Page 30 of The Warrior Priest
I removed a cloth from my pocket that I sometimes wrapped around my neck for warmth. “Why this?”
“I suspect it will smell where we’re going.”
“You suspect? Rhys, where are we going?”
He grinned, flashing his dimples.
He was still grinning as we set off along the street. His step was light and quick as he strode ahead of me. When he realized I’d fallen behind, he turned and walked back, still smiling. “I’ll race you, Jac.”
“That’s not fair. My legs are shorter than yours.” Just in case he decided that wasn’t a compelling enough reason not to race, I added, “I don’t even know where we’re going.”
“Good points, but I know the real reason you won’t race me is because you’re slow.”
“I am not!”
“You run like a girl.”
“That’s not the insult you think it is.”
“Who says I intended it as an insult?” He chuckled and I couldn’t help laughing as I shook my head.
“You’re incorrigible, Rhys.” It felt good to be teasing him again, and to be teased by him.
But it wasn’t quite the same this time. It felt a little forced, like we were both desperate to regain the relationship we’d shared before the kiss. We were trying to return to the normality of the last three years, not to the shifting sands of today’s reality.
I had doubts that we could go back, no matter how hard we tried. Too much had changed. It wasn’t just our relationship that had changed. Rhys had, too. It seemed the people around him had also noticed it. Had he suggested this mission in response to the high priest’s comments about him maturing? Was Rhys trying to prove to me that he hadn’t changed?
Or was he trying to prove it to himself?
Chapter7
The evening was still young when we arrived at the temple of Merdu’s Rest, the priestly order of doctors and apothecaries who took care of infirm and dying priests. Although the goddess Hailia was associated with healing, priests took care of their own. I supposed it would be undignified for dying men to be cared for by women when their bodies hadn’t been seen by the opposite sex in decades, in some cases. Priestesses had their equivalent order, Hailia’s Rest. Their smaller temple was located in the same street as the priests’. We had no interest in it. We needed a deadman.
Rhys had explained on the way that he’d gotten the idea from my own faked death. Although mine hadn’t been deliberately faked, it had served my purpose and stopped my uncle from searching for me, at least until he saw me recently. Rhys hoped he’d be convinced a second time, if we could find a suitable body.
“Why not a woman’s body?” I asked as we passed the temple of Hailia’s Rest.
“Do you think the governor will believe a woman capable of cold-blooded murder? Or that she could climb a vine?”
He had a point.
We stopped opposite Merdu’s Rest, an elegant temple with rounded domes of the same style as the high temple, only smaller. Unlike the temple of Merdu’s Guards, there were no walls surrounding it. It barely even had a forecourt, just a narrow path in front of four stone steps leading to the entrance.
“We’ll wait for the high temple bell to signal evening prayers, then we’ll go in through the side door,” Rhys said. “There are no torches there. Can you pick the lock in the dark?”
“Of course. Rhys, are you sure you want to use the fresh corpse of one of your fellow brothers? It could deny him a proper burial in sacred ground.”
“The order isn’t just for ill and dying priests. The city’s unclaimed deceased men are brought here. Vagrants and those with no family or who can’t be identified. The priests prepare the bodies for burial and pray for their souls. They’re kept for a week, sometimes less in the heat of summer, in case someone comes forward and claims them. It’s always better to bury someone with a name in sacred ground than without. We’re not taking the body of someone with friends and family, Jac. Also, I’ll pray for him.”
For a religious person, that was enough to justify what we were about to do. I still had my reservations.
“The priests will notice a missing corpse.” I indicated the temple. “They’ll realize something is going on when that same body finds its way back here tomorrow.”
“Their master will take their concerns to the high priest. The high priest will deem it wiser to say nothing, since finding the deputy governor’s killer will put an end to the governor’s threat of violence. The high priest likes peaceful solutions.” He leaned back against the wall of the building behind us, ankles crossed, arms loosely by his sides. He was as calm as could be. “Any more questions?”
“Just one,” I said. “What if this goes wrong? What if my uncle doesn’t believe the ruse a second time?”
“That’s two questions. Have faith, Jac.”
