into the temple to a hiding place, where she could muster her courage and summon Hod. But each night she lay silently, listening to the others sleep, too afraid to try.
No one spoke of their lives before, and Ghisla was not the only one who seemed unaccustomed to answering to her name. Poor Dalys answered to everything. Elayne was of Ebba—a true daughter of Saylok. Juliah was too, though her father was a marauding Hound. Bashti was not a Bernian name, though it began with the sound of the clan. Sometimes in her sleep, she chanted in a language Ghisla didn’t understand. Mayhaps they were the songs of her people, the songs of the people who’d loved her once, a lifetime ago. Like Ghisla and the Songrs. But they did not speak of their lives before.
Two months after Ghisla and the other clan daughters were brought to the temple, the Temple Boy and Princess Alba came for a visit. Evening meditation had commenced, the bells had tolled, and everyone had retired to their private quarters for quiet contemplation. It was one of the hardest hours of the day for all of the girls, but especially for Juliah. She could not hold still unless she was readying to pounce and sat on her bed rattling like a pot prepared to boil over. Bashti wasn’t much better, though she considered it her mission to make the others laugh with her grimacing and get them in trouble. Dalys usually fell asleep, Elayne sat in obedient silence, and Ghisla used the time to compose songs in her head that no one would likely ever hear.
When the door to their room opened with a slow screech, the girls looked up from their assigned spaces to see the Temple Boy, with the princess perched on his shoulders, standing on the threshold. The door was tall, but Bayr still raised his hand to protect Alba’s head as they ducked through the frame.
“It is Alb-ba’s b-b-birthday,” he said, as if that was enough to explain their sudden presence. He closed the door behind them. “We w-wanted t-t-to m-m-meet you.”
The girls looked at him with varying expressions of fear and fascination. They’d not been officially introduced, but they’d all seen him pledge his protection in the courtyard the night they arrived, and they knew his story.
Elayne stood and took a step toward him and Alba, assuming the role of hostess. She curtsied deeply and Ghisla and the other girls followed her lead, rising and bobbing their own welcomes.
“Happy birthday, Princess Alba,” she murmured. “I am Elayne . . . of Ebba.” She pointed to Juliah, the next oldest. “This is Juliah from Joran and Liis from Leok.” Ghisla forgot who she was for a moment and failed to do anything but stare rudely, unaware that she had been introduced. Elayne rushed on, as if trying to cover her silence.
“Bashti is from Berne. Little Dalys is about your age, Princess. She’s from Dolphys . . . like you are, Temple Boy. Keeper Dagmar too.”
“He is Bayr,” Alba corrected kindly, patting his cheek from where she was perched. “Not Temple Boy. His name is Bayr.”
“Why have you brought her here?” Juliah asked, peevish. Ghisla suspected her bad humor was jealousy; Bayr had not yet been available for weapons training, though Dagmar kept promising.
“You said that,” Juliah snapped. Elayne flinched and Bayr stiffened. Slowly he brought Alba down from his shoulders. He touched Alba’s pale hair, as if trying to shield her from Juliah’s unwelcoming behavior.
Alba walked to Juliah and, without hesitation, took the girl’s hands and tipped her head back with a smile. Ghisla had thought her breathtaking by moonlight, but she was even more so in the light of day. Her hair was as pale as corn silk, but her eyes were so brown they appeared black. Sooty lashes brushed her honeyed skin, and her lips were the color of the berries that grew on the bushes near the eastern wall.
“YOU LEE UH!” Alba sang Juliah’s name. “I am here to see you.” And just like that, Juliah wilted.
They stayed an hour, Alba singing and hopping from bed to bed, making the girls smile in spite of themselves. Bayr hung back, watching, listening for prayers to end and the sun to set, and when the bells tolled again to signal meditation was over, he scooped Alba up and bowed to the girls.