Born of Water

Born of Water Chapter 38

Chapter 38

THE RIVER DHAZOH

"The Temple is forbidden," Yihn said, voice firm. Zhao expected nothing different from his sister, or really anyone who lived in any of the villages along the fjords of Karii. The rules were driven into them from a young age.

When Zhao didn't say anything, the natural slant to Yihn's eyes rounded. She stared at him. "The Elders have said so. It is forbidden for anyone to go there."

Zhao's gaze never wavered. "The Temple belongs to Air Elementals not to the Elders. It is up to me to say who goes there." Zhao didn't realize he was the one speaking until the final word fell from his tongue.

Yihn was quiet. "They won't give you permission to let them go," she responded in their musical language so that only he would understand.

"I wasn't going to ask."

Yihn stood up and walked to the back room where her kitchen and pantry were housed. Zhao looked at the mat made of dried and woven seaweed under him.

"Why is it forbidden?" Niri asked after a moment.

Zhao looked up into her strange lavender eyes. The sudden arrival of three Elementals continued to astonish him.

Zhao had frozen mid-step when he had seen five strangers approaching the door to his sister's house, three of them Elementals. How the Elders had not known Priests were coming worried him. They had always known before. He had been safe. The thought of what the Church would do with him now, far older than a typical acolyte, froze his mind.

His initial reaction to turn and walk back up the path quickly left. One of the Elementals, a woman with long brown hair and lavender eyes had stopped and was watching him. The others turned as well. Zhao swallowed his anxiety and smoothed the yellow and cream trim on the sleeves of his burgundy tunic, a design that his sister had woven for him. He stood straighter and walked down the path past the stone pagoda, its basin of water reflecting the cloudy sky.

Niri met him on the path and introduced herself first, ridding him of his first worries that the group was with the Church. His sister, Yihn, invited everyone into her home for a greeting of tea and sweet rice before asking their business, which was how things were done with the Tiak. That they wanted to go to the abandoned Temple intrigued Zhao. His world was turning upside down this day.

Yihn came back carrying a new pot of tea as if that was the reason for her quick departure. She peaked at him through her lashes, her mouth a pert line. It was up to him to answer even though it was her house.

"It simply is forbidden. The Elders give us rules passed down from generations. It has never been up to us to question."

Zhao's gaze stayed on his sister as he finished speaking. She sank slowly to her woven mat on knees that did not seem to want to support her. The anger was gone from her eyes as well as the fear. She looked at her brother with a sorrowful face softened by love.

"Why is it you want to go to the Temple?" Yihn asked her guests as she folded her thigh-length violet tunic under the knees of her cream pants.

Darag answered. "We have been to the Temple of Ice and the Temple of Dust. The Temple of the Winds was the last destroyed during the war. We hope to find some answers there, some way of finding out how to hide Ria's gifts from the Curse."

"By the Curse you mean the Church?" Yihn asked.

The group of strangers exchanged glances. Ria took a breath, holding it for a second as if to organize her thoughts or brace her courage.