20

The building at the back of the orchard turned out to be a little guesthouse, much like the basement chamber at the temple in Kyokami, but with the benefit of not being underground. Saofoth urged her to go inside, and since she wasn't eager to offend a god-child with glowing eyes, she did as they asked.

The guesthouse was built into the orchard's wall, and unlike the basement chamber, it had windows as well as a sky-light, and the amount of glass gave it a greenhouse feel. The potted, shoulder-high peach trees helped.

The furniture was much the same as the furniture in the basement chamber in Towr's temple, with a desk, a bed, and a corner dedicated to supplies, though the supplies here leaned more towards gardening than cleaning. It was nowhere near as dusty as the basement chamber had been, and smelled strongly of peaches.

"It's very nice," she said honestly. "Your temple is lovely, Saofoth."

"Will you stay here while you're visiting?" Saofoth asked, walking backward through the door ahead of her as she went back outside. "I hope you will. I've been ever so lonely. There was a time when every temple, even small ones like mine, had its own priest or priestess, or even more than one, but fewer and fewer people are born with the holy blood now."

"I don't know where I'll sleep." Kel had asked Perra for beds for for the two of them, but she didn't want to put any of the villagers out, so maybe she would sleep here. She didn't even know if they would still be here tonight, though, so she didn't want to promise anything.

"I hope you do. It's so nice having company again. My well and the crypt are in the corner, here," Saofoth said. "Drink, if you are thirsty."

They guided her over to a basin of water much like the one in Towr's temple, except this one was covered with a peaked roof made out of clay shingles. There was a wooden bucket sitting next to it, turned upside down, with a white cat curled up asleep on top. The cat raised its head and gave her a slow blink before going back to sleep. Behind the well was a tiny building with a door set into it, presumably hiding stairs to the crypt, but she had no desire to find out if this crypt had any bodies in it.

"I have water in my flask already," Lyra said as Saofoth waited near the well. "Thank you."

She was resolved not to drink from any of those weird temple basins until she saw someone else drink from one first. Saofoth didn't strike her as malicious any more than Towr had, but that didn't mean she trusted them.

"The girl approaches," Saofoth said, their head turning with disconcerting speed toward the gate. "She carries guilt in her heart, yet her soul is clean of sin. You may wish to reassure your paladin that her soul is unstained; he spoke to her at the gate and the words they shared frightened her."

Was sin something real in this world, then? Something gods could actually see and measure? The thought was disturbing, but she didn't have time to ask Saofoth about it. A girl, about thirteen years old, was hurrying down the crushed gravel path toward them.

Lyra waved awkwardly as she approached, but instead of waving back, once the girl was a few paces away, she dropped to her knees and bowed her head.

"Priestess, Galin's mother said you wished to speak to me. Will you be able to help him?"

"I don't know yet," Lyra said. "You can stand up. And just call me Lyra."

No one had ever kneeled or bowed to her before she was snatched from her world, and it made her uncomfortable. What was she supposed to do, stand there and look down at her the entire time they were talking?

The girl rose to her feet but kept her gaze averted. "I'm sorry, priestess. I was only nine the last time I met a member of the clergy. I don't remember everything I'm supposed to do, but I want to help Galin. He's my best friend, and what happened isn't all his fault. I helped too."

She had no idea why everyone refused to call her by her freaking name, but decided to pick that battle later. It seemed like a petty thing to complain about when, as this girl had just reminded her, someone's life was on the line.

"Your name's Bria, right?"

"That's right, priestess." She curtsied.

"Tell me what happened. His mother said she knows where he is; she just needs help getting him back from a... cave or something. Is he lost in the cave? Stuck somewhere?"

"No, priestess. Well, in a way. He's…" Bria hesitated. "He doesn't want to come home. He's worried about what will happen if he does. If you could make the god reverse what it did to him, then Galin can come back and it will be as if nothing happened."

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"What god?" Lyra asked. Getting information from these people was like pulling teeth. They were all talking around something important, and it seemed like they were afraid to tell her the truth despite claiming to need her help. It was annoying. "Just tell me what's going on. I can't do anything if I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"I don't know its name, or I would tell you, I swear. It's one of the old ones, without a temple." She bit her lip. "We heard stories about it, the god of the cave. When the first settlers came here they used to worship it with the Aketians before the military drove them back and the king made it illegal to worship the old gods. It’s been so long, no one knew what its lιən is, but one of the stories was about a warrior who was killed by a falling branch in a storm. His friends brought him to the cave and made an offering to the god, and he came back to life and lived many more years. That was the story Galin was obsessed with after Yarra died."

"Yarra was his sister?" Lyra checked. Bria nodded. "So he thought this god might bring her back to life, and what, you guys found the old cave the stories mentioned? I'm guessing this wasn't something you were supposed to do."

"We found it," Bria confirmed. "Galin made an offering to the god. A sacrifice."

"And it worked?" Lyra asked, her skin crawling. Did this kid have some terrifying zombie version of his sister with him? That would explain why he was reluctant to return to the village.

Bria hesitated. "In a way. I think it will be easier for you to see with your own eyes what the god did. I will bring you to the cave. My uncle is keeping watch on it, so we will know if Galin leaves. I helped him do this, priestess, and I know it's partially my fault. I'm willing to accept whatever consequences there are, just please, try to help him."

Lyra shifted, her stomach a mess of knots. She really, really didn't want to do this. She didn't want to get involved. But how could she say no when she had come this far already? All she had to do was go and look into the cave. She would bring Kel, no matter what Saofoth said, and he would tell her if she was about to do something stupid.

She had already spoken to two gods, and they they didn't seem so bad as long as she didn't make any deals with them. She might be able to help this Galin kid, and if not, at least she could tell herself she tried.

"All right," she said with a sigh. "How far is the cave?"

"It will take us an hour to get there. It's in the forest to the north. Galin's mother is packing us lunch, so we can leave without delay."

"Lead on," Lyra said, gesturing toward the gate. "I've got no idea where anything is, so I'll just follow you."

"Priestess," Saofoth said, falling into step beside her. Unlike Towr, he didn't float; he walked, though his bare feet never scuffed the stones or made an indent in the grass. "Remember what I said. Bring him to me. He is a good child, and if he devotes himself to me, I will protect him."

"I'll try," Lyra said. She didn't want to promise anything to anyone, but especially not to a god.

Bria looked back at the sound of her voice, then seemed to realize Lyra was talking to the god. Her eyes went wide and she turned forward again, her pace quickening.

Kel was still waiting on the other side of the gate, but he was no longer alone. Two men were with him; one had a bandage covering the entire left side of his face. It was soaked through with blood in some places, and the skin that was visible around it was bruised.

The other man was uninjured, but his face was flushed with anger.

"Was that so hard?" the angry man asked Kel as they approached. "Bria went and got her, and the gods know that girl is as useless as a lump of mud. Isn't it your job to do these things, sentinel?"

"My duty is to escort and serve the priestess," Kel said. He looked annoyed, but Lyra suspected she could only tell because she had spent the last day and a half traveling with him. His voice was even, and though his hand was on the pommel of his sword he didn't look like he was on the verge of drawing it. "Not to do your bidding."

"She's here now," the injured man said. "Please, let it drop, Dalton. Let her bring my son back. We can figure everything else out later."

"We need to figure it out now," the angry man, Dalton, said. "We both know what he did. I don't know if the village wants him to come back."

"He's my son. You've known him since he was a wee babe. He's a part of this village. Of course he's going to come back."

"He has blood on his hands now. Talk to the others, I'm not the only one saying this, I'm just the loudest. We don't want someone like him here. You know what he did."

"We don't know that he killed anyone," the injured man said. "He'll barely talk to us, and Bria hasn't done much but cry."

Bria flinched and wrapped her arms around herself but stayed near Lyra's side.

"We know he killed my goat!" Dalton said. "You saw its body in the cave. Are you denying it now? Isn't that proof enough?"

"A goat's not a person," the injured man replied. "It's not a sin to sacrifice a goat. He stole it, but that's just a crime, and I'll pay you what he owes you for it."

Kel met Lyra's eyes and raised an eyebrow as if asking her whether she was going to intervene. She had no idea why he thought it was her job to step in, and crossed her arms to make it clear that she wasn't going to play peacemaker.

He gave her a vaguely irritated look, then took a breath as if he was about to say something. Surprisingly, Bria spoke up first.

"Will you stop fighting, please? She agreed to help Galin if she can. It's stupid to argue about what happened when she'll be able to talk to the god as soon as we get there and tell us all of it."

"Did you call me stupid?" Dalton asked, turning on her. His countenance went from anger to something more dangerous in the blink of an eye. "You don't get to talk to me that way, you useless wench. I haven't forgotten that you were involved too."

He took a step toward her, the muscles of his forearm rippling as his hand clenched into a fist. Lyra froze, in utter disbelief that a grown man would turn on a thirteen-year-old girl like he was. He took another step closer and raised his fist, and Bria cringed back. The movement snapped Lyra out of her shock, and she grabbed the girl's arm and pulled her behind herself at the same moment Kel stepped between them, drawing his sword.

Dalton froze. His eyes darted from the sword in Kel's hand to Lyra's tunic and all the fight seemed to go out of him. He bowed his head. "My apologies, priestess. My brother is missing, and I believe Galin murdered him, so please excuse my temper."