The Priestess and the Thief Kindred Tales 30 - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,7
managed to get out in a choked voice. The Descending Priestess Superior reminded her so much of her own grandmother, that it was almost like losing her all over again.
Sniffing back her tears, she prepared to go back across the hall and wait for the Ascending Priestess Superior. She wondered what punishment awaited her and tried to swallow down the nervous lump in her throat.
But honestly, what else could they do that they hadn’t already done? She’d had a week of seclusion already where she was locked in her room all day and night with nothing to do but meditate, and now she was going to be scrubbing toilets all day. What could be worse than that?
“Nothing, I hope,” Elli muttered to herself in a low voice. She put her hand on the doorknob and was about to turn it when she heard voices in the hall outside.
“Hurry up, Beedra!” That was the brisk, cold, no-nonsense voice of the Ascending Priestess Superior talking to her assistant—a plump priestess who looked sad every time Elli saw her. Probably because she used to work for the Descending Priestess Superior, who was much nicer.
“Yes, Priestess Superior,” Beedra’s voice could be heard saying. She always sounded like she was out of breath, probably from keeping up with the tall, whip-thin head priestess.
“Now then—what’s on the agenda for today?” The Priestess Superior asked, right outside the door.
Elli held her breath, hoping she wouldn’t open the bedchamber door to check on the Descending Priestess Superior. But she needn’t have worried—the Ascending Priestess Superior seemed much too busy to bother with the dying old lady.
“You’re meant to have a sentencing session with that novice—the one who led the others astray and got them all to sneak out of their rooms and go to the humans’ Christmas party,” Beedra said quickly.
Elli clenched her fists in indignation. She had not been the leader of the gang! She hadn’t even suggested going to the party in the first place. It was Kylin who had been talking about how bright and exciting the party would be and then Lelki had said she wished she could see it and then somehow the three of them had started making plans but Elli certainly hadn’t suggested it. She—
“Well, she’s late!” The Ascending Priestess Superior’s voice cut into Elli’s frustrated thoughts. “Let’s wait in the office for her and move on to the second order of business in the meantime.”
The office door opened and closed and Elli breathed a sigh of relief. Now she could sneak out of the Descending Priestess Superior’s room and knock on the door of the office as though she was just coming in.
She did just that, closing the bedchamber door with excruciating care so as not to make a sound and coming to stand in front of the office door. But just as she was raising her hand to knock, she heard the Ascending Priestess Superior’s voice again, raised in anger and irritation this time.
“What do you mean you’ve found something that can cure her?”
Four
Elli’s hand froze in midair. Instead of knocking, she pressed her ear to the door eagerly. They must be talking about the Descending Priestess Superior! After all, who else needed curing?
“The analysis said that her wasting sickness could be stopped and even possibly reversed by a tiny piece of the Healing Lattice held in the Tenebrian Court on Pok,” Beedra explained.
Elli’s heart jumped. Pok! She knew Pok—it was the second moon of her own home world, Torl Prime! In fact, half the inhabitants living on Pok were from Torl Prime.
The other half were Tenebrians, a humanoid species that was tall and thin with narrow faces, pale blue skin, and large eyes. Elli had only seen Tenebrians once, when a couple of them had come down to Torl Prime to buy zorels in the annual fair. Her older brother, Pern, had been impressed because he’d heard rumors that they were a good judge of animals.
“The Healing Lattice, hmm?” The Ascending Priestess Superior didn’t sound at all pleased.
“Exactly! Just a tiny sliver of it under her tongue—”
“And will the Tenebrians be willing to give up a ‘tiny sliver’ of their lattice?” the Ascending Priestess Superior demanded.
“Well, that is the problem,” Beedra said, sounding worried. “They’re supposedly extremely protective of it. It grows from a very precious material only found on their home world and it’s known as the ‘Heart of the Court.’ In order to get any of it, you either have to render a great service to