In Her Shadow(2)

The shouting grew nearer. Now it wasn't just the screams of the dying, but men with strange accents yelling orders. Now it was the sound of doors being kicked in, women and children – half dead and unable to fight – dragged from their beds.

The mother couldn't stop now. She had to make sure her girl was safe. She forced herself up the stairs of the abbey as someone below shouted for her to stop. But she didn't stop, didn't even look back. She would have run the rest of the way if she'd had the strength, but her body was give out. A leaky boat ready to capsize, no shipwright could fix her. The girl though, she had to keep going for the girl.

The mother dragged herself to the large wooden doors that separated the abbey from the light of day. She'd never heard of it being shut at night though, not that this was the first time in the last year the people of Ankshara had been forced to change the way they lived.

The mother grit her teeth against the pain of raising her arm, and smacked the door with the palm of her hand. Slow, methodical, rhythmic. Each knock brought danger nearer, but salvation, maybe, too. The soldiers were so close now, she heard the joints of their metal skirts rub together. One of them grabbed her by the upper arm.

"Come along," the soldier said. "No need to fight. We'll get some food in you."

The mother swallowed what little spit her mouth could manifest. "Slavery," she said, her voice a dry croak.

"Yes, but you'll eat."

She turned back to the door and slapped it one more time.

"Please, ma'am, don't make this harder than it has to be. We'll feed you and your child. You'll be slaves, but you'll live."

The mother jerked away from him just as the door to the abbey creaked open. In the doorway hunched the Abbess of Night, swallowed in her black cloak. The slightly sunken cast to her face proved the priestesses had eaten better than the people, but not much. "What is the meaning of this?" she said, her voice imperious, demanding despite the situation of her fallen city.

"I apologize for the disturbance, Abbess," said the soldier. "We'll just take her and be on our way."

"No!" The mother tried to push forward, past the Abbess into the abbey, but there was no more fight in her. She fell to her knees. The girl tumbled out of her arms to the ground where she lay, moaning softly.

"Let them go," said the Abbess.

"We had an agreement," said the soldier. "We leave your abbey alone; we keep slaves."

The Abbess frowned, the lines of her face shaded by the dark behind her. "Take the mother then."

"The girl–"

The Abbess spun around and snatched the girl up in one smooth motion, her cloak swirling around her – a void that absorbed the girl beneath it. "I take you, child, in the name of Eventide, the Night of Starless Sky, the Dark and all things done therein. May She hide you in Her shadow."

The mother rose to her knees. She'd done it. She'd succeeded. If the soldiers killed her now, she was alright with that. "May She hide you in Her shadow."

The soldier frowned. "Did you just make her a priestess?" he asked.

The Abbess, girl hidden beneath her cloak still, stepped back into the doorway, the shade of the abbey enveloping her. "Begone," she said, and closed the door.

Hands grabbed at the mother, lifting her to her feet. One of the soldiers threw the mother's arms over his shoulder and held her upright. The lead soldier stood in front of her, eyes narrowed as he took her in. "You've sentenced your daughter to a life of prostitution or thievery. Was it worth it?"

The mother wanted to cry but she couldn't. There was nothing inside her able to cry anymore. She wanted to sleep the eternal sleep, go into the eternal darkness from which everyone came and everyone returned. "Yes," she said in a willowy rasp. "Yes."





Chapter 1


Britta leaned out over the balcony, squinting her eyes to catch the movement of the people below. The smell of fried fish wafted up to greet her, along with the cries of fishwives desperate to rid themselves of the day's catch before the sun went down. It was Britta's favorite time of day, when the sun, setting in the hills over her shoulder, cast its glow on the water and turned the harbor a dull pink-red.

"New Moon," her handmaid said from behind her. "If they catch the sun on your face, you'll get in trouble. The Abbess doesn't like it."

"You worry too much, Weboshi."

Weboshi strode across the room. Her dark hair and eyes glistened in the flickering candlelight. She set a tray on the small table in the center of the room before going back to close the secret panel in the wall she'd emerged from. "It's blasphemy for the New Moon to see the light of day."

"Fine," Britta said with a sigh. It didn't matter. The Abbess of Night was old, ancient even. Soon, the Goddess would hide the Abbess forever in Her shadow. When that happened, Britta would become the new Abbess. Ending the taboo against sunlight was the first in a list of changes she intended to make.

Weboshi pulled the lid from the tray she'd brought, revealing a plate of food beneath. "Here, New Moon. You must eat."

"Don't call me that. I am a person, not a title. I have a name."

"I will call you whatever you want, so long as you eat."

Britta rolled her eyes, but picked up a strawberry from the tray. Weboshi sat down opposite her and watched her chew. Not so odd a habit, considering she was a survivor of The Siege. To this day, that's what the people of Ankshara called it, "The Siege." The same way one might say "the wound," because that's what it was. All these years later, the memory of The Siege was still as fresh, ripe and blood red as the strawberry Britta nibbled at.