Page 72 of Dark Destiny: A New Thread in the Tapestry

Frowning, the girl lifted her face to the sky. "Where are they?"

"We can't see them."

Mahra shook her head. "You shouldn't fill the child's head with nonsense."

"It's not nonsense. I sometimes hear my mother talking to me, and she's been dead for over twenty years."

"Is it true that Tomek was given to Mortdh?" Sensa asked.

Mahra gasped, and the bag of seedlings fell from her hands.

The shock reverberated through Burda's body, freezing the blood in her veins, but she kept working as if nothing had exploded in her face just now.

"Where did you hear that?" she asked in the most level tone she could muster.

"I heard Mother Vinnah tell the big girls. She said Mortdh took the children as payment for the sins of their mothers. They're with him now. I asked Telasah what it meant, and she said it meant Tomek and Bianca are dead, and that Mother Vinnah says that being with the god is better than being alive." Sensa's fists came off her hips. "Is it?"

"I don't know, child. I will know soon enough, though. At my age, it won't be long before I join the god."

If she dared, she would have told the girl that Tomek was with his mother and they were perfectly fine, but then Sensa would tell her mother, who would tell others, and Burda would be hauled in for an investigation. It was better to keep her mouth shut and stay out of trouble.

Sensa considered this with a serious expression. "Will you come back and tell me if it's better in heaven than here?"

"If I can, I will. Now, off you go. Go play with your friends."

"Bye." Sensa waved once and took off running.

Burda had let the apostasy story spread because it was a convenient explanation for the women's disappearance. It had seemed like a clever solution at the time, but it had gone too far, talking about sacrificing children to Mortdh.

After dinner, Burda stayed in the dining area and waited for the Sacred Mothers to arrive. She didn't sit with Mahra.

There were nearly four hundred of them now, whereas before the escape, there had been about two hundred and fifty. Fear was a powerful recruiter, and rumors about the fate of the ten missing women were fueling it. Humming was the only way they knew to protect themselves from the fate that had befallen those ten women.

The First Mother stood on the kitchen steps, where the light from the doorway made a frame around her. She was not a large woman, but she had the aura of a leader, the type of charisma that drew people to her. When Burda was younger, she might have fallen for the benevolent smile and the kind eyes, but she'd seen those types before, and she wasn't easy to fool.

Vinnah stood at her right hand, holding a book.

Burda remembered a different Vinnah. A young mother in the nursery rows, humming to her son when she thought no one was listening, embarrassed when caught, as if tenderness were contraband. Now, the humming meant something very different and had an audience.

Vinnah lifted her hand, and as four hundred women joined in the hymn, her joyful expression made Burda's stomach turn.

When it was done, the First Mother raised her arms.

"Lord Shavek, the keeper of the breeders' enclosure, has heard our petition. The god Mortdh took the faithless and claimed their children as payment for their sins. What is owed must be paid, or more will be taken."

Cold sweat slithered down Burda's back. This was not going anywhere good.

"What were their sins, you ask?" The First Mother didn't wait for an answer. "It is the same sin we are all guilty of. Our devotion has waned. Who among you has gone to her knees and offered daily devotions to Lord Navuh before joining the Sacred Mothers order?"

This time she waited as the women hung their heads in shame.

"We are all guilty, sisters, and we have to repent, but the God Mortdh is not merciful. He will not accept our prayers as payment. We need to make a sacrifice grand enough to appease him."

Every woman and child in the dining area fell silent.

"We sought Lord Shavek's blessing to consecrate an offering to Mortdh to invoke the god's favor back upon us. When the moon is full, we will present the god with what is his by right."

She didn't specify what the offering would be. She left the word alone in the darkness to grow, and then Vinnah began the closing hymn, with four hundred voices echoing it.