Chapter 26
On the fourth day of the boar, just two days after the Emperor's army departed, Priestess Hanja mounted her horse and quietly slipped out of the Temple stables. She was unobserved, as Tak had not yet allowed Temple boys to return to their day mistresses (for the moment, at least, his army would keep them). As a result, Hanja herself had taken to caring for the Temple's horses and to keeping the stables in order; a lonely chore that she was happy enough to perform.
No one took much notice as she rode alone through the City streets, hood pulled over head to hide her identity. Only when she reached the rubble of the south wall and urged her steed forward to pick its way through the stones, did a man of the City Guard hail her. Recognising her as female from the cut of her clothing, he called out, "My Lady! My Lady! Halt a while! Where do you go all alone? The countryside around here is not safe. There are still foreign warriors about, and bands of brigands from lawless parts to the west."
She turned to the man and raised a hand to her hood, pulling it back enough to reveal her face.
"Do you know me, boy?"
He gasped and knelt beside her horse saying, "Of course. You are Priestess Hanja. Every boy of the Goddess knows and adores you, Mistress. My name is Dalan, of the seventh cohort"
"Dalan, your concern for a lady of the City does you great credit, but I must demand your obedience. Let me pass and tell no one that you saw me here!"
He looked at her in awe but still seemed unsure.
"If you must go hence Mistress, I will call for warriors to escort you!"
She beckoned to him to rise and come to her, and when he was close she reached down for him with a gloved hand and held his head against her booted thigh.
"Dalan, it is good that you care for my safety," she whispered. "But would you disobey a Priestess of the Goddess?"
Gazing up at her, he shook his head.
"Good boy, Dalan."
Hanja gave him her hand to kiss, blessing him in the name of the Goddess, and telling him that when she returned to the City he should seek her out at the Temple and she would have him kneel at her feet and make a giving to the Goddess. Then she rode forward, breaking into a canter as she headed for a line of trees to the east, leaving the excited boy staring after her. Only when she reached the edge of the forest did she look back. In the distance, at the east gate, she saw another solitary rider leave the City. A coincidence perhaps, but one that left her ill at ease.
Many times in the following hours Hanja would stare back along the trail behind her, straining to see if anything stirred there. But never was she able to see another traveller. Indeed the forest seemed devoid of life that day, with no brigands or men of the Emperor's army about as the City Guardsman had feared. Once she met a small group of northern warriors passing in the other direction, but their leader was polite enough. Even so, she could not escape the feeling that she was being followed.
Eventually, Hanja reached a point where the path narrowed between tall, steep rocks, requiring a traveller to dismount and carefully lead their horse through the narrow gap. And there she set a trap, tying her mount out of sight and waiting, dagger drawn, on the far side of the rocks.
For approaching an hour Hanja waited, until she was almost sure that no follower would appear. But then through the gap in the rocks came the sound of a traveller dismounting and speaking gently to his horse, coaxing it along the narrowing path. As the man came through, she slipped her body behind him and held her blade to his throat, recognising him in an instant and whispering into his ear.
"Well Samon, I am surprised the Temple's fighting slave would allow himself to be taken so easily!"
"Mistress, I knew you were there and trusted you would not skewer me."
Hanja was about to scoff at him and call him a liar, but then she remembered what he had done to Queen Zantina's would-be assassin not three moons ago. A boy like Samon deserved the benefit of the doubt. She removed the dagger from his neck and released her grip on his hard body allowing him to turn and face her.
"Explain yourself to me, Samon!"
"High Priestess Ashala sent for me, Mistress. She told me you had come to her requesting permission to go in search of Nikah. She denied you, Mistress, but still suspected that you might defy her. As you have done."
There was a note of disapproval in Samon's tone that Hanja did not care for.
"Therefore, Mistress, she bade me accompany you, assist you and protect you. Provide you with the comforts a priestess should expect from a boy in her service. And so, here I am. Shall we proceed, Mistress?"
Samon gestured forward towards the path ahead.
"No, Samon, we shall not proceed," Hanja growled, angrily. "The way ahead may be dangerous and, while my own mind is made up, I have no wish to be responsible for harm that may befall another. Turn around and go back to the City!"
When Samon did not move, Hanja slapped him hard across the face.
"How dare you stand there!? Why do you not obey me!?" she hissed.
"Because, Mistress, if I were to obey you I would be disobeying High Priestess Ashala."
She waved her hand in frustration, momentarily stifled by his logic, and then turned and mounted her horse.
"Mistress," said Samon, "The High Priestess acts from love, as do I, for you are second only to her in my eyes. They say Nikah went to Vilgen to seek his family. That place lies on the Road of Lakes where an army of the Emperor passed, bound for Casbur. It is said that a lady slaver favoured by the Emperor took thousands from the towns and villages thereabouts. Already they have been packed onto ships bound for distant lands."
"I have heard this too, Samon. But I shall go wherever I need to in search of my Nikah. To the ends of the world if necessary. This is why you must stay. Do not follow me Samon!"
And with that, Hanja rode away from the boy. She looked back twice, and both times she saw that he stood there, staring after her.
****
Later, Hanja felt guilty for her poor treatment of Samon; raising her hand to him even though he had done her no evil, other than to obey High Priestess Ashala. She wished she could hold him now, kiss him and reassure him of her love and respect. She sighed. He was quite the boy, Samon. Even among the males in the Temple he stood out for his loyalty and obedience and, indeed, he had quickly become a favoured night boy among the priestesses. Hanja recalled the evening of the disturbance in Zantina's bedchamber, how the Queen had held him so tightly in her arms, as though she would never let go, staring up at him in awe, gratitude and love. Well, what woman would not be enchanted by a boy who relaxes her after a hard day on the road, bathes her, pleasures her, cradles her as she succumbs to sleep, and then saves her from an assassin, all within the space of four hours. And what was it Samon said Ashala had instructed? 'Provide you with the comforts a priestess should expect from a boy in her service.' Of course, there was no mistaking what that meant. Hanja sensed herself moistening at the thought, the motion of horse and saddle against her only exacerbating the desire. She and her sisters had been largely celibate since the Temple boys were taken away. It was a frustrating state of affairs. Not at all natural.
As the day's light began to fade, Hanja found an inn in a village by the trail. The place was still within lands under the influence of the City, and she noted the sign of the Goddess on the board outside offering rooms, food and wine. A boy of about twenty three summers, broad shouldered and handsome, was sweeping the stable attached to the inn.
"Boy! Does your mistress offer rooms this night?" Hanja shouted.
He came to her and took her reins, inviting her to dismount.
