A Day of Fallen Night (The Roots of Chaos)

Esbar was sipping palm wine, as she often did before she slept, when Tunuva reached her room.

Jeda twitched awake. Esbar gave her a stroke along the muzzle, smiling at Tunuva. ‘You look radiant,’ she said. ‘If this one hadn’t had a nightmare, I would help you sate the—’

‘I need you to stay calm.’

At once, Esbar turned to stone. ‘What has she done now?’

‘Esbar.’

‘I promise that I will try to stay calm.’

It would have to do. Tunuva sat beside her. ‘You recall when Siyu and Yeleni were lost?’ she said. ‘Yeleni and her ichneumon fell into the Minara. Siyu and Lalhar went after them, the current forced them downriver—’

‘That was almost a year ago. Why speak of this?’

‘Because of what they failed to tell us.’ Tunuva spoke under her breath. ‘They were all injured and exhausted, so they set up camp, and Siyu hunted for them. She went back to the river to fish, not realising how far east they had been washed. And she was seen.’

Esbar sat up. A trace of anger was already flickering, banked behind her eyes.

‘A boy, about her age, trying to mend a makeshift raft,’ Tunuva said. ‘Siyu knew she was bound to kill him on sight, but mercy stayed her hand; so did curiosity. She helped and befriended this outsider, Anyso. He is from Carmentum.’

‘Carmentum.’ Esbar stared at her. ‘What on earth was he doing in the Lasian Basin?’

‘His family came to Dimabu to care for an elderly relative. Anyso wants to be an explorer. He was following the river, hoping to map the Basin.’ Tunuva drew her shawl around her shoulders. ‘Siyu has been meeting him in secret ever since. Esbar . . . she is with child.’

Esbar answered these tidings with absolute silence. Tunuva waited for her to shape a reply.

‘How long?’ she said at last.

‘She’s missed her bleeding twice.’

‘Did she imagine she could hide it?’

Tunuva looked away for a moment.

‘Ez,’ she said, with difficulty, ‘Siyu climbed the tree because she wanted to do it once before she left. The pregnancy was unintentional, but when she guessed, she decided to flee with Anyso. They were meant to leave today, to go to Hróth. That was why her confinement distressed her.’

Esbar was good at concealing her feelings, but a shadow of pain crossed her face. ‘She meant to abandon the Priory – her family, her duty,’ she said, ‘for an outsider?’

‘To protect him. She wanted to ask for help, but she knew Denag would tell the Prioress.’

‘As I now must.’

‘No.’ Tunuva gripped her hand. ‘Ez, Saghul has finally agreed to send her to Nzene. If she learns of this, she will stop it. We don’t know how else Siyu might be punished.’

‘Because no one else has ever risked our secrecy like this,’ Esbar bit out. ‘Your love for her blinds you, Tuva. It always has. This is more than a mistake, more than desecration. Siyu has let herself be seen and known by an outsider. She has endangered our existence, our way of life, the tree. Five centuries this place has been a sanctuary, and now—’

‘Saghul has treated her like a child, and she no longer is. She must have felt crushed here—’

‘Enough.’ Esbar wrenched free and strode to her balcony. ‘I can’t hear you excuse her folly again.’

‘She swears she never told him about the Priory.’

‘Even if that is true, this outsider must realise she is not living wild in the woods. She has well-made clothes, fine weapons, an ichneumon. If he has breathed a word to anyone in Dimabu, they will grow suspicious and seek us out, and if they find us, they will want the power of the tree for themselves. Our hope against the Nameless One will be lost.’

‘Ez, please. There might be another way.’

‘What?’

‘Siyu deserves a choice in this,’ Tunuva said quietly. ‘Let me offer it to her.’

Esbar caught her gaze. Denag had always kept a supply of the sweet desert herb that brought on a miscarriage.

‘There would be no proof of her encounters with the outsider.’

Tunuva kept her silence. For a long time, Esbar did the same, staring into the distance.

‘If I am to conceal this from the Prioress,’ she said, ‘I have a condition.’

‘Name it.’

‘The outsider must still die. Only then will the Priory be safe.’

Tunuva thought of how Siyu had looked when she spoke of Anyso. The tenderness and joy in her smile.

‘It will break her heart,’ Tunuva said, a knot in her throat. ‘And she will know it was us.’

‘I will tell her it was me, and that I acted alone. In the end, she will see that it had to be done.’ Esbar touched her cheek. ‘I know you love her. I understand why you want to protect her from every pain she could suffer. But nothing comes above our calling.’

You cannot allow any love to overpower your love of her.

‘I will go to Siyu,’ Tunuva said.

‘If she declines your offer, I will need to inform Saghul. You must forgive me for it, Tuva.’

‘I already have.’

****

Siyu was not in her room. Tunuva went deeper into the Priory, to the men’s quarters, her mind preoccupied. She would need to retrieve and prepare the herbs without Denag noticing, and Denag kept close watch on her supplies, counting them to the last seed and leaf.

Imsurin had dozed off on a daybed, a book on his chest. Tunuva gave him a gentle shake.

‘Imin,’ she said. He grunted. ‘Imin, where is Siyu?’

He knuckled his eyes. ‘She may have wanted to bathe,’ he said, voice thick with sleep. ‘I said she could use the spring, while this sickness has her in its grasp.’

‘Thank you.’

The hot spring lay in the lowest cavern. A mighty root carved through the ceiling and one wall, cracks forming webs where it had broken in and out. Tunuva lit her flame. Its gleam flickered off the droplets, the steam, but there were no wet footprints. In fact, there was no sign of Siyu at all.

As Tunuva turned to leave, the water bubbled. She looked back at it, disquiet rising in her. As she watched, its whole surface began to roil and simmer, the steam clotting.

She retreated from the cavern. By the time she reached the top of the stair, her ribs felt crushed, like fingers bunched into a fist. When black eyes glinted from the gloom, she stopped.

‘Nin.’ She knelt before her ichneumon. ‘Honeysweet, have you seen Lalhar?’

‘She is not here. Farna is not here,’ Ninuru said. ‘They left with Siyu and Yeleni.’

Tunuva tensed, her flame guttering.

‘Ninuru,’ she said, ‘where have they gone?’

Her ichneumon gazed at her. ‘Eastward.’