Arrows of Time - Kim Falconer [46]
Hotha’s face darkened. ‘I’ve a better question. What’s a lad doing playing with word puzzles when he’s meant to be watching for arrivals?’
Teg smiled. ‘I can do two things at once.’
‘The wind is too strong. It’s masking scents from the west. You could miss someone, or something.’
Teg looked out over the barren valley; a few brown tumbleweeds were rolling by with drifts of red dust trailing behind. ‘The Santa Ana?’
Hotha nodded, black waves of hair falling into his face. He smoothed it back with both hands and tied it at the nape of his neck, biceps flexing with the movement. ‘What do you know about her?’
‘Santa Ana?’ Teg said. ‘She’s from the east, a place in ancient times known as the Valley of Saint Anne—patron goddess of books.’ He frowned. ‘I don’t know why they say her wind comes from the mouths of demons, unless they were opposed to the teachings of the sacred feminine, or occult knowledge in general.’
‘There were plenty who equated scholarship with evil.’
Teg scratched his head, his face lighting up. ‘Plenitude,’ he said, writing the word into the small squares on the page. ‘Thank you!’
‘Demon blood vipers, Teg!’ Hotha shouted. ‘Put that away!’
The younger Lupin rose, dusting off his leather pants. He folded his puzzle in half and used it as a place marker in a larger tome. Hotha caught the title before Teg slipped it into his pack.
‘The Evolution of Consciousness in…’ He tilted his head to read the rest. ‘Closed System Societies?’ Hotha snorted. ‘No secret how you’ll be voting. Where’s your sword?’
Teg clasped his side, his long fingers grasping at an empty scabbard. His face fell. He stammered an unintelligible reply.
‘That’s it.’ Hotha’s lip curled up in a snarl. ‘I don’t care if the Sword Master was willing to take you on. You’re out. An apprenticeship with him, or me, is earned by attention to detail and exactitude. You’re lacking both. I’m done.’
‘Hotha, no! Please. I just forgot. It won’t happen again. I…’
‘It’s already happened too many times. If books are your weapons, you’ve no business here, keeping watch, nor training under me. How will you protect the council chambers if the need arises?’
‘I’m aware of…’
‘You’re aware of nothing! You didn’t even sense my arrival.’
‘I did! I knew it was you—no threat—so I just kept going with my…’
‘Word puzzle?’
‘Crossword puzzle, actually,’ he mumbled, his eyes on the ground.
‘And if I had been a threat? What then? You have no sword.’
‘I have my mind,’ Teg said, ‘and these.’ He lifted his hands, and his fingers curled—ten sickle claws jutting out.
‘Then you should have stayed on all fours.’
Teg hung his head again, nodding.
‘But you can’t read on all fours, can you?’
Teg drooped lower, his shoulders hunched. ‘Not so well,’ he whispered.
The elder Lupin gazed towards the gates of Temple Los Loma. He sighed and turned back to Teg. His face relaxed.
‘Look, son, here’s what we’re going to do. If things go well in there,’ he tilted his head towards the inner cavern, ‘I’ll let Rashnan lead the fractious clans back to Los Loma, Gaela. The rest will stay here, under my watchful eyes.’
‘And me?’ Teg asked.
‘What if I send you to the High Priestess Kreshkali? Maybe she can find use for your literary interests.’
‘Kreshkali?’ he said. His face transformed. ‘Our queen?’
‘They don’t call her that so much any more. Not here on Earth. Something about a double life…But there’s much you can learn from the witch, and I think she can use you too.’
‘I’ll be able to apprentice?’
‘That would be the plan, if you suit. She has different needs, Teg, different rules, and different magic.’ He caught himself and laughed. ‘Actually, Kali has only one rule.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Ask her yourself,’ he said, brushing a fly from his face. ‘You’ll start out as an envoy to the council, a go-between. You’ll report to me too, of course.’
‘She’ll have me?’ Teg’s eyes glistened. ‘Kreshkali wants me? She knows who I am?’
‘I suspect she does now.’ Hotha lowered his eyelids. When he opened them the three ravens