The Ciphers of Muirwood (Covenant of Muirwood #2)(18)

Celia stared at her with great interest, her eyes wiser than her years. “Then I shall never leave,” she said, folding the wet clothing. “I always wanted to visit Comoros. Not anymore.”

“I only wish,” Maia said passionately, “that the rest of the kingdom could understand what we have here. So many live in squalor and suffering. The abbeys are a refuge from that state of desperation. But can there not be a way to bring the peace of the Medium back into the cities and towns?” She scratched her arm. “To spread the light so that others may enjoy it?”

Maia wrestled with her feelings. She treasured the time she had spent studying with the Aldermaston and his wife and her own grandmother. Had she been sent as a learner to Muirwood, she would have been given these lessons in dribs and drabs, but they were trying to prepare her for the maston test as quickly as possible. Her grandmother had explained that she was protected from the Myriad Ones while inside the grounds. They could no longer hunt her. But if she were to leave, she knew she would hear their whispers again and feel the tendrils of their thoughts beckoning her to embrace the ways of the hetaera. Her best chance for safety was to pass the maston test and receive a chaen. Wearing the chaen would allow her to bring part of the Muirwood with her to the outside world. How she longed for that safety. Never again did she ever want to be under the sway of such malevolent beings. The Medium would protect her if she honored her oaths.

The two worked quietly again, comfortable in silence as they finished off the load. Maia saw a young man walking in the misty field of purple mint, his hands tousling the stems and flowers as he slowly walked through them. He was the boy she had noticed in her first day of learner classes—the one who never spoke and always stood so aloof from the rest. He was tall and well-built, with broad shoulders and unruly dark hair with tawny streaks of gold in it.

“Who is that, Celia?” Maia asked, nodding to the young man.

She looked over her shoulder. “Oh, that is Dodd.”

“Dodd?” Maia asked, confused. “Is he a learner?”

“I am sorry, I keep forgetting you are new. I have trouble pronouncing his full name. Dodleah Price. Everyone calls him Dodd.”

“Oh,” Maia said, nodding. “I have heard of him. He has many brothers?”

“Yes, he is the youngest of the brood. His Family is from the north, as you know, and all of his brothers studied at Billerbeck Abbey. He came to Muirwood for some reason instead. As the son of an earl, he was quite popular his first few years here. But since his father was banished to Pent Tower, the Price Family is all in disgrace. The chancellor sent soldiers to arrest him, but he passed the maston test and sought sanctuary here. He cannot leave the grounds or he will be arrested by the sheriff.”

Maia nodded. “I am sorry for him. His father was disinherited and the earldom of Forshee was given to another man who is my father’s right hand these days. I loathe the man.”

Celia finished the cleaning and helped Maia stack the folded clothes back inside the basket. “I am sorry for Dodd,” she said. “He and Suzenne were going to marry.”

Maia stared at her in surprise. “Truly?”

“Yes, or so everyone said. They arrived the same year as learners. There was much bantering between them for the first two years. He would give some offense to win her attention, but she would rebuff and deliberately ignore him. When they were old enough to dance around the maypole, he shocked everyone by asking her, though she had widely declared she would refuse him. She did not, and the two danced and became close after that. There was even talk about her Family visiting his Family in Forshee Hundred.”

Celia lifted the basket and rested it against her hip. “When his Family met their disgrace, things changed between them. She stopped walking with him after studies. He passed the maston test, you see, so though he still takes classes, he is not really a learner anymore. He did not know she was a Cipher. It has been painful to watch. He roams the grounds, restless.”

“Of course he is restless,” Maia said, her heart aching for the young man. He had banished himself to Muirwood. His father and brothers were in Pent Tower, and their lives would be in mortal danger if they did not sign the Act of Submission. What a torture his life had probably become, and if what Celia said was true and Suzenne truly had abandoned him, his pain had to be all the more poignant. That rankled Maia to hear. She had betrayed Collier because the Medium had not provided a way to bring him with her. Every day she spent free reminded her of his confinement.

They left the shelter of the laundry and started back toward the manor house where the washing would be hung to dry. The mist kissed Maia’s face as they walked. Sometimes the fog lasted the entire day, but she could make out some brave wisps of blue sky trying to peek through before the sun set.

“He is following us,” Celia said, casting a glance over her shoulder.

“He is,” Maia said, observing Dodd’s stride increase. He wore a dark leather jerkin that covered a cream-colored padded shirt, belted at the waist with a thick, silver-studded leather belt. His hair was dark and unruly, his chin and nose a little pointed. It was a handsome face, but his mournful countenance sullied it.

He caught them without much difficulty and seemed as if he were about to pass them when he seized the basket from Celia’s arms instead, hoisting it onto one shoulder with a flexing arm.

“Allow me,” he said gallantly, his brooding expression softened by a kind smile. “You walk to the Aldermaston’s manor?”