“N-no, Sun Priest. I mean… no. She wasn’t murdered.”

Naranpa stared, dumbfounded. “I’m sorry, what?”

“The messenger from Carrion Crow said that she was found dead in her bed. No one said she was murdered.”

Naranpa breathed a long, audible sigh, some of her spirit escaping along with her breath, she was sure. Did she feel relief that there was not another assassin loose in the city? Or was it frustration that for a moment she was sure that with Yatliza’s murder, she would be able to convince her fellow priests that Abah and her nasty implications about her family were completely out of line? Both, she realized.

“Tell us everything you know,” Iktan said to the servant. “From the beginning.”

The girl gulped noisily, clearly nervous, but stuttered out her story anyway.

Naranpa only half-listened. She knew she should be paying attention, but really, if the woman had died in her sleep, what was the point? The city would mourn, and she, as Sun Priest, would have to lead that mourning. The funeral alone would require days to prepare, and a star chart for the dead to be divined, but Haisan would find the right songs to sing in eulogy, and Eche, her protégé, who apparently wanted so badly to lead, well, she would have plenty of work for him, too.

The girl wound down with a breathy sob, and Abah, nodding compassionately, hugged her before walking her to the door.

Once Abah was back, she asked, “What do we do?” She wrung her hands, looking genuinely distraught.

“We prepare a funeral,” Naranpa said.

“But the Shuttering—” Haisan started.

“Oh, fuck the Shuttering,” Iktan countered, clearly exasperated. “Mortify yourself for the dead woman, mortify yourself for the sun. What’s the difference?”

“You speak blasphemy!” Haisan exclaimed.

“Yes, I do. And what will you do about it?”

“Enough!” Naranpa shouted. “Both of you.” She took a deep breath. “We need to work together.” She looked around the loose circle they had formed, and when no one countered her, she continued, “We will have a state funeral in four days, as is proper. Exceptions to the rules that govern the priesthood during Shuttering will just have to be made.”

“And what of the governance of Carrion Crow?” Abah asked quietly. “Who will keep them from rioting?”

“Does she not have a daughter?” Iktan asked.

“A son and a daughter,” Haisan agreed. “The daughter here in the Great House in Odo and the son, as I understand it, three years in Hokaia training to become her Shield.”

“At the war college?” Naranpa asked, curious. “Is he a beast rider, too?”

“Yes, I believe so.”

A man of war, then, although it had been a misnomer for the past hundred years to call the school at Hokaia a war college. It still taught strategy and hand-to-hand combat, but it had not trained the continent’s young to be generals of armies for a century. Under the Hokaia Treaty, the Sky Made were meant to send a limited number of their scions to train at the war college in the ways of warfare, but it was considered mostly ceremonial since the clans had not gone to war since the Treaty was signed more than three hundred years ago. The scions who went used their training to become armed escorts and bodyguards, those they called Shield, to the powerful matrons in their respective clans. Protectors more than soldiers, but still considered formidable.