The Azimar Archives Book One- The Book of Death

Nevina

Nevina walked slowly through Etritia's market square, letting the girls trailing behind her take in the sights around them. She had been to Etritia on several occasions, but this was the first time her girls had come with her to the capital. The sights, the smells, the sheer number of people— it could be both fascinating and overwhelming. Their little faces and wide eyes showed as much each time she turned to check on them. Even Layle, usually so reserved, seemed to be enjoying herself.

Nevina slowed further, allowing her girls to follow a little more closely behind. She caught sight of a helmed guard tailing them, and she was both grateful and a little surprised by his presence. Has the commander come to offer himself to me already? Nevina smiled to herself, thinking of the routine gesture she and Commander Ajax always found themselves making. But the guard kept his distance, watching the Matriarch and her girls from afar. Nevina found herself a little disappointed to realize that it wasn't Ajax. But the day is still young.

As they drew nearer to the castle, the city dwellers crept closer and closer to the little group of women, staring as they passed, trying to catch a glimpse of the faces beneath the white veils each woman wore. Merchants were the boldest, coming within touching distance to offer her their wares, and to try to sneak a look at what lay hidden behind each veil. Nevina waved each one away, purchasing nothing, not even truly looking at what was offered to her. After all, she wasn't here to shop for a new trinket or bauble. And Areanath was sure to keep the castle's kitchen well stocked with sweetbreads and honeyed cakes, even when he wasn't expecting her.

Nevina continued to slow her pace, as the crowd around them continued to swell. It would only take a few more moments before people began begging for answers, and she didn't want to lose one of her girls in the chaos. There was always chaos, wherever a Matriarch visited. Etritia was no exception.

"Please," a woman begged, pushing through the gathering crowd to kneel before Nevina, "my son, will he ever come home?"

Around them, a hush fell over the assembled onlookers as they waited to see if the Coven's newest Matriarch would share the insights her Gift gave her.

Nevina Saw the answer as soon as she looked into the woman's eyes. Her son, his hair and face much like his mother's, riding a weary horse through a twisting forest path. "He was traveling?" Nevina asked the mother, almost unaware that the words had left her mouth.

"Yes," the woman sobbed. "He wanted to see the world. I thought he was so foolish, but I couldn't make him stay."

The vision Nevina watched in her mind's eye continued, and Nevina fought to coalesce the flood of images into one coherent thread that her mind could follow. Thieves ambushed the young man, knocking him from his horse and sending him sprawling to the ground. They took the animal, and beat the son, robbing him of even the shirt and shoes he wore. When he knelt in the dirt, nose broken and bleeding, begging for his life, they cut his throat and left him on the side of the road. Nevina blinked, trying to hold back the tears stinging her eyes. "He is fine," she lied, taking the woman's hand and guiding her back to her feet. "He found something that he wasn't aware he had been searching for. In time, he will marry a beautiful woman, and they'll have a beautiful family," she said. "But you will never see or hear from him again."

The woman sobbed loudly, a sound full of anguish and of joy, and Nevina's heart ached in sympathy.

The silence that followed was short lived, and suddenly they were all speaking, all calling out to her.

"My crops. Why do they grow so poorly?"

"Will my wife and I ever have a baby?"

"Is my husband still sleeping with that harlot?"