Hannal got down on to her knees and lay prostrate on her stomach before her goddess.
‘Oh, just help me up,’ the Queen of Dreams croaked.
Abbess Hannal threw open the doors to the cynosure of the monastery. Beyond, the gathered acolytes and guards stopped their whispering and hushed arguments. She knew she appeared a fright in only her thin shift scorched and burned through, with further red burns down her arms. ‘Bring warm water, towels and clothes,’ she ordered, then slammed shut the doors.
Much louder murmurings resumed out in the hall.
She hurried back to where the Enchantress now sat on the lip of the pool, wrapped in her outer robes. She was examining her arms, pinching the flesh of her hands. ‘It has been … a very long time,’ she said to herself.
Hannal knelt before her once more. ‘You honour me, my goddess.’
The Enchantress shook her head. ‘I am no goddess.’
‘Your capabilities, your various manifestations, are godlike to us. Therefore we choose to name you such.’
‘Well … you are free to do as you choose.’
‘Have we displeased you? Have you come to censure us?’
‘Censure you?’
Hannal wet her lips. ‘The … lesson of Kartool … is never far from mind these days.’
‘Ah. No, nothing like that.’ She shook her head again, smiling, and Hannal lowered her gaze, for unworthy thoughts played across her mind. Thoughts of how in person the Enchantress was far from the beauty she projected to her penitents. She was in fact a middle-aged woman with unruly mousy brown hair, short, a touch on the heavy side, with facial moles and — forgive me, Goddess! — the dark dusting of a moustache.
When Hannal glanced back she saw the smile had broadened into something that appeared self-deprecating. ‘The actual truth, Hannal,’ the Queen of Dreams murmured, ‘is always far from pretty.’
The abbess ducked her head once more, shamed. ‘You honour me.’
‘I offer you the truth. Call that an honour, if you choose. Most prefer to have their expectations fulfilled with lies.’
Quiet timorous knocking sounded from the doors. Hannal bowed, backing away. She opened one leaf a crack and snatched the proffered clothes, towels and bowl of water from the acolytes who struggled to peer in past her, then slammed it shut. While the Enchantress washed herself, Hannal faced away, asking, ‘May I ask, then, why you have come here to Tali?’
A throaty amused chuckle answered that. ‘I suppose again I should say something flattering but I will not patronize you. I did not come because of the strength of your devotion, or the purity of your spirit, or any such thing. I came because this is the closest centre to where I wish to travel.’
Hannal frowned, puzzled. ‘Travel, my goddess? Surely all the world is open to you. You may travel as you wish.’
Again the husky barmaid’s chuckle. ‘Ah, Hannal. I suppose that would be true were I a goddess. But in fact there are many places that are closed to me. And it is important that I travel to one such now. The time has come.’
Such words drove Hannal to abase herself once again upon the polished marble floor. ‘Enchantress! Perhaps such knowledge is not for me.’
The Queen of Dreams paused in her dressing. ‘Now I am the one distressed to hear such words. Are you or are you not an abbess of my calling? Knowledge is neither good nor bad — it is what you choose to do with it that matters. What you should know is that an opportunity is approaching … a rare chance to pose challenges where none have dared do so for a very long time. And to demand answers that have been avoided for far too long. Now, Abbess, stand — if you would.’
Chastened, and rather terrified by the sharing of knowledge that could be mortal for her, Hannal rose to her feet and dared a glance to her goddess. The woman now wore sandals, trousers of some sturdy weave, and a loose shirt beneath layered open robes. A long white silk cloth wrapped her head and a veil hung over her features leaving her eyes alone uncovered. And those dark eyes seemed to possess a startling allure now that all else was hidden.
‘So, has my champion arrived?’ the Queen asked.
Hannal blinked her uncertainty. ‘Your … champion?’
‘Well, let us say … my bodyguard, my spokeswoman.’
‘Who — who would that be, my goddess?’
The Queen of Dreams crossed her thick arms; above the veil her dark brows wrinkled. ‘The woman would be wearing a cloak no doubt, and keeping her face hidden.’
‘Ah … But, my lady of prescience, I assure you there is no one here who answers that-’ Hannal clamped shut her mouth. ‘There is an odd itinerant who has slept on the steps of the monastery these last few days. We have been feeding her. She keeps herself wrapped in a filthy cloak.’
‘Has this one spoken to anyone?’
Hannal cocked her head in thought. ‘Not that I know of. No, I believe not.’
The Queen of Dreams smiled behind her veil. ‘Very good. Have her brought to me.’
Hannal bowed and returned to the doors. All became quiet again as she pulled open one leaf. She paused, blinking, as it appeared that the entire constituency of the monastery was gathered in the outer vestibule: every acolyte, nun, priestess, guard, cook and groundskeeper. A sea of faces stared back at her, expectant. ‘Get that itinerant,’ she hissed to Churev, the highest ranking priestess nearby.
‘Who?’ the woman answered, trying to peer in past her.
‘The one outside on the steps! Is she still there? By the Deceiver, you haven’t driven her off, have you? Get her. Bring her!’
Churev bowed. ‘At once, Abbess.’
Hannal slammed the door and leaned against it. Goddess forgive us! Well, now I suppose I could just ask …
Not too long after a knock sounded and Hannal heaved open the leaf. The cowled and cloak-wrapped beggar faced her, Churev at her side. Hannal motioned in the silent woman, while at the same time throwing an arm across the open portal to block all the others surging forward. She managed to urge everyone back far enough to press shut the door. Meanwhile, the homeless beggarwoman had walked on alone to stand before the Queen of Dreams.
Hannal hurried to her side to hiss: ‘Bow before our goddess!’
The beggarwoman merely turned her hooded head to cast her the briefest of glances. Hannal caught nothing of what lay within that hood.
‘Thank you for answering my call.’ The Enchantress addressed the figure. ‘And thank you for tolerating such shameful disguise. The time for it has passed — you may cast it aside.’
The figure seemed to merely shrug and the heavy travel-stained cloak fell away revealing a sturdy woman in travelling leathers, twin narrow swords at her sides. But what drove Hannal back one step was the nearly plain white mask at the woman’s face.
Nearly plain! My goddess! I know what that means!
‘Now we can go. Ina, you may lead the way. We must go straight to the harbour.’ She directed what appeared to be an amused smile at Hannal. ‘As they say — my ship is about to come in.’
The Seguleh woman immediately turned to the doors. Hannal jumped from her path. ‘And I? Shall I come?’
The Enchantress waved a hand, unconcerned. ‘You may arrange an escort, if you must.’
Despite her light leather armour, her weapons, the Seguleh champion crossed the polished stone floor soundlessly to pull open both leaves of the portal. Priestesses and acolytes who had been pressed up against the doors listening fell in a tumble at her leather-wrapped feet. The entire jammed crowd of the vestibule gaped at this sudden masked apparition, until, in a rush of feet, they frantically scrambled to either side.
Ina advanced and the veiled and robed figure of the Queen of Dreams emerged.
For a moment the assembled priestesses and staff of the monastery stared, taking in this new arrival, then thoughts turned to the awakened portal within, for it was known to all that no other entrance existed, and one by one, then the rest in unison, they knelt and bowed their heads.