This is the sixteenth chapter of Wealthgiver, an alternate history serial romance about nationalism and cave-Thracians. For the back-of-the-book description and an index of chapters, click here. For the beginning, click here. For the previous chapter, click here.
"I echo, Elder Brother," said Kori, and her high priest swept into the room.
"My Maiden." Nikolai eyed the space between her body and Andrei's. "What is the meaning of this?"
"Man's most important question," said Andrei.
Nikolai drew himself up. "The more time you waste on your foolishness, the more inclined I am to sully the curve of my sickle with your blood. You have no need for that light. It is for emergencies only, and it is disturbing the Maiden's equanimity."
Kori willed herself to hold still, breathe deep, make no noise that would betray her feelings. But of course, the priest would see her blush.
"I am entirely calm," she lied. Andrei watched her the way a lost traveler might sight on a distant mountain peak. As if he'd use her to find his way home.
Nikolai grasped the corner of the nearest cot as if he wanted to tear it free from the floor. "Go, I said! Put out the light. Still your eyes do violence to her!"
Andrei slowly turned from Kori to face the priest. "If my eyes are doing some sort of violence to her, what are your eyes doing to me?"
He bowed. "But as you say, Your Serenity. That is, Elder Brother."
Leaving behind his iodine-stained bandage, Andrei walked across the infirmary.
"Earth, protect us from madness," muttered Nikolai. "Madness and lust! My Maiden, why did you come alone to the den of this man?"
"What den?" Andrei swung the limestone out of the oxy-hydrogen flame. "I would expect you to have a higher opinion of your own infirmary."
The blue jet in the shadows would have been a dangerous luxury at any other time, but now it seemed feeble and miserly.
"We were not alone," Kori pointed out. "We had patients to tend. Or do you think we spent our time in exchanging encoded letters?"
Nikolai pressed his hand to his mouth, but Kori saw his smile of recollection. "I was a lost and foolish boy back then," he said. "And yet I became one of the Good. Now, I stand ready to create an entire new state to adore and protect the Maiden. What sort of man would I be if I expected kisses in return?"
"Are you seeking my medical opinion?"
"Shut those valves," snapped Nikolai. "Don't waste hydrogen."
Darkness fell back upon them. Already, she missed the sight of Andrei's face.
Nikolai breathed as if recollecting why he was here, and so lost the initiative to Andrei.
"Elder Brother," came the doctor's voice. "When there was still light in here, I happened to see that your hands were empty. Did you bring the medicines I ordered?"
"Never mind about that," said Nikolai. "What were you two doing in here?"
"Dancing the Mazurka. What the patients need is antipyretics, and it was your task to fetch them."
Nikolai's robes rustled. "In fact, and as I would have said at the time if I had been given the chance, I long ago obtained for us a quantity of salicin. It is from Germany. It should be here, in the very stores that you and the Maiden were, I assume, searching when I… interrupted you?"
Kori spoke before Nikolai could prod further. "Elder Brother, we did not know where to look."
She still knew where Andrei was. It was as if the light still connected them. A bar of radiance glowing between their hearts. Andrei moved his hand, and Kori's fingers twitched. He inhaled, and so did she. He was thinking about her.
"My Maiden." Nikolai spoke in Good, soft and low. "Tell me, and I will murder him."
Kori lost control of her breath. A vision came to her of her own hand flying out, finding Nikolai's lips. Clawing them off.
No. This was rage. This was the Binder attempting to seize Kori's spirit. What door had she opened, allowing herself to feel in this way? And all this time, she could not speak.
"So," said Andrei. "You go get the stuff out while I calculate the dosages. Salicin ulcerates the stomach if the concentration's too high."
Nikolai took three steps before stopping. "Again, damn it! I am your teacher, Novitiate, and your high priest. Not your nurse."
Kori controlled the hot impulse to speak. There was a way to tilt the balance in her favor without angry words. She set off silently between the cots.
"You're a high priest who can find things in the dark," Andrei was saying. "If you want, quiz me on grammar while you're searching."
"Would you stop giving me orders!" Nikolai strode toward Andrei, his robes a crackling like a thundercloud. "I know when someone is trying to fool me, and I will not accept it."
"Elder Brother."
The jaw of Brother Murad moved under Kori's hand.
"I'm sorry we woke you," she said, stroking his cheek. "Go back to sleep."
"Don't apologize, My Maiden. Your touch is cool. Elder Brother, you have medicine?"
Nikolai's voice turned to his friend. "Of course I do. Little Brother, is the pain very bad?"
A wheeze from the patient outlined his wry smile. "Feeling I've been made the fool. That's what hurts most."
Nikolai laughed with relief and the air seemed to slacken. "I know exactly what you mean."
"Then take my advice, Elder Brother. Take the Master's orders and be glad of them."
Kori listened to Nikolai's throat moving. He began and discarded several responses before he settled on, "The Novitiate is the reason you were injured in the first place."
"I am the reason," said Murad. "I tried to attack the Unseen."
The air in Kori's lungs was cold. She had not planned to move this quickly. Again, events rushed, and the cold hands of the gods were heavy on her back.
"Younger brother," said Nikolai. "You err. Your judgment—your faith—is too hastily given. There is still much we do not know about this novitiate."
"Then we must know more."
A smile in Nikolai's voice. "I don't suppose I can interest you in vivisection."
"Not my specialty, Elder Brother. Will you welcome this gift?"
"Of course I will," said Nikolai. "I do! I have, from the first, sought the voice of the Unseen. If he truly speaks through this foreign doctor, very well. No, more than well! We will have our first prophet in a thousand years, just at the time when we most need him. There could be no better sign; no more potent blessing of our plans can be imagined. Yes!" He paced back and forth. "The novitiate must prepare for the Un-Descent. He must perform flawlessly."
The three Good breathed in the dark, terrified.
"All right," said Andrei eventually "I heard a great deal of talking, and not much finding of medicines."
Nikolai's robes snapped about him as he spun to face Andrei. "Novitiate, attend! I am, you are…?"
"He, she, or it is." Andrei switched back to French. "The salicin, Nikolai Igorevich?"
Nikolai ran his hands over the words cut into the cabinets as he ran his pupil through the conjugation of the verb "to be."
"Aha," he said in Good, "here it is. Here, Novitiate. Repeat!"
"Here?"
Nikolai strode to the voice and clicked the glass vial down on the nearest cot. He stood back. "There."
"Uh," said Andrei in French. "Where?"
Nikolai translated the question into Good and clicked his tongue to indicate the vial. "Novitiate, where is the medicine?" He clicked again.
Andrei's robes outlined the movement of his arm. "Here," he said in Good, and in some surprise. "The darkness knows."
Kori rubbed down the hairs on her arms. Andrei's Russian accent was strong, and she found herself enjoying it immensely. What would he say in her language? After all this was over and they lived together in the Mountain, what could she teach him to tell her?
"Your novitiate learns well. I am pleased."
"Thank you, My Maiden."
"Yes," said Andrei. "I feel very instructed, but someone will need to measure this out. And bring me some hot water to dissolve it in."
Nikolai hummed to himself. "I will obey the orders that flow from the mouth of the vessel of Hades," he said, "but only in the Good language."
Murad twitched under Kori's hand, but before either he or she could tell Nikolai to stop playing games, Andrei said, "Maiden, here! Orpheus, there!"
Nikolai fled toward the hot water spring, muttering about vocative cases.
Kori walked to Andrei. "How much should I give them?"
"One-twenty and two-forty for the child and the adult respectively."
"Numbers," said Nikolai. "But they can wait until after the Un-Descent."
"Don't distract her."
Kori wiped her hand across the counter-top of the cabinet until she found the lines that led her to the measuring spoon. "How many teaspoons is a milligram?"
"Never mind about that," said Andrei. "A pinch is a third of a gram, so…twelve divided by three…four big pinches for the one and eight big pinches for the other. Nikolai, where's that water?"
Kori didn't ask why Andrei had summoned her if not to help him measure out the medicine. His free hand had found hers, and his thumb circled her palm. He remembered what the priest's entrance had interrupted.
She traced an A on his skin. He stiffened.
C. She traced and another C. An O. Then U.T.E.Z.
Andrei's breathing and heartbeat changed. He understood. He was listening.
"Here is the water," Nikolai said in Good. "Repeat that."
"Here is the water." And in French. "No, you hold it out. Where are you? One. Two. Good. Give that to Murad to drink."
"These are all simple sentences that you can say in Good. Attend."
Kori traced more letters on Andrei's hand: C.O.N.F.I.A.N.C.E.? Did he trust her?
"I do," Andrei mouthed.
"What did you say?" Nikolai asked from beside Murad's cot.
"Never mind," said the poisoner. "Give me the water, Elder Brother."
Kori pressed her free hand over his mouth, and traced F.O.U. Fool.
Andrei put down the vial of salicin and groped for her wrist. Lifting her hand as if to kiss it, Andrei wrote, N.S.Q.T.R.O.N.D.X.C.T.M.O.N.T.
"We shall both leave this mountain," that was, or rather "W wll bth lv th mont." Kori's breathing stopped. Started again, slower.
N, she responded.
Persephone walked the Earth in the summer, but her husband stayed behind to rule the underworld. Kori would go and gather the people, while Andrei would command the priests. That was the best plan for the Good's Rising, and the gods clearly agreed. If Kori hated the thought of leaving Andrei behind, she was only being foolish.
How could she trace any of that on the back of Andrei's hand?
"Wait," she told him.
Andrei pulled her hand to him, as if he would write more, but Nikolai rustled closer. "Wait for what?"
"For all the gifts of the Earth," said Kori with as much serenity as she could fake. "We are a patient people. Our way is cool and deep and slow."
Andrei lowered her hand. "Just a bit faster, if you please. I'd like to get this dose into little Vlada." He stepped toward Nikolai, who held out his silver cup. Kori directed Andrei's hand with subtle prods until he found it.
"If you can find your way, Novitiate." Nikolai pulled himself aside like a curtain and spoke as Andrei groped from one empty cot to the next. "The sunlight flashes upon ripples, but under both lie the depths of necessity. The Ritual of Un-Descent approaches, and the building of our nation."
"Ah, Vlada. There you are. Drink this now." Andrei turned. "What does this ritual nation-building entail? Besides a recitation of words in the ancient form of your language."
"I've already told you." But Nikolai had never minded repeating himself. "In reenactment of the Anodos of Persephone, the Maiden will leave the Mountain to spend half the year among our people in the wider world."
"Yes, and what about Pluto? Does he accompany Persephone?"
"No," Kori snapped before Nikolai's suspicions could rise any further. "Of course the Master stays." How broadly did she dare hint? "He waits for the Mistress."
"While, presumably, ruling the Mountain," said Andrei.
Shocked breathing from one priest and a chuckle from the other.
"Getting ahead of yourself," said Murad.
"You have gravely misinterpreted the role of the Master," said Nikolai.
"Is the name misleading?"
"Yes! No. There has not been a male prophet since the Good first fled into these caves. His role was, would be, similar to that of the Maiden. He will prophesy, and it will be we who interpret his words."
Kori walked toward Andrei, hoping to grab him and use finger-writing to silently tell him to shut up. She stopped with relief when he said, "Fair enough," and started again when he asked, "So, what will Kori do when she's out among the people? Give prophesies?"
"The Maiden will inspire and encourage them before returning at the autumnal equinox for the Ritual of Descent," said Nikolai. "What secrets are you digging for, Novitiate?"
"What do you think Hades does to make sure his wife comes back to him in September?"
Now, both priests sounded shocked. Kori had reached Andrei, but now she didn't know what to write on him. A slap would be perfect if it wasn't so loud. Could she inaudibly pinch him or step on his foot?
"The Ritual of Un-Descent is not," Nikolai's teeth clicked, "a celebration of ravishment. Do you understand me?"
"You save that for the autumn?" asked Andrei.
Kori's face burned. "Boys, enough."
"There will be no ravishment." Nikolai strode forward, unhooking his sickle. "Swear that now, Andrei Trifonovich."
Kori drew breath to excoriate the both of them, but Andrei said, "I swear, Nikolai Igorevich. I swear, no ravishment."
In the silence that followed, she understood her powerlessness. As much as Kori might want to fly into a rage and forbid Nikolai from ever mentioning the subject of bride-stealing again, she knew she might as well order him to marry her to Andrei right here and now.
She could order, but the priest would not obey. She could prophesy, and Nikolai would creatively interpret the signs. She could speak with the voice of the goddess, and he might choose not to believe.
"The Ritual," she said. "Comes soon."
"I know that," snarled Nikolai.
"And there is much to prepare," she reminded him.
"Yes. I haven't had the time to teach him the proper language."
Kori kept her voice soft, proud that she was so good at managing this man, and angry that he made it so necessary. "I think after he's had his bath."
"Bath?" they both asked, as if dogs could speak.
"Have I stunk all this time?" asked Andrei.
"One bathes. One washes oneself," Nikolai said in Good before switching back to French. "These are entirely different verbs. Yes. My Maiden, I apologize for not purifying the novitiate sooner." He cleared his throat. "Of course I will personally oversee the process."
"I have already asked Brother Bogdan to do it," said Kori. "In the Moss Pool."
"Oh. Well then. My Maiden is most considerate. Yes." Nikolai raised his voice. "For the novitiate must learn, not the dazzling abstractions of Apollo, nor the maddening urges of Dionysus, but the insight of our god: the grim truth of Hades."
"A truth you'd deliver on the tip of a dagger, maybe," said Andrei. "Or dissolved into my drink."
Murad chuckled at that. Kori braced for Nikolai to attack, but the priest only said, "Perhaps, in the Moss Pool, you will find out."