NaNoWriMo 2005: 3756 Words

Celwyn smiled when she heard the rapid patter of Pearl's bare feet on the flagstones growing louder as the girl approached. Everyone else in the Temple wore shoes and moved with a silent, steady gait. Pearl was the only one who ever ran to see her, and though she could not quite see why, Celwyn could not say she minded. No, she did not mind at all. Possibly Pearl saw in her relative kindness some sign of the friendship she could not overtly express. In Celwyn she had found possibly her only ally in the Temple, though maybe the little girl did not know how strong an ally she was.

The footsteps slowed, stopped, and the door opened with a moaning creak.

Without turning around, Celwyn said, "Come in, little Pearl."

In her mind's eye, she could see the small girl leaning against the door, her eyes wide, and then timidly stepping into the room. Celwyn suppressed any trace of a smile and turned from the window to face the child.

To Pearl, the whole business was very intimidating. Just stepping into Celwyn's room was almost like magic, she thought, as she was subjected to a sharp, imperious glare.
"What's that from?" Celwyn demanded, pointing to the new bruise on Pearl's arm.

"Oh." The girl rubbed it self-consciously. "The wall, I think, Lady Celwyn."

"And whom?"

She hesitated, then met the old woman's eye and saw that she would not be able to escape the question. "Lord Dirnas."

Lady Celwyn nodded. "You're going to have to stop vexing the Wise Ones all the time, girl."

"Yes, Lady Celwyn."

"And, now. You wanted to ask me something?"

"Yes, Lady Celwyn."

"About Queen Lilien, I expect," she said gruffly, turning back to the window.
"Well..." Pearl looked down at her feet, then back up at Celwyn's back. "She isn't going to die, is she?"

"What makes you think she's going to die, little one?"

"Because the messenger said she was." There was no point in lying to the Lady; she somehow always knew the truth.

"Well, then I expect she is."

Pearl felt suddenly confused. "But she isn't going to really die, is she?" She repeated, in case Lady Celwyn hadn't fully understood the question.

"That's what is meant by 'the Queen is dying,' little Pearl." She still stood facing the window.

Pearl came forward and stood beside her, wanting to see the Lady's face. "But... I didn't think Queen Lilien could die."

"Everyone dies." Celwyn was gazing out the window at something Pearl couldn't see. Her voice was distant. "Some sooner, some later, but everyone dies. Even Queens. Everyone. Sometimes, I think, even the immortal Gods..." Her voice trailed off and she looked down at Pearl's confused young face. "But then, too, everyone lives. That's the gift you should treasure, young one. It's the greatest gift you will ever receive. Use your life well, it may be the only one you get."

Pearl frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You're a bit too young yet to understand, but someday you will. I'll teach you, someday." Then, almost to herself, "You'll do great things, little Pearl."

But Pearl scarcely heard the last sentence at all. Her head rang with the words I'll teach you someday. Lady Celwyn would teach her? The Wise One, the great priestess Celwyn? But she was less than nothing! She didn't even have a formal name! Yet she'd said it, and the Lady never lied. If Lady Celwyn could teach her... Pearl slowly broke into a wide grin and hugged the old woman tightly, forgetting for the moment that to touch a wise one unbidden would mean punishment. If Celwyn could teach her, anything was possible. She could do anything. She could even leave the Temple.

Quickly, realizing what she was doing, she released the priestess and stepped back. But she was still smiling, and even Celwyn was having a hard time producing a scowl.
"That's if you stop vexing the Wise Ones so you make it to your eighth birthday. That's soon, isn't it?"

"Three days, Lady Celwyn."

"Is it?" Celwyn asked softly. "Is it now?"

Pearl nodded.

"Well, well."

Celwyn was drifting off as she sometimes did, staring into space and getting lost in her thoughts. Pearl knew this meant that it was time for her to go. Before she did, though, she had to ask a question that would nag at her mind otherwise.

"Lady Celwyn, will you die?"

Celwyn sighed. "Yes, yes, of course. Didn't I explain? Everyone dies. I'm everyone, just like you." She paused, and her tone softened. "Yes, someday I'll die, little one. But not today. And I'm not planning on it anytime soon, either. So don't you worry about it. And what did I tell you about vexing the Wise Ones? You're vexing me. Get on."

"Yes, Lady Celwyn." Pearl bobbed a curtsy and ran out the door and down the hall.

Celwyn closed her eyes and listened to the footsteps receding.

***
There were no windows in the room where Pearl slept. There was no bed, either. She slept on a dirty pile of straw in the corner of a small, cold, stone chamber. It was dark there. Pearl thought she would have liked to see the stars at night.

The dark scared her a little, and it was always very lonely. Sometimes she cried at night, imagining her mother. Her mother must have loved her, and she would be sad to see her sleeping on the floor. Pearl imagined that her mother would have held her close when the dark got scary and stayed with her all through the night because she loved her too much to leave her all alone.

Except she was all alone, now. Her mother was gone... and she wasn't.

Pearl hugged herself against the cold. She wouldn't think of that now. Tonight she was not going to cry. She was not going to cry at night ever again.

Someday she was going to fly away from the Temple, and Lady Celwyn was going to teach her how.

***
Pearl was kicked awake at first light the next morning by a priestess named Tirra. She washed her face quickly and ran to the stables. Lord Maddeg and his attendants were departing for the Palace, and she was needed to help in the preparations. Maddeg was the high priest of the Temple, just as Celwyn was high priestess, and the greatest of the Wise Ones. He was also Queen Lilien's uncle. Only on an occasion as serious as this would he even dream of leaving the Temple. Pearl didn't think she'd ever known him to do so. It seemed he would be riding the King's horse, the one the messenger had rode in on yesterday. The messenger himself had left on one of the Temple's fine horses the night before.

Pearl hurried about, brushing the horses and cleaning the litters and trying not to be stepped on. The entire Temple seemed to be up and about already. Whenever she had a spare moment, Pearl would scan the courtyard for Lady Celwyn, but she couldn't find her. That seemed odd. Of course, if the high priest was leaving, the high priestess would remain at the Temple, but she still ought to be participating in this event. Well, the ways of the Wise Ones were mysterious, and Pearl had been brought up not to question them. Celwyn was probably doing magic. Pearl imagined that, when alone in her chamber, Celwyn was doing magic all the time.

Maybe someday Celwyn would teach her to do magic, too.

Wrapped in this exciting thought, Pearl didn't even notice the approach of the Wise Ones and their attendants, and so was rather surprised when Lord Maddeg sharply kicked her out of his way. Pearl curled up on the ground and tried to make herself small and unnoticeable. Under normal circumstances, she would already have been given a punishment or a beating for standing in the high priest's way, and she wanted to be allowed to eat today. She did not want to be sent back to her dark, dark room when it was such a lovely day out here.

She scrambled through the crowd on her hands and knees, only glancing back once at how the white robes the Wise Ones wore shone in the sunlight. They walked so gracefully... although she noticed that one of the fat priests was having a difficult time maintaining his grace while mounting a horse. Pearl suppressed a giggle and moved on to the door of the kitchens. The cooks had gone out to watch the grand departure, and she was able to grab a few rolls of bread and sneak out unnoticed.

Clutching the food tightly to her, she ran out the lower back door of the Temple and through the gate in the walls. Crouching in the grass and eating, she waited for the Wise Ones to proceed down the hill so that she could return to her spot near the main gate.

***
Celwyn was, as Pearl suspected, locked in her chamber. And she was, in a way, doing magic. She was watching, and she was waiting. Not watching the procession of the Wise Ones, led by Maddeg, who were leaving the Temple. Not waiting, as she knew Pearl to be doing, for the Wise Ones to pass the main gate. No, she was waiting for one lone figure to approach, and her eyes were fixed much, much further away.

He was coming. After all these years, he was coming at last. Satisfied with that, she focused on her face reflected in her silver hand mirror. Older now, yes. But not much, no, not so very much. And he was coming.

Again her eyes lost focus as she continued to gaze into the mirror. But now her own reflection wavered and vanished, replaced by a distant field and a single, indistinct figure, walking. Steady and determined. He was taking his time. But the field was not so distant now, nor so unfamiliar.

Celwyn replaced the mirror in its drawer and focused instead on the horizon. Very soon now.

Time passed. The sun slowly arched across the cloudless blue sky.

And then, just barely visible, a figure appeared. It was moving gradually closer.

Celwyn thoughtfully took the mirror out of the drawer again and stared at her somber reflection. Her eyes were sparkling.


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