The Curse of Kalathan

Eight: Flight

They buried the girl that afternoon, in the small graveyard behind the shrine, with the two dead priests and the guard who had panicked when he realised the princes were going to defend the girls, foolishly trying to challenge Jandrin's sword. Theo helped with the digging, taking his turn with the spade as if it might help to erase some of his guilt. He wondered over and over how he had missed it. He seethed with anger at his father, at the priests, at Shihazar who must have been behind this, and at himself most of all for not realising. The priest has instructions, Father had said. He will take care of everything.

The sweat ran down his face even in the cool, misty rain.

"Theo," he heard, from above him. Jandrin and Jameth, standing by the graveside. "Let one of us take a turn," said Jan.

"I'm all right," he said, leaning on the spade. "You stay there. Keep an eye on those priests and the guard."

"The guard won't be a problem," said Jameth. "He still swears he knew nothing and was only doing what he was told. We've taken his weapons and he's cleaning up the shrine now, with the priests. Pralin is watching them."

"Good," said Theo, getting back to work. "Is she all right? The girl?"

"She's quiet," said Jameth. "Resting in the priest's house. She hasn't cried or anything."

"I saw her stab that priest's leg," said Jan. "Impressive, for a skinny girl."

Theo thought so too. It was lucky that he had become suspicious of the behaviour of the twitchy priest who had taken them around the side of the shrine long before he had heard her scream. It was almost ridiculously lucky, too, that he had still had his bow on his back after taking a chance for some training earlier that morning. They had been at the door when he had heard Trina screaming his name, and he had seen everything, even the other girl's murder. Murder – that was the only word for it, and his father was responsible. The horror of it still sat in his throat, the way her scream had been cut short, the vision of her small hands clutching at her neck as she slipped to the floor. He had killed a man today and so had each of the twins. He had trained his whole life, it seemed, for a moment such as it had been, and he had been to the border and seen combat from a distance, but it felt as if nothing could have prepared him for what it felt like, to have taken a life. That priest had wanted to kill Trina, and he would do it again if he had to, but it didn't take anything away from the awfulness of it all. The digging helped him to forget for whole seconds at a time.

Later, he took Maikal and Ben on the short walk to the hot spring near the shrine. He had been to this shrine before; they had sacrificed pigeons, worshipped the sword and recited reams of scripture, and he had prayed in the little chapel and felt that God must be pleased with him. This time he felt that the earth beneath his feet had some how shifted, as if the doubts that had been born during his visits to the archives had all been leading up to this day, this dreadful day when he had realised that his father had been prepared to murder two innocent girls. For victory for Kalathan, he supposed, but still – he could not stomach it. If this was what God required in return for victory then he wanted no part of it. The implications of this conviction were massive, he knew. It was too much, to let his imagination go there.

Ben and Maikal were delighted with the spring, with the steaming water and the bubbles that rose from beneath the surface of the rocky pool. At least he had thought to shout to Kaspar to stay with them and had spared them the sight of what had happened. Maikal had accepted the watered-down story, the lie really, that he had told him. There had been an accident in the shrine. The sacrifice was done, and they would go home tomorrow, but Uka, the fat priest and the guard wouldn't be coming with them. Maikal had seemed puzzled for a moment but had not asked questions. He was disappointed to have missed the sacrifice but glad to be going home soon. But Theo knew his explanation didn't satisfy Ben.