Thear: Oral: Running to North Square
Nov. 22nd, 2016 06:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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kawebbwritingOrla wrapped an arm around her waist as she looked at the priest of Anubis who had led the winter solstice ritual. He wasn’t a true priest, but one of the many fake priests who had no connection to his deity, and for that reason she didn’t think he had the right to lead a ritual. Unfortunately there was nothing she could do about it. Artemis had told Orla, several times, that she needed to keep her head down and not draw attention to herself in order to keep herself safe. As the only person in her village who knew of the existence of North Square, and had some warning that change was coming soon, she had to be there for anyone who might need her. It just wasn’t an easy thing to do.
The priest of Anubis was one of the leaders of a Tein-Igni movement that was said to have been created as a way of protecting their race from the Dorma supremacist movement. Orla understood their point of view. She didn’t want to live under the thumb of the Dorma, and their image of Herne, but the Anubis movement was no better. They looked at the Dorma and the Uisdro as though they were less than the Tein-Igni, even though the Uisdro had been their trading partners for a very long time.
“Good morning, Orla,” a voice said from beside her, making her jump.
Shaking her head, Orla turned to look at Yannis. “Make some noise next time.”
He held out a mug. “Peace offering.” He smiled at her. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Orla smiled back. “I know, Yannis.” She took the mug gratefully. “I was just thinking.”
“About?”
“Priests, priestesses, and why I have to keep my mouth shut.” She sighed. “I don’t like being in this position.”
“If I could have taken the burden for you I would, but you are the chosen one.”
Rolling her eyes, Orla sipped her soup. “I am not the chosen one.”
“How many true priests and priestesses are there?”
“There are currently ten deities and each has one priest and one priestess, so twenty, plus the priest and priestess of Hecate.”
“Do you know who they are?”
“Not yet, Yannis, but I will do before we have to leave for North Square. The more I know the more people I put in danger if someone finds out what I am.”
“Have people really died because they’re a true priest or priestess?”
“Artemis tells me that they have, but I have no way of knowing for sure.” Orla looked at Yannis curiously. “Why are you asking so many questions?”
“My cousin, Logan, is one of the High Priests, and I worry about him because I think he might be a true priest.”
Orla thought for a moment. She could remember Logan, but she hadn’t seen him for a long time and didn’t know him at all well. “It’s possible, but there’s no way I can know. What makes you think he might be a true priest?”
“He’s changed so much since he entered the Residence. I saw him last month, when he came back to visit Auntie, and I almost didn’t recognise him. The only thing he still talked about in the same way was Anubis.”
“The Residence is said to be a poisonous environment for all the Highs. If he is a true priest, and he has been so badly affected by his situation, then he might not be a priest for much longer.” She looked at Yannis, feeling bad for what she was about to say. “We need to be very careful about the people who know what we are, so if he’s a danger to the other true priests and priestesses, or Anubis feels uncomfortable having Logan as his priest, he might make the choice to walk away.”
“Is that likely?”
“Yannis…” Orla sipped her soup, giving herself a moment to try to work out the answer to the question. “I don’t know. It’s not something I can know and it’s a choice for Anubis.” She reached out and squeezed Yannis’ shoulder. “Normally a deity won’t turn their back on a person, even one of the fake priests, so I think it’s unlikely, but at the same time we’re in a situation that means we have to be especially careful.”
“Why did you tell me that you were the priestess of Artemis?”
“I trust you.” She smiled. “If I didn’t then I would never have said anything to you because you could have put me in danger.”
“I still could.”
Orla looked at Yannis. Their eyes met and she found herself wondering whether he really would tell someone, maybe their town’s priest of Anubis, that she was a priestess of Artemis. It wasn’t something she believed he would do, but hearing him say those words, that he still could tell someone what she was, filled her with an inexplicable terror. She couldn’t see any emotions in his eyes and that really didn’t help.
“Why would you?” Orla was surprised how calm her voice was when she felt so scared. “We’ve been friends for a very long time.”
“We have, haven’t we?” Yannis smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I guess the only reason I would tell anyone is if I felt it was better for the Tein-Igni to know who you are.”
“The Tein-Igni?”
“Our race is very important.”
“All the races are important.”
“They’ll destroy us, Orla.”
Orla shook her head. “I really don’t think that either the Uisdro or the Dorma could destroy us, Yannis, even if they wanted to, which is something I really doubt. I’m not saying that what they want is really any better, but using the word destruction is slightly over exaggerating things.”
“We won’t be the Tein-Ingi any longer, so is there really much difference between saying that they are out to destroy us and what they are actually going to do.”
“I agree that it’s going to be difficult and our races’ identity may change slightly, but I would say there is a lot of difference between change and destruction.” Orla sipped her soup again, hoping she was getting through to him. “It might be good for us to change.” She looked over at the group of people who surrounded the priest of Anubis. “Life on Thear would be much easier if all the three races worked together. We’re all very different and that’s good, because it means we can learn from them while they’re learning from us.”
“What do you think we could learn from the Dorma?” Yannis asked, drawing Orla’s attention back to him.
“Practicality,” Orla replied. “We’re very good at knowledge and learning, but we have very little practicality. The Dorma grow almost all of Thear’s food, so almost everything we get from the Uisdro technically comes from the Dorma. I think it would be useful for us to have our own food supplies.”
Yannis nodded. “How about the Uisdro?”
“I’ve always thought that it would be great to learn how to fish.” Orla smiled. “I don’t know how good I’d be, but I’d love to try. They also seem to be good at getting along with other people, even if they don’t necessarily like them, which is something we could do with.” She bit her lip. “What do you think life will be like if we do end up in the dangerous position of not being able to trade with the Uisdro?”
“Difficult,” he replied, sighing, “but we should never have relied on the Uisdro as much as we have. You are right to say that we could learn from the other races. I just think we should have already learnt from them and be working towards being able to be self-sufficient as a race. That’s something I don’t think we’ve ever had to do, so I’m terrified that if the time comes that we do have to be self-sufficient we’re going to fail.”
Biting her lip, Orla looked down into her soup, thinking about how the vegetables in it had been grown by the Dorma and traded to the Tein-Igni by the Uisdro. “Yannis, have you ever thought about living in a mixed blood town?”
“It did cross my mind when I realised what was coming. I just don’t think they’re going to be permitted to exist if the Anubis movement does really start taking full control of the Tein-Igni.”
“They’re going to have to fight the Bast movement.”
“The Bast movement? I’ve never heard of them before.”
“Most people haven’t. Every one of the races has two deities they think of as their deities, and what’s happened is that the people of the three races have split into three main groups. One is a patriarchal group, led by the male deity, like the Anubis movement. The second is a matriarchal group, following the female deity, which in our race is the Bast movement. Finally there are those people who don’t want to be a part of either group because they feel they’re a part of the Thearan movement, which wants all three of the races to work together.”
“Which group would you say you’re part of?”
Orla smiled. “The Thearan movement. I would love to see all three of the races working together, but I don’t think it’s possible.”
“Surely that would lead to all three of the races being destroyed.”
“What do you mean by destroyed?”
“The Tein-Igni wouldn’t exist any longer because everyone would, eventually, be Thearan, as you put it. Breeding with the Uisdro and the Dorma would change us into the Teindro or the Dorigni or something like that.” Yannis sighed. “I’m not sure that’s what I want. I like being Tein-Igni. I like knowing that both my parents are Tein-Igni, that all four of my grandparents are, and I don’t want to think that somewhere in my bloodline there is an Uisdro or a Dorma, because it changes who I am.”
“So you wouldn’t marry someone with a mixed bloodline?”
“I don’t think I would.” He looked at Orla and she could see that lack of emotion in his eyes again. “If I had a choice I would much prefer to marry someone I know to be pure Tein-Igni as far back as we can find out. Maybe that makes me a bad person, but it’s how I feel and I’m happy with that.”
“What would you do if your wife had a child that was obviously mixed heritage?”
“I would love for there to be somewhere I could take that child to be raised by someone who would love him or her for who they were, but I don’t think I could bring the child up myself.”
Orla raised an eyebrow, because that was the last thing she thought he would say. It made her realise that he really had changed. For the first time she didn’t feel safe around him. There was no knowing what he would do and she made the decision that she would be best off leaving town as soon as possible. “Are you a part of the Anubis movement?” she asked, trying to seem normal while she planned how she would leave and where she would go.
Yannis shook his head. “I don’t believe in their Anubis, so I wouldn’t ever be a part of that religious group, even though I do agree with some of their aims. The Tein-Igni needs to stay pure, but I wouldn’t say that we should force that belief on everyone. Some people do want to marry outside of our race and I don’t think they should be stopped.”
“What about Logan? Does he have any thoughts on the subject?”
“Logan is religious and he thinks that religious freedom is more important than anything else, as long as it’s his sort of religious freedom.” Yannis smiled. “My aunt is a very deep believer in the fact that Bast and Anubis belong to the Tein-Igni, so as far as Logan is concerned there could never be a Dorma priest of Anubis, or anything like that, and that deeply affects how he believes the world should be. If it wasn’t for that I would say that Logan is Thearan.”
Orla nodded, remembering the lessons her father had given her about religion. If it wasn’t for Artemis she could easily see herself believing the same things that Logan believed, because that was what her parents believed, and she knew a lot of the Tein-Igni believed the same thing. A few didn’t believe in any of the deities, which meant their view of Thear was very different to the other Tein-Igni and the other two races.
“What does your mother think?” Orla remembered Yannis’ mother and had always respected her, even though she didn’t always agree with her. “I remember her regularly visiting the temple of Anubis when we were younger.”
“She still does now. Father and Mother regularly argue about how best to protect the Tein-Igni, especially from the Dorma supremacist movement. Mother believes that the Anubis movement is the best thing for the Tein-Igni, but Father wants to put an end to their group because he doesn’t think that any of the priests are honestly connected with Anubis.”
“He’s too late.” Orla looked over at the group around the priest again. “The Anubis movement has a lot of powerful followers and no one is going to stop them from doing what they believe is right for us, any more than I think anyone can stop the Bast movement.” Her eyes met Yannis’. “Or the movements in the other two races, and I can see Thear being divided between the different groups.”
“What do you think will happen to the Thearans of that happens?”
She shrugged. “We’ll find somewhere.”
North Square was on the other side of the country to where Orla’s village was, so that was going to make the journey more difficult than she would like. If it wasn’t the winter solstice then she would have taken the coach and tried to hide herself in amongst the other Tein-Igni people travelling, but she knew she shouldn’t wait, which meant she was going to have to ride. Riding wasn’t something she much enjoyed, and it would draw the attention of people who might be watching. She hated feeling paranoid, as though someone was planning to get rid of her, even though it made sense to be under the circumstances.
“What are you thinking about?”
Orla used the soup again as a way to give herself a moment to think. “Anubis, and what he’d think of the priests. I agree with your father, because I can’t see Anubis being a deity who wants control over a race of people, any more than I can see Herne being like that.” She sighed. “Maybe I’m just weird.”
Yannis shook his head. “I don’t agree with Logan’s belief that each of the deities, apart from Loki, belong to a specific race. They should work together because they all have different priorities and I think that it is important to have a Thearan religion, even if I don’t agree with mixing the races together.”
“Having a Thearan religion wouldn’t stop some people from choosing a deity that they believe is better than the others. You could still end up with this sort of situation, but it’s possible the movements would be in the minority rather than the majority, and then people would feel less like they have to pick one specific deity to follow.” Orla sighed. “It really doesn’t help that all the priests and priestesses seem to be working towards their own aims rather than the aims of their deities.”
“If you weren’t the priestess of Artemis which deity would you choose?”
“I honestly don’t know, Yannis. Father brought me up to believe the same thing that Logan does, that Bast and Anubis are Tein-Igni deities rather than Thearan. I doubt in that sort of situation I would even know about the Bast movement, so in this town it wouldn’t really be a choice.”
Yannis nodded. “I remember what you were like before Artemis chose you to be her priestess. You were a very different person back then, so I’m glad that she did choose you.”
“Even though you don’t believe in her?”
“Orla, I know, without any doubt, that you are connected with a deity, and I believe you when you say that it’s Artemis.”
“Do you honestly think that my connection to Artemis makes me a danger to the Tein-Igni?”
Yannis smiled. “Personally I think all of the deities are bad for the Tein-Igni, but I would say that you are harder to understand. You have much more information that everyone else does because of that connection and I think you should share it with us all, although I do understand why you don’t.” He looked at her. “When we were younger I looked up to you, because of what you are, and I still do now, but I have my own beliefs. This morning I told Father about you.” He sighed. “I don’t know what he’s going to do with that information, but I did it because I felt I had to.”
Orla nodded. There really wasn’t anything else she could do. Biting hard on her lip she forced back the tears that were threatening, because Yannis had been her best friend and the person she trusted with everything, and knew she had even less time that she needed. Going home was impossible, even though she wanted to tell her parents what was happening. Trying to seem calm she put the mug down.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t, Yannis, please. It’s done now.”
“What are you going to do?”
Turning her back on him, Orla wiped a tear off her cheek. “Tell my parents what you did.”
Artemis had been right, but that wasn’t really a surprise. Orla was just thankful that she had taken Artemis’ advice and written letters for both her parents, as well as the few people she truly believed might need to travel to North Square. When Artemis had told Orla that Yannis might, under certain circumstances, betray her, she hadn’t wanted to believe that it was possible. They had been friends for a long time and she couldn’t imagine what circumstances would lead to him telling someone about her, but it had happened, so all she could do was put her hurt to the back of her mind. She had to focus on leaving.
Orla walked away from her oldest and closest friend, trying to seem normal. She couldn’t look back to see if he was watching her. Instead she needed to seem like she truly was heading home, rather than going to the stables. Of course if anyone else saw her heading that way on the winter solstice they might stop to ask her why she was going that way, because she’d never liked horses enough to spend all her free time around them. She was much more likely to be seen in the library. Often she spent afternoons sitting in the corner, going through books on subjects that interested her and copying down anything she thought might be important. Sighing, she started down the path that led to her home, but knew she couldn’t go back. Not when someone might be there waiting for her. Everything had to be left behind.
When Orla knew she couldn’t be seen by anyone who might have been following her she turned off the path, and made her way towards the stables. As she walked she thought of people she knew who might be in the stable, so she could pretend she was looking for them if someone asked. There were a few people she knew, in passing, who often worked in the stables, but they weren’t people she knew well enough to go looking for, and she finally came to the conclusion that there really was no reason for her to go to the stables. Other than the one she had.
The stables seemed further away than normal. It was understandable, because Orla was waiting for someone to stop her and ask where she was going. When she finally got there she couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief. She stepped into the stables, hoping that no one was in there, and was disappointed, but unsurprised, to find that one of the boys she’d shared a class with once standing in the stables. For a few moments she watched as he brushed one of the horses.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said, without looking at her.
Orla shook her head. “Why would you be waiting for me?”
“You’re not the only one here to have a connection with one of the deities.”
“They told you to wait in the stables for me.”
He nodded, still focusing on the horse. “If you weren’t here soon I was going to leave without you, but I never have been very patient.” Shrugging, he glanced over at Orla. “Pick a horse and then we can leave. Your bag is in the corner.”
“My bag?”
“I took it from your house.”
All Orla could do to begin with was stare at him. She didn’t know him and yet he had gone into her house, taken her bag, and filled it with her things. It was hard to work out whether she should be angry and feel slightly violated or grateful that he had taken the time to do it. As she attempted to work it out she walked over to her bag because she didn’t know what a man would pack for a woman, especially when he didn’t know the woman he was packing for.
Orla smiled when she saw her favourite pair of trousers, and she was glad to see that he had, somehow, found her notes and packed them. She closed it, turned to look at him, and found herself at a loss for words, because she still didn’t know how she felt. Having her things was good, because she would have missed them, but that didn’t change the fact he’d gone into her home without her permission.
Before Orla could find the right words he said, “You need to hurry up.”
Nodding, Orla picked up her bag. It was good to have an excuse not to talk to him, even though she felt like she should at least thank him. He didn’t have to get her bag for her, and having her notes did make her feel slightly better, but knowing that anyone could get into her home without permission terrified her. Pushing her thoughts, and her worries, to the back of her mind, she started looking at the horses. She had no idea which one she should pick, so in the end she chose the one that seemed to be smiling at her.
“North Square is about five days’ ride away, as long as we don’t need to stop too often,” he said, making Orla jump. “How often do you ride?”
“About once every six months,” Orla replied, staring at the horse and wondering how she was going to spend five days on top of it without going insane.
“Great…” Gently he pushed Orla out of the way and began putting things on the horse that Orla had no understanding of. “What did you plan to do, exactly?”
“Get a horse and ride to North Square.”
“Were you going to ride bareback or were you going to saddle the horse?”
Orla stared at the back of his head. “I don’t know how to saddle a horse.”
“I thought so.” He sighed. “No wonder I was told to wait for you.”
“We all have different priorities.”
He turned to look at her. “I didn’t mean to insult you, but there is no way you would have got to North Square alone.” Shaking his head, he walked over to the horse he’d been brushing. “Why don’t you try mounting? If you need help then use the bucket on the floor.”
Mounting a horse was one of the few things Orla did know how to do. She didn’t know much about the saddle or the other bits that he had put on the poor horse, but that didn’t mean she was totally ignorant about horses. There had just been no real reason to learn about everything, although she wished she had, because being with him made her feel stupid and she didn’t like feeling stupid. Sighing, she stood on the bucket, because it would make things easier, and swung her leg over the horse.
Once Orla was on the horse all she wanted to do was get off again. Having a breathing animal underneath her made her feel weird, but she knew she needed the horse if she was going to get to North Square. Gently she patted the top of the horse’s head and looked over at her new companion. She hated not remembering his name, because she felt like she should remember it. There had been something about him and… she sighed. It wasn’t as though she felt she could ask him the question, not when it was obvious to her exactly what he thought of her, and keeping her mouth shut was probably the best thing she could do.
When he was finally on the horse he looked at Orla. Their eyes met for a second before he lifted the reins and started riding towards the stable door. Orla followed him, because she owed him already for all the help he had given her. She kept looking at him, trying to at least remember which class they had been in together. It had been some time ago, when they were both still under twelve she thought, because she didn’t remember him being quite so tall. Most Tein-Igni males reached their full height by the time they were twelve, so it made logical sense.
Tears rolled down Orla’s cheeks as she thought of what she’d left behind. Her parents would be worried about her, because she hadn’t stopped to tell them that she was leaving. She should have done. They didn’t deserve to be kept in the dark, but she knew that not telling them was probably keeping them safer than they would have been in she had told them. It would have taken hours to even get them to believe that she was really the priestess of Artemis, because her father believed that a Tein-Igni priest or priestess would only be chosen by Bast or Anubis, and hours were something she didn’t have.
Of course Orla didn’t know for sure that Yannis’ father would have hurt her, but it was safer to leave. Artemis had told Orla that if one person she didn’t trust found out about who she was then she would have to leave. Priests and priestesses had ended up dead, and dying wasn’t something Orla really wanted to do. That didn’t stop her from feeling like she had let her family down by running for her life.
“Why were you leaving?” she asked, needing to take her mind off her problems.
“I wanted to.”
“Aren’t you leaving behind family?”
“When my mother died in childbirth my father passed me onto my uncle because he couldn’t cope. I haven’t seen my father since. My uncle already had three children, so I was just a burden. He’ll be glad that I’m gone.”
“That’s…” Orla shook her head. “I can’t imagine how difficult that must have been.”
“I don’t need your pity.”
“Who is your deity?”
“Epona.”
“Is that why you’re so good with horses?”
“Possibly.”
Orla sighed. “My deity is Artemis.”
“I really don’t care.”
“Maybe you don’t, but I feel like I should at least talk to you. You did help me.”
“The best thing you can do is not talk to me. I’d much rather be alone, but Epona told me to wait for you because you’d need my help, so that’s what I did. I don’t really want to answer your questions or talk to you about anything.”
Nodding, even though he couldn’t see her, Orla wrapped her arms around herself once more and tried not to think too much about what had happened. It was hard. Yannis had betrayed her, so she’d had to leave behind everything she knew. She knew she would have to leave at some point, but she’d always believed that she would have had time to make proper plans, and there would be time to convince her family to travel with her. Instead she was with someone she couldn’t even remember the name of, who didn’t want to be with her, and the only things she had were the things he had packed.
More tears streamed down Orla’s cheeks and for the first time she realised exactly what it meant to be a true priestess. Ever since Artemis had chosen Orla she had been in real danger, but she had never really believed that someone would hurt her. Part of her still didn’t. If it wasn’t for the knowledge that people had died before she probably wouldn’t have left. She would have stayed and waited to see what was going to happen, which would have been a mistake. Until she got to North Square she would continue to be in danger. People would be out looking for her once they realised she hadn’t got back and she felt guilty that he was with her, because being with her meant he was in danger even if people didn’t know he was a true priest.
“It’s not that bad,” he said, startling Orla, and she realised he was staring at her. “All we’ve got to do is spend five days together and then, once we’re in North Square, everything will be different.”
“Yes, it will.” She wiped the tears off her face, but she didn’t feel any better knowing that everything would be different because she wasn’t ready for things to change. Before she’d thought she’d have time to prepare for what was coming and that time had been taken away from her by someone she thought was her friend. “Why are you talking to me?”
“Epona told me I was being rude. She doesn’t like it when I’m rude.” He sighed. “I am sorry, Orla. Getting away from that place makes me feel happy for the first time in my life and I didn’t realise you might not feel the same way. Do you know much about North Square?”
“Only that it’s further away than I want it to be.” Orla blinked away more tears, not wanting to show any more weakness in front of him, and tried to push all thoughts of Yannis, her family, and her home from her mind. “Artemis said that when I needed to know I’d be told.”
“That seems to be something the deities are fond of saying. Epona used to say that to me all the time, but then I think I used to ask too many questions and when she got exasperated with me she would tell me that I’d find the answers to all my questions at the time I needed to be told.” He smiled. “She was the only person I really felt I could talk to. No one else could understand what it was like to be a true priest, connected to a deity – a Dorma deity at that. It was last time that I saw her she told me about you, that you might need my help on the Winter Solstice, but she wouldn’t say anything more than that. As far as she’s concerned the only person I should ask about you is you, so why are you travelling to North Square today entirely unprepared?”
Feeling uncomfortable Orla looked down at the neck of her horse, trying to work out whether she should answer his question or not. He hadn’t been nice to her until Epona had told him off, and, even though it made Orla feel less adrift, she wasn’t certain that telling him anything about what had happened was the right idea. She couldn’t help thinking that he’d tell her she’d been stupid to think that she could trust Yannis with the knowledge that she was a true priestess. The hardest part was knowing that he was probably right, she shouldn’t have told the only person she trusted because she had no way of knowing what the future would bring, but she truly thought Yannis had cared about her the same way she cared about him. If things had been different the two of them might have ended up married.
“Someone I thought was my friend betrayed me,” Orla said, deciding to tell him the truth because it was easier than making up a lie. “I had to leave for North Square the moment he told me that he’d passed on the information I’d given him in confidence to his father, because Artemis told me that if he did anything like that leaving was my only option.” She blinked away more tears, wishing that she didn’t care so much, but it hurt. “Thanks to his decision I had to leave everyone I cared about behind without being able to say goodbye properly, although she did tell me to prepare notes just in case something like this happened, and I’ve told people about North Square because she said that was important. People need to know that there is another option.”
He nodded and Orla wished she felt she could ask his name, instead of keep thinking of him as he or him, but she didn’t. “Epona told me the same thing. I didn’t have anyone to leave notes for, but I’ve put a map to North Square in some of the books in the library because then the right people might have a chance of finding them, although I have a feeling the someone will try to destroy them all. The priest of Anubis won’t want anyone knowing they exist.” He shrugged. “There are other plans in place too, some from the time North Square was first created. Hecate, thankfully, saw what was coming a long time ago and she, with her people, created somewhere that we could live during the times of trouble. Unfortunately she had no idea when they might end, but she said that it would be a long time before we’d feel safe enough to leave the walls behind.”
“Walls?” Orla asked, interested even though she didn’t really want to be.
“This would be much easier if I could draw you a picture, but I know we can’t stop, not until nightfall, and Epona has a place set up for us where she’s certain we’ll be safe. She would have known why you left.” He smiled again. “Okay, North Square. To begin with it is literally a square. The town was built within four walls as the second part of the defences – the first defence is another wall that goes from one mountain range to another with a gate in the middle to permit the entrance of anyone seeking shelter. I’m not sure if the mountains are natural or deity created. So we’ll go through the first gate then there’s some land between the two walls that isn’t used for anything, another safety mechanism because anyone who doesn’t know North Square will assume they’re already in the town and those who means us harm will show that before they reach the second gate.”
“Unless they actually think first.”
“A possibility, true, but something I’m certain the inhabitants of the town will have planned for. There is a second gate that leads into North Square itself, which, according to Epona, is something that can’t be described but must be seen in person. She did tell me that all the buildings are made of stone and they were being built around the same time as the Residence.”
“Will the Residence really be burnt down?”
“I think so. One of the High Priests is a true priest and his father is going to try to kill him, to get him out of the way of the Dorma supremacist movement, because he’s been creating mixed marriages which is something that is making them all very angry. They’re waiting in hope that he’ll invite the girl he’s planning on marrying to the Residence, a girl named Bree, who’s father has just found out that she isn’t pure Dorma, thanks to her mother. He isn’t happy about it, wants his daughter gone, and thinks that best way of doing that is going alone with one of his closest friend’s plans, no matter how stupid it is.” He sighed. “All of the races are so obsessed with the idea of pure blood that they aren’t stopping to think whether it’s sensible to keep marrying Dorma to Dorma or Tein-Igni to Tein-Igni, even though there have been more miscarriages and stillbirths in the last fifty years than there ever have been before, and it’s since the obsession with pure blood started. I don’t understand it myself.”
“Yannis, my friend, told me he thinks that the Tein-Igni would be destroyed in mixed marriages keep happening, but I said it was change. It’s time we started learning from the races we live with instead of simply relying on them to do the hard work.” Orla bit her lip. “I have this horrible feeling that the Tein-Igni are going to end up destroying themselves, because they’ll stop buying from the Uisdro in order to be self-sufficient without any idea how to actually go about it.”
“Maybe they will. I’m not entirely sure it’s a bad thing if all these supremacist movements end up wiping each other out, because it’s causing conflict that shouldn’t exist. Before the deities rose the three races were beginning to work together, even though they didn’t really know each other, using each other’s strengths and weakness to make Thear, but now… I have no idea what changed – someone somewhere made the decision that one race was better than the other and things went wrong from then. Fortunately we have North Square.”
“That is if we get there safely.”
“We will, Orla. Epona and Artemis planned for this, and I believe that they will get us to North Square safely.”
Orla shook her head. “Artemis told me that things might go wrong on this journey. I don’t know how, she didn’t tell me, but I’ve started to think the things she tells me might happen are actually more likely to happen than she says. She said Yannis might betray me and he did. She said there might be someone waiting to meet me at the stables and there was, although I wasn’t expecting someone like you. She’s said more than once that I might have to flee town without any warming, so it was something I needed to be prepared for, but I wasn’t, because I didn’t believe that Yannis would betray me.”
“Epona never said anything like that to me. She told me that she had some safe places prepared for us to spend the nights we would be travelling, but she didn’t think there would be any real problems.” He reached out unexpectedly and touched Orla’s hand. “It’s going to be fine. The reason Artemis told you Yannis might betray you was her understanding that he might change his mind, and the reason she said might about me, well, I was tempted to leave. I didn’t want to be stuck with someone on the journey to North Square because I’m really not much of a people person, if I had a choice I’d rather spend my time with the horses, but I’ve been told, over and over, that I need to get used to being around people. Living in North Square is all about being a part of the community.” He sighed. “As hard as it’s going to be for me I’ve finally made the first step.
“I’ve actually wanted to talk to you for a while, but I never managed to gather the courage. You were always so comfortable with your friends, even if you didn’t trust them, and whenever I saw you around you were with them. Maybe, if I’d seen you alone, I might have spoken to you before, but I thought they’d mock me for trying to become friends with someone like you. They didn’t know that we had something in common… you didn’t know either, but I thought you might be able to see the truth in my eyes if I actually got that close to you. Of course when I did finally meet you I was my normal self and I wouldn’t be surprised if that had affected any chance of us maybe becoming friends during the journey.” As Orla studied him, wondering if what he said was the truth, he looked down at the horse. “I’ve never actually had a friend.”
“Any reason why?”
“Someone tells me I have trust issues from when my mum died and my dad gave me away to an uncle who didn’t really want another child. She’s probably right, but if I do I have no idea how to start fixing the problem and I’m not entirely sure it’s a bad thing to be wary of who you trust. Your experience today tells me that even someone you’ve trusted for years might turn on you and that’s something I don’t think I’m capable of dealing with. Horses are so much simpler. All they need is someone to care for them the right way. People are confusing.”
The priest of Anubis was one of the leaders of a Tein-Igni movement that was said to have been created as a way of protecting their race from the Dorma supremacist movement. Orla understood their point of view. She didn’t want to live under the thumb of the Dorma, and their image of Herne, but the Anubis movement was no better. They looked at the Dorma and the Uisdro as though they were less than the Tein-Igni, even though the Uisdro had been their trading partners for a very long time.
“Good morning, Orla,” a voice said from beside her, making her jump.
Shaking her head, Orla turned to look at Yannis. “Make some noise next time.”
He held out a mug. “Peace offering.” He smiled at her. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Orla smiled back. “I know, Yannis.” She took the mug gratefully. “I was just thinking.”
“About?”
“Priests, priestesses, and why I have to keep my mouth shut.” She sighed. “I don’t like being in this position.”
“If I could have taken the burden for you I would, but you are the chosen one.”
Rolling her eyes, Orla sipped her soup. “I am not the chosen one.”
“How many true priests and priestesses are there?”
“There are currently ten deities and each has one priest and one priestess, so twenty, plus the priest and priestess of Hecate.”
“Do you know who they are?”
“Not yet, Yannis, but I will do before we have to leave for North Square. The more I know the more people I put in danger if someone finds out what I am.”
“Have people really died because they’re a true priest or priestess?”
“Artemis tells me that they have, but I have no way of knowing for sure.” Orla looked at Yannis curiously. “Why are you asking so many questions?”
“My cousin, Logan, is one of the High Priests, and I worry about him because I think he might be a true priest.”
Orla thought for a moment. She could remember Logan, but she hadn’t seen him for a long time and didn’t know him at all well. “It’s possible, but there’s no way I can know. What makes you think he might be a true priest?”
“He’s changed so much since he entered the Residence. I saw him last month, when he came back to visit Auntie, and I almost didn’t recognise him. The only thing he still talked about in the same way was Anubis.”
“The Residence is said to be a poisonous environment for all the Highs. If he is a true priest, and he has been so badly affected by his situation, then he might not be a priest for much longer.” She looked at Yannis, feeling bad for what she was about to say. “We need to be very careful about the people who know what we are, so if he’s a danger to the other true priests and priestesses, or Anubis feels uncomfortable having Logan as his priest, he might make the choice to walk away.”
“Is that likely?”
“Yannis…” Orla sipped her soup, giving herself a moment to try to work out the answer to the question. “I don’t know. It’s not something I can know and it’s a choice for Anubis.” She reached out and squeezed Yannis’ shoulder. “Normally a deity won’t turn their back on a person, even one of the fake priests, so I think it’s unlikely, but at the same time we’re in a situation that means we have to be especially careful.”
“Why did you tell me that you were the priestess of Artemis?”
“I trust you.” She smiled. “If I didn’t then I would never have said anything to you because you could have put me in danger.”
“I still could.”
Orla looked at Yannis. Their eyes met and she found herself wondering whether he really would tell someone, maybe their town’s priest of Anubis, that she was a priestess of Artemis. It wasn’t something she believed he would do, but hearing him say those words, that he still could tell someone what she was, filled her with an inexplicable terror. She couldn’t see any emotions in his eyes and that really didn’t help.
“Why would you?” Orla was surprised how calm her voice was when she felt so scared. “We’ve been friends for a very long time.”
“We have, haven’t we?” Yannis smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I guess the only reason I would tell anyone is if I felt it was better for the Tein-Igni to know who you are.”
“The Tein-Igni?”
“Our race is very important.”
“All the races are important.”
“They’ll destroy us, Orla.”
Orla shook her head. “I really don’t think that either the Uisdro or the Dorma could destroy us, Yannis, even if they wanted to, which is something I really doubt. I’m not saying that what they want is really any better, but using the word destruction is slightly over exaggerating things.”
“We won’t be the Tein-Ingi any longer, so is there really much difference between saying that they are out to destroy us and what they are actually going to do.”
“I agree that it’s going to be difficult and our races’ identity may change slightly, but I would say there is a lot of difference between change and destruction.” Orla sipped her soup again, hoping she was getting through to him. “It might be good for us to change.” She looked over at the group of people who surrounded the priest of Anubis. “Life on Thear would be much easier if all the three races worked together. We’re all very different and that’s good, because it means we can learn from them while they’re learning from us.”
“What do you think we could learn from the Dorma?” Yannis asked, drawing Orla’s attention back to him.
“Practicality,” Orla replied. “We’re very good at knowledge and learning, but we have very little practicality. The Dorma grow almost all of Thear’s food, so almost everything we get from the Uisdro technically comes from the Dorma. I think it would be useful for us to have our own food supplies.”
Yannis nodded. “How about the Uisdro?”
“I’ve always thought that it would be great to learn how to fish.” Orla smiled. “I don’t know how good I’d be, but I’d love to try. They also seem to be good at getting along with other people, even if they don’t necessarily like them, which is something we could do with.” She bit her lip. “What do you think life will be like if we do end up in the dangerous position of not being able to trade with the Uisdro?”
“Difficult,” he replied, sighing, “but we should never have relied on the Uisdro as much as we have. You are right to say that we could learn from the other races. I just think we should have already learnt from them and be working towards being able to be self-sufficient as a race. That’s something I don’t think we’ve ever had to do, so I’m terrified that if the time comes that we do have to be self-sufficient we’re going to fail.”
Biting her lip, Orla looked down into her soup, thinking about how the vegetables in it had been grown by the Dorma and traded to the Tein-Igni by the Uisdro. “Yannis, have you ever thought about living in a mixed blood town?”
“It did cross my mind when I realised what was coming. I just don’t think they’re going to be permitted to exist if the Anubis movement does really start taking full control of the Tein-Igni.”
“They’re going to have to fight the Bast movement.”
“The Bast movement? I’ve never heard of them before.”
“Most people haven’t. Every one of the races has two deities they think of as their deities, and what’s happened is that the people of the three races have split into three main groups. One is a patriarchal group, led by the male deity, like the Anubis movement. The second is a matriarchal group, following the female deity, which in our race is the Bast movement. Finally there are those people who don’t want to be a part of either group because they feel they’re a part of the Thearan movement, which wants all three of the races to work together.”
“Which group would you say you’re part of?”
Orla smiled. “The Thearan movement. I would love to see all three of the races working together, but I don’t think it’s possible.”
“Surely that would lead to all three of the races being destroyed.”
“What do you mean by destroyed?”
“The Tein-Igni wouldn’t exist any longer because everyone would, eventually, be Thearan, as you put it. Breeding with the Uisdro and the Dorma would change us into the Teindro or the Dorigni or something like that.” Yannis sighed. “I’m not sure that’s what I want. I like being Tein-Igni. I like knowing that both my parents are Tein-Igni, that all four of my grandparents are, and I don’t want to think that somewhere in my bloodline there is an Uisdro or a Dorma, because it changes who I am.”
“So you wouldn’t marry someone with a mixed bloodline?”
“I don’t think I would.” He looked at Orla and she could see that lack of emotion in his eyes again. “If I had a choice I would much prefer to marry someone I know to be pure Tein-Igni as far back as we can find out. Maybe that makes me a bad person, but it’s how I feel and I’m happy with that.”
“What would you do if your wife had a child that was obviously mixed heritage?”
“I would love for there to be somewhere I could take that child to be raised by someone who would love him or her for who they were, but I don’t think I could bring the child up myself.”
Orla raised an eyebrow, because that was the last thing she thought he would say. It made her realise that he really had changed. For the first time she didn’t feel safe around him. There was no knowing what he would do and she made the decision that she would be best off leaving town as soon as possible. “Are you a part of the Anubis movement?” she asked, trying to seem normal while she planned how she would leave and where she would go.
Yannis shook his head. “I don’t believe in their Anubis, so I wouldn’t ever be a part of that religious group, even though I do agree with some of their aims. The Tein-Igni needs to stay pure, but I wouldn’t say that we should force that belief on everyone. Some people do want to marry outside of our race and I don’t think they should be stopped.”
“What about Logan? Does he have any thoughts on the subject?”
“Logan is religious and he thinks that religious freedom is more important than anything else, as long as it’s his sort of religious freedom.” Yannis smiled. “My aunt is a very deep believer in the fact that Bast and Anubis belong to the Tein-Igni, so as far as Logan is concerned there could never be a Dorma priest of Anubis, or anything like that, and that deeply affects how he believes the world should be. If it wasn’t for that I would say that Logan is Thearan.”
Orla nodded, remembering the lessons her father had given her about religion. If it wasn’t for Artemis she could easily see herself believing the same things that Logan believed, because that was what her parents believed, and she knew a lot of the Tein-Igni believed the same thing. A few didn’t believe in any of the deities, which meant their view of Thear was very different to the other Tein-Igni and the other two races.
“What does your mother think?” Orla remembered Yannis’ mother and had always respected her, even though she didn’t always agree with her. “I remember her regularly visiting the temple of Anubis when we were younger.”
“She still does now. Father and Mother regularly argue about how best to protect the Tein-Igni, especially from the Dorma supremacist movement. Mother believes that the Anubis movement is the best thing for the Tein-Igni, but Father wants to put an end to their group because he doesn’t think that any of the priests are honestly connected with Anubis.”
“He’s too late.” Orla looked over at the group around the priest again. “The Anubis movement has a lot of powerful followers and no one is going to stop them from doing what they believe is right for us, any more than I think anyone can stop the Bast movement.” Her eyes met Yannis’. “Or the movements in the other two races, and I can see Thear being divided between the different groups.”
“What do you think will happen to the Thearans of that happens?”
She shrugged. “We’ll find somewhere.”
North Square was on the other side of the country to where Orla’s village was, so that was going to make the journey more difficult than she would like. If it wasn’t the winter solstice then she would have taken the coach and tried to hide herself in amongst the other Tein-Igni people travelling, but she knew she shouldn’t wait, which meant she was going to have to ride. Riding wasn’t something she much enjoyed, and it would draw the attention of people who might be watching. She hated feeling paranoid, as though someone was planning to get rid of her, even though it made sense to be under the circumstances.
“What are you thinking about?”
Orla used the soup again as a way to give herself a moment to think. “Anubis, and what he’d think of the priests. I agree with your father, because I can’t see Anubis being a deity who wants control over a race of people, any more than I can see Herne being like that.” She sighed. “Maybe I’m just weird.”
Yannis shook his head. “I don’t agree with Logan’s belief that each of the deities, apart from Loki, belong to a specific race. They should work together because they all have different priorities and I think that it is important to have a Thearan religion, even if I don’t agree with mixing the races together.”
“Having a Thearan religion wouldn’t stop some people from choosing a deity that they believe is better than the others. You could still end up with this sort of situation, but it’s possible the movements would be in the minority rather than the majority, and then people would feel less like they have to pick one specific deity to follow.” Orla sighed. “It really doesn’t help that all the priests and priestesses seem to be working towards their own aims rather than the aims of their deities.”
“If you weren’t the priestess of Artemis which deity would you choose?”
“I honestly don’t know, Yannis. Father brought me up to believe the same thing that Logan does, that Bast and Anubis are Tein-Igni deities rather than Thearan. I doubt in that sort of situation I would even know about the Bast movement, so in this town it wouldn’t really be a choice.”
Yannis nodded. “I remember what you were like before Artemis chose you to be her priestess. You were a very different person back then, so I’m glad that she did choose you.”
“Even though you don’t believe in her?”
“Orla, I know, without any doubt, that you are connected with a deity, and I believe you when you say that it’s Artemis.”
“Do you honestly think that my connection to Artemis makes me a danger to the Tein-Igni?”
Yannis smiled. “Personally I think all of the deities are bad for the Tein-Igni, but I would say that you are harder to understand. You have much more information that everyone else does because of that connection and I think you should share it with us all, although I do understand why you don’t.” He looked at her. “When we were younger I looked up to you, because of what you are, and I still do now, but I have my own beliefs. This morning I told Father about you.” He sighed. “I don’t know what he’s going to do with that information, but I did it because I felt I had to.”
Orla nodded. There really wasn’t anything else she could do. Biting hard on her lip she forced back the tears that were threatening, because Yannis had been her best friend and the person she trusted with everything, and knew she had even less time that she needed. Going home was impossible, even though she wanted to tell her parents what was happening. Trying to seem calm she put the mug down.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t, Yannis, please. It’s done now.”
“What are you going to do?”
Turning her back on him, Orla wiped a tear off her cheek. “Tell my parents what you did.”
Artemis had been right, but that wasn’t really a surprise. Orla was just thankful that she had taken Artemis’ advice and written letters for both her parents, as well as the few people she truly believed might need to travel to North Square. When Artemis had told Orla that Yannis might, under certain circumstances, betray her, she hadn’t wanted to believe that it was possible. They had been friends for a long time and she couldn’t imagine what circumstances would lead to him telling someone about her, but it had happened, so all she could do was put her hurt to the back of her mind. She had to focus on leaving.
Orla walked away from her oldest and closest friend, trying to seem normal. She couldn’t look back to see if he was watching her. Instead she needed to seem like she truly was heading home, rather than going to the stables. Of course if anyone else saw her heading that way on the winter solstice they might stop to ask her why she was going that way, because she’d never liked horses enough to spend all her free time around them. She was much more likely to be seen in the library. Often she spent afternoons sitting in the corner, going through books on subjects that interested her and copying down anything she thought might be important. Sighing, she started down the path that led to her home, but knew she couldn’t go back. Not when someone might be there waiting for her. Everything had to be left behind.
When Orla knew she couldn’t be seen by anyone who might have been following her she turned off the path, and made her way towards the stables. As she walked she thought of people she knew who might be in the stable, so she could pretend she was looking for them if someone asked. There were a few people she knew, in passing, who often worked in the stables, but they weren’t people she knew well enough to go looking for, and she finally came to the conclusion that there really was no reason for her to go to the stables. Other than the one she had.
The stables seemed further away than normal. It was understandable, because Orla was waiting for someone to stop her and ask where she was going. When she finally got there she couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief. She stepped into the stables, hoping that no one was in there, and was disappointed, but unsurprised, to find that one of the boys she’d shared a class with once standing in the stables. For a few moments she watched as he brushed one of the horses.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said, without looking at her.
Orla shook her head. “Why would you be waiting for me?”
“You’re not the only one here to have a connection with one of the deities.”
“They told you to wait in the stables for me.”
He nodded, still focusing on the horse. “If you weren’t here soon I was going to leave without you, but I never have been very patient.” Shrugging, he glanced over at Orla. “Pick a horse and then we can leave. Your bag is in the corner.”
“My bag?”
“I took it from your house.”
All Orla could do to begin with was stare at him. She didn’t know him and yet he had gone into her house, taken her bag, and filled it with her things. It was hard to work out whether she should be angry and feel slightly violated or grateful that he had taken the time to do it. As she attempted to work it out she walked over to her bag because she didn’t know what a man would pack for a woman, especially when he didn’t know the woman he was packing for.
Orla smiled when she saw her favourite pair of trousers, and she was glad to see that he had, somehow, found her notes and packed them. She closed it, turned to look at him, and found herself at a loss for words, because she still didn’t know how she felt. Having her things was good, because she would have missed them, but that didn’t change the fact he’d gone into her home without her permission.
Before Orla could find the right words he said, “You need to hurry up.”
Nodding, Orla picked up her bag. It was good to have an excuse not to talk to him, even though she felt like she should at least thank him. He didn’t have to get her bag for her, and having her notes did make her feel slightly better, but knowing that anyone could get into her home without permission terrified her. Pushing her thoughts, and her worries, to the back of her mind, she started looking at the horses. She had no idea which one she should pick, so in the end she chose the one that seemed to be smiling at her.
“North Square is about five days’ ride away, as long as we don’t need to stop too often,” he said, making Orla jump. “How often do you ride?”
“About once every six months,” Orla replied, staring at the horse and wondering how she was going to spend five days on top of it without going insane.
“Great…” Gently he pushed Orla out of the way and began putting things on the horse that Orla had no understanding of. “What did you plan to do, exactly?”
“Get a horse and ride to North Square.”
“Were you going to ride bareback or were you going to saddle the horse?”
Orla stared at the back of his head. “I don’t know how to saddle a horse.”
“I thought so.” He sighed. “No wonder I was told to wait for you.”
“We all have different priorities.”
He turned to look at her. “I didn’t mean to insult you, but there is no way you would have got to North Square alone.” Shaking his head, he walked over to the horse he’d been brushing. “Why don’t you try mounting? If you need help then use the bucket on the floor.”
Mounting a horse was one of the few things Orla did know how to do. She didn’t know much about the saddle or the other bits that he had put on the poor horse, but that didn’t mean she was totally ignorant about horses. There had just been no real reason to learn about everything, although she wished she had, because being with him made her feel stupid and she didn’t like feeling stupid. Sighing, she stood on the bucket, because it would make things easier, and swung her leg over the horse.
Once Orla was on the horse all she wanted to do was get off again. Having a breathing animal underneath her made her feel weird, but she knew she needed the horse if she was going to get to North Square. Gently she patted the top of the horse’s head and looked over at her new companion. She hated not remembering his name, because she felt like she should remember it. There had been something about him and… she sighed. It wasn’t as though she felt she could ask him the question, not when it was obvious to her exactly what he thought of her, and keeping her mouth shut was probably the best thing she could do.
When he was finally on the horse he looked at Orla. Their eyes met for a second before he lifted the reins and started riding towards the stable door. Orla followed him, because she owed him already for all the help he had given her. She kept looking at him, trying to at least remember which class they had been in together. It had been some time ago, when they were both still under twelve she thought, because she didn’t remember him being quite so tall. Most Tein-Igni males reached their full height by the time they were twelve, so it made logical sense.
Orla didn’t look around when they had left the stable. Being on horses would draw attention to them, but as they were together she thought it might just seem like a couple going for a nice winter solstice ride so they could be alone. She hoped it would. That would give them a few hours before someone, probably Yannis’ father, realised that she was gone and not coming back.
It didn’t take long for Orla to remember why she hated riding. Every movement the horse made jolted her back, her legs ached where the horse was between them, and all she wanted to do was get off. Walking to North Square seemed almost logical by the time the sun began to set. She pulled her cloak tighter around her, which didn’t help. Instead she started shivering and wished that she was somewhere warm. Back at home in front of the fire sounded nice, but she knew that she would be putting her family in more danger if she’d stayed.
Tears rolled down Orla’s cheeks as she thought of what she’d left behind. Her parents would be worried about her, because she hadn’t stopped to tell them that she was leaving. She should have done. They didn’t deserve to be kept in the dark, but she knew that not telling them was probably keeping them safer than they would have been in she had told them. It would have taken hours to even get them to believe that she was really the priestess of Artemis, because her father believed that a Tein-Igni priest or priestess would only be chosen by Bast or Anubis, and hours were something she didn’t have.
Of course Orla didn’t know for sure that Yannis’ father would have hurt her, but it was safer to leave. Artemis had told Orla that if one person she didn’t trust found out about who she was then she would have to leave. Priests and priestesses had ended up dead, and dying wasn’t something Orla really wanted to do. That didn’t stop her from feeling like she had let her family down by running for her life.
“Why were you leaving?” she asked, needing to take her mind off her problems.
“I wanted to.”
“Aren’t you leaving behind family?”
“When my mother died in childbirth my father passed me onto my uncle because he couldn’t cope. I haven’t seen my father since. My uncle already had three children, so I was just a burden. He’ll be glad that I’m gone.”
“That’s…” Orla shook her head. “I can’t imagine how difficult that must have been.”
“I don’t need your pity.”
“Who is your deity?”
“Epona.”
“Is that why you’re so good with horses?”
“Possibly.”
Orla sighed. “My deity is Artemis.”
“I really don’t care.”
“Maybe you don’t, but I feel like I should at least talk to you. You did help me.”
“The best thing you can do is not talk to me. I’d much rather be alone, but Epona told me to wait for you because you’d need my help, so that’s what I did. I don’t really want to answer your questions or talk to you about anything.”
Nodding, even though he couldn’t see her, Orla wrapped her arms around herself once more and tried not to think too much about what had happened. It was hard. Yannis had betrayed her, so she’d had to leave behind everything she knew. She knew she would have to leave at some point, but she’d always believed that she would have had time to make proper plans, and there would be time to convince her family to travel with her. Instead she was with someone she couldn’t even remember the name of, who didn’t want to be with her, and the only things she had were the things he had packed.
More tears streamed down Orla’s cheeks and for the first time she realised exactly what it meant to be a true priestess. Ever since Artemis had chosen Orla she had been in real danger, but she had never really believed that someone would hurt her. Part of her still didn’t. If it wasn’t for the knowledge that people had died before she probably wouldn’t have left. She would have stayed and waited to see what was going to happen, which would have been a mistake. Until she got to North Square she would continue to be in danger. People would be out looking for her once they realised she hadn’t got back and she felt guilty that he was with her, because being with her meant he was in danger even if people didn’t know he was a true priest.
“It’s not that bad,” he said, startling Orla, and she realised he was staring at her. “All we’ve got to do is spend five days together and then, once we’re in North Square, everything will be different.”
“Yes, it will.” She wiped the tears off her face, but she didn’t feel any better knowing that everything would be different because she wasn’t ready for things to change. Before she’d thought she’d have time to prepare for what was coming and that time had been taken away from her by someone she thought was her friend. “Why are you talking to me?”
“Epona told me I was being rude. She doesn’t like it when I’m rude.” He sighed. “I am sorry, Orla. Getting away from that place makes me feel happy for the first time in my life and I didn’t realise you might not feel the same way. Do you know much about North Square?”
“Only that it’s further away than I want it to be.” Orla blinked away more tears, not wanting to show any more weakness in front of him, and tried to push all thoughts of Yannis, her family, and her home from her mind. “Artemis said that when I needed to know I’d be told.”
“That seems to be something the deities are fond of saying. Epona used to say that to me all the time, but then I think I used to ask too many questions and when she got exasperated with me she would tell me that I’d find the answers to all my questions at the time I needed to be told.” He smiled. “She was the only person I really felt I could talk to. No one else could understand what it was like to be a true priest, connected to a deity – a Dorma deity at that. It was last time that I saw her she told me about you, that you might need my help on the Winter Solstice, but she wouldn’t say anything more than that. As far as she’s concerned the only person I should ask about you is you, so why are you travelling to North Square today entirely unprepared?”
Feeling uncomfortable Orla looked down at the neck of her horse, trying to work out whether she should answer his question or not. He hadn’t been nice to her until Epona had told him off, and, even though it made Orla feel less adrift, she wasn’t certain that telling him anything about what had happened was the right idea. She couldn’t help thinking that he’d tell her she’d been stupid to think that she could trust Yannis with the knowledge that she was a true priestess. The hardest part was knowing that he was probably right, she shouldn’t have told the only person she trusted because she had no way of knowing what the future would bring, but she truly thought Yannis had cared about her the same way she cared about him. If things had been different the two of them might have ended up married.
“Someone I thought was my friend betrayed me,” Orla said, deciding to tell him the truth because it was easier than making up a lie. “I had to leave for North Square the moment he told me that he’d passed on the information I’d given him in confidence to his father, because Artemis told me that if he did anything like that leaving was my only option.” She blinked away more tears, wishing that she didn’t care so much, but it hurt. “Thanks to his decision I had to leave everyone I cared about behind without being able to say goodbye properly, although she did tell me to prepare notes just in case something like this happened, and I’ve told people about North Square because she said that was important. People need to know that there is another option.”
He nodded and Orla wished she felt she could ask his name, instead of keep thinking of him as he or him, but she didn’t. “Epona told me the same thing. I didn’t have anyone to leave notes for, but I’ve put a map to North Square in some of the books in the library because then the right people might have a chance of finding them, although I have a feeling the someone will try to destroy them all. The priest of Anubis won’t want anyone knowing they exist.” He shrugged. “There are other plans in place too, some from the time North Square was first created. Hecate, thankfully, saw what was coming a long time ago and she, with her people, created somewhere that we could live during the times of trouble. Unfortunately she had no idea when they might end, but she said that it would be a long time before we’d feel safe enough to leave the walls behind.”
“Walls?” Orla asked, interested even though she didn’t really want to be.
“This would be much easier if I could draw you a picture, but I know we can’t stop, not until nightfall, and Epona has a place set up for us where she’s certain we’ll be safe. She would have known why you left.” He smiled again. “Okay, North Square. To begin with it is literally a square. The town was built within four walls as the second part of the defences – the first defence is another wall that goes from one mountain range to another with a gate in the middle to permit the entrance of anyone seeking shelter. I’m not sure if the mountains are natural or deity created. So we’ll go through the first gate then there’s some land between the two walls that isn’t used for anything, another safety mechanism because anyone who doesn’t know North Square will assume they’re already in the town and those who means us harm will show that before they reach the second gate.”
“Unless they actually think first.”
“A possibility, true, but something I’m certain the inhabitants of the town will have planned for. There is a second gate that leads into North Square itself, which, according to Epona, is something that can’t be described but must be seen in person. She did tell me that all the buildings are made of stone and they were being built around the same time as the Residence.”
“Will the Residence really be burnt down?”
“I think so. One of the High Priests is a true priest and his father is going to try to kill him, to get him out of the way of the Dorma supremacist movement, because he’s been creating mixed marriages which is something that is making them all very angry. They’re waiting in hope that he’ll invite the girl he’s planning on marrying to the Residence, a girl named Bree, who’s father has just found out that she isn’t pure Dorma, thanks to her mother. He isn’t happy about it, wants his daughter gone, and thinks that best way of doing that is going alone with one of his closest friend’s plans, no matter how stupid it is.” He sighed. “All of the races are so obsessed with the idea of pure blood that they aren’t stopping to think whether it’s sensible to keep marrying Dorma to Dorma or Tein-Igni to Tein-Igni, even though there have been more miscarriages and stillbirths in the last fifty years than there ever have been before, and it’s since the obsession with pure blood started. I don’t understand it myself.”
“Yannis, my friend, told me he thinks that the Tein-Igni would be destroyed in mixed marriages keep happening, but I said it was change. It’s time we started learning from the races we live with instead of simply relying on them to do the hard work.” Orla bit her lip. “I have this horrible feeling that the Tein-Igni are going to end up destroying themselves, because they’ll stop buying from the Uisdro in order to be self-sufficient without any idea how to actually go about it.”
“Maybe they will. I’m not entirely sure it’s a bad thing if all these supremacist movements end up wiping each other out, because it’s causing conflict that shouldn’t exist. Before the deities rose the three races were beginning to work together, even though they didn’t really know each other, using each other’s strengths and weakness to make Thear, but now… I have no idea what changed – someone somewhere made the decision that one race was better than the other and things went wrong from then. Fortunately we have North Square.”
“That is if we get there safely.”
“We will, Orla. Epona and Artemis planned for this, and I believe that they will get us to North Square safely.”
Orla shook her head. “Artemis told me that things might go wrong on this journey. I don’t know how, she didn’t tell me, but I’ve started to think the things she tells me might happen are actually more likely to happen than she says. She said Yannis might betray me and he did. She said there might be someone waiting to meet me at the stables and there was, although I wasn’t expecting someone like you. She’s said more than once that I might have to flee town without any warming, so it was something I needed to be prepared for, but I wasn’t, because I didn’t believe that Yannis would betray me.”
“Epona never said anything like that to me. She told me that she had some safe places prepared for us to spend the nights we would be travelling, but she didn’t think there would be any real problems.” He reached out unexpectedly and touched Orla’s hand. “It’s going to be fine. The reason Artemis told you Yannis might betray you was her understanding that he might change his mind, and the reason she said might about me, well, I was tempted to leave. I didn’t want to be stuck with someone on the journey to North Square because I’m really not much of a people person, if I had a choice I’d rather spend my time with the horses, but I’ve been told, over and over, that I need to get used to being around people. Living in North Square is all about being a part of the community.” He sighed. “As hard as it’s going to be for me I’ve finally made the first step.
“I’ve actually wanted to talk to you for a while, but I never managed to gather the courage. You were always so comfortable with your friends, even if you didn’t trust them, and whenever I saw you around you were with them. Maybe, if I’d seen you alone, I might have spoken to you before, but I thought they’d mock me for trying to become friends with someone like you. They didn’t know that we had something in common… you didn’t know either, but I thought you might be able to see the truth in my eyes if I actually got that close to you. Of course when I did finally meet you I was my normal self and I wouldn’t be surprised if that had affected any chance of us maybe becoming friends during the journey.” As Orla studied him, wondering if what he said was the truth, he looked down at the horse. “I’ve never actually had a friend.”
“Any reason why?”
“Someone tells me I have trust issues from when my mum died and my dad gave me away to an uncle who didn’t really want another child. She’s probably right, but if I do I have no idea how to start fixing the problem and I’m not entirely sure it’s a bad thing to be wary of who you trust. Your experience today tells me that even someone you’ve trusted for years might turn on you and that’s something I don’t think I’m capable of dealing with. Horses are so much simpler. All they need is someone to care for them the right way. People are confusing.”
