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"You're giving me a horse?"

The horse in question was a golden blonde color with a mane and tail that was lighter blonde, almost white. She thought the color was called palomino, but that was as far as her knowledge of horses extended. The horse snorted and swished its tail to disturb a fly that landed on its side.

"She is trained mainly as a plow horse for working the fields, but I and some of the other children have ridden her, and she is calm and well-behaved under saddle. She is no rich-blooded steed worthy of one of the clergy, but she is the best we have. We have given Kel what little coin we can spare already. I know it's not enough, but it's the best we can do."

"I…" Lyra stared at the horse, then glanced at Galin's worried, expectant face. She had no idea how to ride a horse, let alone take care of one, but the constant throb of her ribs reminded her that this might not be the worst idea. "What about Kel? Is he getting a horse too?"

Kel shifted, giving her a vaguely disapproving look, and Galin shook his head. "I'm sorry, priestess, but we can't give him one too. We must be able to harvest our fields before the rain if we wish to be able to pay our taxes this year."

"I'll walk," Kel interjected. "I can pick up a cheap horse in Ersgath. Even with me on foot, this will be faster."

"I don't know how to ride a horse," she blurted out. The admission embarrassed her, mostly because it was only the latest in a long line of ways she was proving she was all but useless in this world.

"Then you'll learn," Kel said, matter of factly. "It takes very little skill to sit on the back of a walking horse, so your inexperience will not slow us down further. You do not need to accept this gift, but if you want to make it to Heliotheopoli before God's Day, then I advise you do. With your injuries, we would be moving even more slowly now if you do not ride."

"What happens if we don't get there before God's Day?"

"The clergy at the Temple of the Great God may not be able to get you the answers you wish to have, though if you're able to commune with the Great God yourself on God's Day, then our location at the time of the holiday will be moot."

She looked at the horse, considering her options. In the end, it was an easy decision. The only thing making her hesitate was the knowledge that she was taking what looked like a healthy, working horse from the people of Lokokami, but at the same time, she had gotten injured saving Galin, and from the sound of it, they had enough horses that they would still be able to get the harvest in on time.

Besides, the villagers could buy another horse later. She might only have one chance to get home this year. She had no idea what she would do if she missed her chance to get answers and had to wait until the next God's Day, and she didn't want to be forced to figure it out.

"Thank you," she said, meeting Galin's eyes. "She's exactly what I need."

He grinned, young and happy again for a brief moment as he said, "Do you want to pet her? Do you know anything about horses? I can show you how to brush her."

She took a step closer to the horse and laid her hand on its warm neck. It looked at her out of one soft, brown eye. She had been on a pony ride exactly once when she was a child. She liked horses, but she had never been lucky enough to take lessons or ever spend much time around them. This mare wasn't an overly large horse, thankfully, and she seemed calm. Lyra had no idea what a horse's daily care looked like, but Kel would probably be able to walk her through it. Once she found a way home, she could ask Kel to return the horse to Lokokami on his way home – or maybe she should just give the mare to him, for all the trouble he had gone through to help her.

"I will teach her how to care for the horse later," Kel said. "She is still injured, and if she pulls her stitches, that will delay us even further. Come, Lyra, the boy's mother has prepared a meal, and she wishes to check on your injury to make sure it is not infected."

"What's her name?" she asked Galin before she followed Kel away.

"My uncle Erol named her Aeliana, because she's the color of the sun. She's a good horse. I'm sure she'll have more fun going on an adventure than plowing the fields."

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Lyra hoped so. She hoped that one day she would be able to look back at all of this and think of it as an adventure and not a nightmare, and she hoped the rest of their journey to Heliotheopoli was uneventful. She didn't regret helping Galin, but she definitely regretted that things ended as violently as they had.

Kel escorted her to Galin's house, then gave her privacy while Perra checked her injury. It wasn't infected, and she was given a numbing salve that helped with the pain.

"Kel seemed to think you would want to get Ersgath right away," she said when she was done. "If that's just him being in a hurry, you can tell him off. You're welcome to stay here as long as you need. Everyone in town knows what happened to Lora, and it wouldn't surprise me if he's simply eager to leave the area. People mean well, but they do stare and whisper."

"No, he's right, I do want to go," she said. "It's… a long story to explain why, but we're on a deadline."

"Very well. I can't keep you if you wish to go today, priestess, but I do have some basic training in healing, and I suggest you wait at least another day for your body to recover from the blood loss. It will be weeks before you are truly well, and even longer than that before your pain is gone completely."

"I'll talk to Kel, but I think we'll stay until tomorrow. I need to perform some sort of ritual for Galin and Saofoth, right? And we'll probably need more supplies."

"Don't worry about the supplies, your sentinel – or I suppose he's a paladin, isn't he? – he'll handle all of that. You just eat, rest, and if you can, spend some time speaking with Galin and Saofoth before he devotes himself to the god. He may not have other options, but I still want him to know what he's getting himself into." She paused. "Thank you, priestess, for saving him. And my daughter – words can't begin to describe how horrifying what he did is, but to be able to talk to her again…" She trailed off and turned away to wipe tears from her eyes. "Forgive me. Take a seat, I'll get your food. Eat as much as you can, you will need it to regain your strength."

Despite how eager she was to get going again, Lyra knew staying for at least another day was the right choice. She took Perra's advice to heart and let Kel handle the arrangements for their departure while she ate her meal, took some sort of fist-sized meat pie back to the temple with her in case she got hungry again before dinner, then sat out in the sunshine in the temple orchard while she talked to Galin and Saofoth.

They discussed what Galin's duties would be – she made notes for him on a scroll of parchment she found in the desk in the guesthouse – and how often he should go to the temple to perform them. He would be welcome to live there as long as the bed wasn't needed for traveling clergy, though for the time being, he was planning on staying with his family. The god made sure Galin understood he needed to reside within the temple during all of God's Day, preferably hidden underground in the crypt. Since Galin couldn't speak directly with the god and would have to rely on dreams and meditation to communicate, Lyra took the time to make sure there was no confusion about what Galin was supposed to do to stay safe and in the god's good graces.

She felt stronger as the day went on. The numbing salve helped a lot, as did the food. Once they had Galin's duties figured out, Saofoth walked both of them through the ritual, which they were going to do that evening. It seemed simple enough, almost like wedding vows, though in this case, Galin was the only one making vows. It struck her as a little unfair that Saofoth had to promise nothing, but Galin didn't seem worried. She wasn't sure she should be letting a thirteen-year-old boy who had already proven that he made bad choices take the lead, but she knew even less than he did about how this world worked.

They did the ritual that evening before dinner. The entire town, except for Kel, who could only come as far as the gate, crowded into the temple's orchard. She stood across from Galin at the temple well. The cat sat on one of the walls a few feet away, watching intently. Saofoth was there, invisible to everyone but her and the cat. He walked her through the words again, and she repeated them verbatim, speaking as clearly as she could just in case it mattered.

"Galin, do you of your own free will and out of a genuine desire to worship the god Saofoth, devote yourself to their service for all the days of your life and your soul to their care after your death?"

"I do," Galin said solemnly, his head bowed.

"Do you give your oath to worship Saofoth before all other gods and to avoid all acts forbidden by the temple?"

"I do."

"Then cleanse yourself in the pure water of the gods' well, and live every breath you take from now on in devotion to Saofoth and in service to this temple."

He ducked his head into the basin of water, and for a moment, Saofoth seemed to glow from within. Then Galin came up, gasping for air, and the ritual was over. While he went to hug his mother and get congratulations from some of the villagers – many were giving him the cold shoulder, and Dalton was nowhere to be found – she turned to the god.

"Thank you, priestess," Saofoth said, inclining their head toward her. "You have given both myself and the boy a great gift."

"I hope things go well for him. I hope you can really protect him as well as you say you can."

"I will shield him from the eyes of the Great God on God's Day and every God's Day to come, until his death. One day, perhaps, his sister will devote herself to me as well."

"How does that work, since they share a body? Will she have to obey his oaths even though she didn't make them?"

"Whenever she is in control, it will be as if he is asleep. She will not have to follow his oaths or perform his acts of devotion unless she chooses to. They will both be well."

She didn't know if that was true, but they would probably be better off here than anywhere else. It was the best she could do for them, and it seemed like it was the best Saofoth could do as well.