A Dance of Cloaks - By Dalglish, David Page 0,54

his woman killed, but instead I found you tied and tortured against the wall.”

“I was as surprised as you were,” Veliana said. She turned and put her back to the fire, her arms crossed over her breasts.

“I’m not sure I have clothes appropriate for you,” the faceless woman said. “Perhaps I could go and retrieve the strange man’s…”

“No,” Veliana said, suppressing another shudder. “I’d rather be naked.”

Eliora tilted her head to the side. Veliana swore she could see green eyes studying her through the white mask across her face. Suddenly Eliora lifted the cloth and untwisted the wrappings about her head.

Veliana startled at the woman revealed beneath the wrappings. She was gorgeous by anyone’s standards. Full lips, sharp cheekbones, and vibrant eyes. Their color reminded her of pine needles. She ran a hand through her short hair, pulling out tangles, no easy task with how tight it had been restricted and how covered with sweat it was.

“You’re…” Veliana started to say, then realized how ridiculous it sounded.

“I know,” Eliora said. “Trust me…I know.”

She handed the wrappings to Veliana.

“They’re not much, but you should be able to hide your nakedness.”

Veliana started wrapping the black and purple cloth across her chest, pulling it tight to get as much coverage as she could from the cloth. As she did, Eliora removed more and more of her wrappings from her chest and waist. Beneath she wore a dark shift, the color so thick she needed little of the extra cloth to keep her modesty. Veliana accepted the extra wrappings and continued looping them about her body. She managed to cover all her womanhood, though if she walked through the streets in broad daylight she’d earn herself many a scandalous looks.

“Thank you,” she said, sitting down once more by the fire.

Eliora did not respond. She moved about the camp, preparing a tent that had been left behind unassembled. From a pack nearby she pulled out some tough meat and handed it to Veliana. She wasn’t hungry but ate anyway, preferring the salty taste to the lingering offense of bile and Gileas on her tongue.

“Why did you save me?” Veliana asked.

Eliora glanced up as if the question were stupid.

“Because I wanted to.”

Veliana smirked. It felt like an answer she might have given.

“Be that as it may, I’ve sworn my life. I’d like to know what I’m sworn into.”

The faceless woman punched the last spike of the tent into the dirt with the hilt of her dagger and then stood. Without the wraps, her body looked far more relaxed and feminine. Her breasts actually had room to breathe, and Veliana couldn’t help but feel both jealousy and annoyance. To have that much beauty and hide it? What was the point in that?

The thought of beauty stung her deep. She ran her fingers along the bloody wound from her eyebrow to her chin. No one would think her beautiful now. She was a scarred freak. The eye, what was left of it, ached with every breath she took.

Eliora watched her trace her finger over the cut. Sadness sparkled in her green eyes.

“We are the faceless,” she said, looking away into the forest. Her short black hair fell across her face, hiding her pained expression. “There are only three of us, all priestesses of Karak, and all expelled. We are considered slaves to our sex, so weak and vile that we must live outside the temple with the rest of the sinful world.”

“What did you do?” Veliana asked. She forced her hand away from the wound on her face. It would do no good obsessing over it now.

“I bedded a priest,” Eliora replied. “We were caught. He was given lashes and a ten-year penance. I was forced to become one of the faceless.”

Veliana huddled closer to the warmth of the fire and let the words sink in. A beautiful woman caught in bed with a priest. Rather than deal with the issue, they forced her out, hid her beauty, and declared her vile. She felt anger stir within her stomach. How could she be sworn to become one of them? Why were the gods so cruel to put her in such a situation? Again she promised vengeance upon Thren and his son.

“Your sisters,” Veliana said. “They’re beautiful too, aren’t they?”

Eliora nodded. “They both are. Do you understand why I saved you? To see another woman hurt, humiliated, her beauty stolen by a man…I couldn’t bear it. Better that you become one of us.”

“One of the faceless.”

“My faith in Karak