While the Juskaran blustered, Gerus leaned over the table and pounded his fist to emphasize his words.
“This whole thing, it’s a farce. I think it’s a travesty that all the most powerful heads of faith, state, and ship hang their hopes on the words of a woman who left these isles four years ago without so much as a by-your-leave to anyone. So that now, after all this time, a bird from her sends the entire Alliance into a tizzy to do as she bids without one drop of evidence to say she’s got the right of things.”
Taliah’s eyes were wide and her mouth hung ajar. “It’s Skye…”
“Pish-tosh to your Skye.” The older man’s voice rose loud and deep. “We’ll send Selena Koren to her death over Skye’s decree? Yes, I said your death, missy,” he said to her, “for you’re supposed to kill not one, but two Bazira priests. And one is no trifle. He’s been dubbed the most powerful Bazira to come out of the Shadow face’s ranks since Horace the Rotten. And why do we do this? For the worst, most horrid reason. A corruption of hope. Your hope…”
Gerus paused to catch his breath and Taliah pounced.
“Enough of your blasphemy!” The Juskarii slapped her palm on the table. “You have shown contempt to the Temple and its greatest Paladin—”
“Oh, to speak against her is blasphemy now, is it?” Gerus countered. “What, Skye is godly now? Is her word as sanctified as that of the Shining face itself?”
“We’ll have order,” Celestine began but Gerus would not abide.
“And Skye is our greatest Paladin? Can Skye call the sea to do her bidding? Eh? No. But she can!” Gerus stabbed a gnarled finger at Selena.
Call the sea. Selena stood in the midst of a maelstrom, whipped by their words and memories. She would never again call the sea. Never. She would rather face exile if it came to it.
Taliah seethed through clenched teeth. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I do not believe our numbers have dwindled so much so that the order should suffer your presence, Gerus. I’m certain there is a more worthy choice to sit your seat on the Temple’s sovereign board—”
“There is!” Gerus rose to his feet and jabbed the air in Selena’s direction again. “And she’s standing right there!”
Taliah’s mouth snapped shut with a clack. Celestine seemed about to speak but bit her lip instead. Justarch Osten, favored Selena with a curious stare and the Admiral watched her with a newfound scrutiny. Selena stood silent for a moment, too stunned to speak.
“I appreciate your faith in me,” she told Gerus when she’d found her voice, “but I am not fit for…such a rank. It is impossible.”
“It is impossible,” Taliah agreed with a huff.
“My eye,” Gerus spat. “What’s impossible to comprehend is why this girl is not honored for her service. Instead, we give her a death sentence.”
Death sentence? Skye had made contact, the Bazira were amassing an army, and now this. Selena’s head reeled.
“You disparage Selena Koren’s power even as you seek to defend her,” Celestine said, her tone cold. She fixed the old man with an icy stare, as he was still on his feet. “There is no reason to doubt Skye. She has always Heard the god better than any; she would not send Paladin Koren to fulfill a task if she believed it to be futile. Now, if you please. This conference has been too much distracted by petty bickering…”
“No, Taliah is right,” Gerus said. “I don’t belong here any longer.” He nearly toppled his chair leaving the dais, and strode toward Selena. “Whatever they ask of you,” he told her, “tell them no. It is a deadly farce.”
Up close, Selena could see the sadness in his brown eyes.
“Don’t do it, child,” he said softly. “It means your death.”
“I don’t understand.”
He reached up slowly, hesitantly, and patted her cheek. “I’m very sorry. You have not been treated well. May the god Hear you. But this is not the way.”
He stomped down the hallway. Selena heard him mutter at the guards to get out of his way and then the Vestibule door slammed shut, sending a deep reverberation throughout the Temple.
“Apostate,” Taliah muttered after a moment.
“No.” Celestine sounded weary. “This has been a long time coming. But he has the god’s ear, still. We will deal with Reverent Gerus later. I apologize that you had to witness such uncouth behavior, Justarch, Admiral. And you, Selena.”
Justarch Osten slapped the papers before him onto the table. “If we could proceed…”
“Yes, we shall proceed,” Celestine said, sitting up straight, “so that we can release Paladin Koren to the task assigned before we continue addressing the rest of Skye’s plans. Before the sun sets, preferably.” She looked to Selena. “Skye, in her journeys, has learned of the existence of two powerful Bazira in the northern waters of the Eastern Edge. One is a shadow cleric by the name of Accora.”
Accora. The name meant nothing to Selena. “And the other?”
“The other, a Reverent named Bacchus, was reported to be with Accora but they have since separated. To where, we do not know and neither does Skye, according to this missive.”
Selena swallowed. “And she wishes me to…?”
Celestine met her eye. “Kill them.”
Kill them. Kill them all. She was whipped back to the war. She called the sea and the sea obeyed. The people—enemy and innocent alike—were far away but she heard their screams anyway…
Selena blinked the memories away and shivered.
“I don’t expect it will be easy,” Celestine continued. “There is great danger involved as these two have risen high in the Bazira faith. They are powerful and it is with no light heart that I ask you to take on this quest.”
“But why?” Selena asked. “It’s murder—”
“Murder?” Taliah snorted. “They are Bazira. The god alone knows what kind of terrors they are wreaking. It is not murder to stop murderers, it is justice.”
“It’s assassination,” Selena said. “I won’t do it.”
When Celestine flinched at the open defiance, Admiral Crane spoke for the first time.
“It’s a direct order,” he said with a hint of sternness in his tone. “Not just from the High Reverent or from Skye, but from the Alliance itself. If the Bazira are amassing an army, if they mean to strike you Aluren when you are so weakened, then the removal of two of their powerful would be a strategic blow to their plans.”
A strategic blow? Selena felt her stomach churn and turned her gaze levelly on the man. “If it is an Alliance matter, then why not send the armada? My days of murdering without cause are over.”
“Without cause?” Taliah barely choked out the words.
Celestine laid a hand on the Juskarii’s arm.