The sunlight filtered through the cracks in the roof. Tatiana had spent a restless night, Carl jammed in next to her so close that every time he moved it woke her. She rubbed her eyes and sat up. Alister was in a deep sleep, his bare chest rising and falling. She watched him sleep for a moment, her own breath feeling trapped in her lungs.
Carl sighed, then squirmed out from between them, crossing the room to the hearth. He picked up a log, holding it until it ignited. “Strange way to build a fire,” she thought, watching his muscles move until his red skin. She rose from the bed and pulled on her boots.
Eva’s head bobbed up as she exited the cabin. The look of disappointment in the horse’s face was oddly human. “Sorry, I know I’m not the person you want to see,” Tatiana circled the cabin, “and I know how that goes.” Finding a good spot, she crouched to relieve herself. “Why is it,” she mumbled to herself, “that whenever I’m trying to get the attention of a guy I like, I always get the attentions of someone else?” It wasn't rational, and there was no real cause, but she couldn't shake the feeling that Carl liked her. It was something about the way he looked at her; the flames in his eyes softening, his mouth peccant with longing. “Ugggh,” she fumbled with her robes, “Thank the Holy Circle he’s shy.”
Tatiana wandered back in the cabin, taking the bucket to fill at the creek. Alister was still asleep when she returned. Wetting her hand in the pail, she flicked water at him. He rubbed his face and groaned. The sound he made was similar to those he made when signing, so Tatiana waited a few moments to see if he was awake. When he failed to move, she flicked water at him again.
“You’re going to make him mad,” Carl scraped the leftover burnt rice out of the pot and into the fire, “We Marshalls have a bit of a temper.”
“I thought you were Devils,” Tatiana poured the contents of the pail into the pot.
“Did you really think that was our surname?” Carl waved away the steam rising off the pot, then placed it back over the hearth.
“Uh, I guess I didn't really think about it,” Tatiana sucked in her bottom lip, “Should we be worried about Kadeem?”
“We’ll look for him at the market today,” Carl took three potatoes out of the bag, carefully dropping them in the pot.
Tatiana sat in her chair, waiting for the potatoes to boil. “I’ve been wanting to learn some signs,” she rocked herself absentmindedly.
“You want me to teach you some?” Carl sat on the ground next to the hearth. He held up his hand, thumb and pointer touching with the rest of his fingers splayed, “You know the OK gesture? Turn it upside down and put it against your chest.” Carl made the sign, “This is one you can use on Kadeem.”
Tatiana imitated him, “What does that mean?”
“Asshole.”
Tatiana gasped with laughter, “Show me another one.”
“So this is a ‘b,’ and if you do that like this,” Carl touched it to his forehead, “that means-”
“What are you teaching her?” Alister interrupted.
“Oh, you’re awake,” feeling embarrassed, Tatiana covered her mouth.
Alister sighed and signed to Carl.
“You shouldn't cover your mouth when you talk to him,” Carl stood up. “I’m to go check the horse.”
Alister picked up her notepad and flipped to an empty page, writing to her in his characteristically fluid scrawl, “I can't believe I’m saying this to someone, but you need to start acting like a priest.” He passed the notepad to her.
“Do you like me?” she wrote facetiously, drawing a set of three checkboxes. She filled in the options, “Yes, No, You Need To Start Acting Like a Priest.”
Alister ticked off the first and last boxes. “That means no swearing,” he wrote, “no dirty talk. Stop flirting with my brother and focus on your mission.”
Tatiana snatched the pen from him. “I’m not,” she wrote indignantly, “I don't like him like that.”
Alister reclaimed the pen, “You’ve been talking to him a lot. When I woke up you two were laughing together.” Alister pulled away as she tried to grab the pen, “I wouldn't mind except that you can't get involved with him. If you’re really that desperate, go commune with your patron.”
Tatiana grabbed the page ripping it in half, “You don't know the first thing about me and my patron!” She tossed the paper on the ground. Dissatisfied by its gentle swoops, she stomped to the door, throwing it open with as much force as she could muster.
“Tatiana!” Carl called as she stormed past.
She ignored him and continued up the road. Those two idiot brothers could sit there forever for all she cared. She, on the other hand, had things to do. She wasn't some silly woman who needed a lover to have a purpose in life. She had a vocation, a calling to fulfill. Yeah, romance would be nice, but so would some food right about now.
Once her anger died down, she felt shaky and lightheaded. Blinking away the blurriness from her eyes, she focused on following the rightmost rut. Grass and clover spread across the median, desperate for the open sky the road provided. Desperate enough to be trod on. Desperate. She hated that word. Did Alister really think that about her? That just anyone would do for her? That she was something to be looked down upon, to be stepped on?
By the time she reached the market, she was nauseated, the blisters on her right foot stinging. She limped over to Amber’s stand. “You don't have any food, do you?” she attempted a grin.
“You look awful, Bianca,” Amber guided her behind her display and sat her on a stool, “Just sit here for a minute.” Amber hurried past the early morning shoppers. Tatiana took a few minutes to catch her breath, then took off her right boot. One of the blisters had popped, soaking her sock with blood. Wincing, she pulled it off her foot.
Amber returned with two burritos. Tatiana bit into hers. There was scrambled eggs and cheese inside and her nausea melted into hunger. “Thanks,” she polished it off, licking her fingers.
“Well, I was going to eat the other one, but I think you might need it,” Amber passed her the second burrito, then made a face, “What happened to your foot?”
“Just blisters,” Tatiana took a bite.
“I can make you a salve that will fix you right up,” Amber picked up an aloe leaf, then hunted around through some of her dried herbs.
“I owe you.”
“No, I owe you,” Amber pulled down a bunch of herbs, “50,000 blessings.”
The mention of blessings made Tatiana think. If she blessed Amber’s teas or mixtures, the person using them would be blessed. That would be much faster than blessing 3,000 people individually. “Have you ever thought of selling blessed items?”
“That’s a great idea,” Amber crushed the herbs in a ceramic mortar and pestle, “I could charge more for herbs blessed by a priest.”
“Then you don't mind if I bless like 3,000 things.”
Amber sliced open the aloe leaf, squeezing the juice into a bowl, “Honey, you can do whatever you want.”
Tatiana picked up a poultice on the counter next to her. What was it priests did when they blessed something? “You need to start acting like a priest,” she grumbled to herself. The priest at her local holy place used to say, “The eternity of the Ellipse surrounds me.” She said it sheepishly, then picked up another poultice.
She had almost finished the entire table when she heard it. The music was faint, with certain pitches sounding clearer while others were altogether inaudible. It was a fiddle and like always, Tatiana found herself entranced. She rose from the stool, limping half-shod through the clusters of people. As she followed the sound, the notes knit together into a ribbon of music, a song that was both familiar and heart-wrenching to hear. “What If,” she said under her breath.
The group of people in front of her shifted, and suddenly she could clearly see Mike, his fiddle tucked under his chin, his case open on the ground with a scattering of blessings across the velveteen lining. He stopped playing when he spotted her, “Tatiana! Carl and Alister are looking for you.”
She walked closer to Mike, “I was visiting a friend.”
“I heard Alister pissed off you and his translator and you both walked,” Mike grinned. “I have no idea how to lure a translator, but I know how to catch you,” Mike finished his sentence by bowing his fiddle. As he played Tatiana’s thoughts drifted until there was only music.
“Tatiana,” a hand waved in front of her face, “Are you in a trance?”
Alister stood in front of her, his eyebrows pinched together.
“Sorry,” she blinked. Carl was there as well, his arms crossed over his broad chest.
“We should start blessing people,” Alister tapped his lips in thought. “Try, ‘In the beginning there was song.’”
“Wait, what? The priest back home used to say, ‘The eternity of the Ellipse surrounds me.’”
Alister shot her and odd look, then signed back and forth with Carl.
Carl looked at her, his fiery eyes disconcertingly settling on her chest, “Apparently different priests get different blessings. A musical blessing would be appropriate for you since your relic is a fiddle.”
“So none of the blessings I just did count?”
Carl signed her words to Alister, then shook his head, “Sorry Tati. Have you even eaten today?”
Before she could answer, Amber appeared with a boot in one hand, chin high, her eyes glittering like sunlight on the crests of waves. “Bianca,” Amber stiffly handed her the boot.
“Don't call her that,” Alister’s expression was closed, dismissive.
“I’ll call her what I like,” Amber glared at Alister, “You can go back to the Devils.” Amber smiled, her expression wolf-like, “Don't you know Bill, that she gored out the eyes of one of your kind?”
Alister turned red from the top of his head down to his collar. He pushed past them, his movements jerky.
Amber’s expression shifted from triumph to panic, “Oh, no.” She scampered after him.
Tatiana turned in time to see Alister flip over Amber's table; herbs and mixtures scattering in the dirt. She limped towards the stall, Carl outpacing her. Amber's cries of dismay and anger pierced the sounds of the crowd.
Carl grabbed Alister around the waist, pulling him back from the wares. Amber bent to pick up a glass jar, then hurled it at Alister. “That was supposed to be for Bianca’s foot, you arrogant spawn of Satan!” The jar bounced off Carl’s arm, splattering the salve across Alister’s face.
“Ugly old witch,” Alister strained against Carl’s grasp, his face a taunt ball of fury.
“Act like a priest!” Tatiana couldn’t help herself. Instead of having their desired effect, her words seemed to calm Alister. “You better help us clean up,” Tatiana dusted off her foot, then slid it back into the boot, “I’m not blessing one damn thing until this whole booth is back to rights. I almost died for this place and I don’t appreciate it being treated like that.”
Alister wiped his face off with his robe, then bent to pick up the tea bags spilled from their canisters. The four of them worked silently, salvaging what they could. Amber swept the remaining detritus into a pile, “That’s a good 50 blessings worth of merchandise right there.”
Carl dug in his pocket, “Here’s 20. Come over to our house and I’ll give you the rest.”
“Like I’m ever going to willingly go to a Devil’s house again,” Amber tapped her broom on the ground.
“You had a debt that was over eight years old,” Carl dusted the table with his hand, “Layla had every right to take you as her property.”
“You call her so familiar,” Amber poked Alister with the end of her broomstick, “Just wait until she catches sight of Bill. She’ll tie him up too.”
“Who are Bill and Layla?” interjected Tatiana.
“Alister’s birth name is Bill,” Carl leaned against the table, “Layla is the president of the Devils. She likes her men more human.”
“Oooooh,” Tatiana sucked in her lower lip, “I guess that makes sense.” It really didn’t but she also didn’t care. Alister’s behavior had been awful since they had arrived in town, and it was starting to worry her. If he picked a fight with every person he ran into, it would make it much harder for her to reach her goal. “All the better to get my rainbow belt and dump him,” she thought. Aloud she said, “Let’s start blessing people. Carl can bring Amber the rest of the blessings later on. Or I will. I like Amber.”
Alister didn’t respond. He was hunched over her notepad writing. Tatiana limped over to an open space. Catching the eye of of a passerby, she offered, “Would you like a blessing?’
After several rejections, a bird woman agreed to be blessed. Tatiana placed her hands on the woman’s head. “In the beginning there was song,” she whispered. An odd sensation traveled through her body, and out her hands. It was a little like electricity; not painful, but unpleasant in a deadening way. Startled, she looked at the bird woman. The woman bowed her head in thanks and went on her way.
“It worked,” Alister commented, handing her the notepad.
“That felt wrong,” Tatiana rubbed her bad arm. As she went to flip the pad shut, her name caught her eye.
“Tatiana,” Alister had written, “I’m very sorry. I didn’t realize how straining it would be to return here. Everyone knows about my past and everyone blames me. Why redeem me? Why not Carl or any number of other Devil children, innocent to the curses inflicted on them by their parents? I wish I could take you and run far from this place, but that is selfish of me. As much as everyone here despises me, they need me. You and I are their only hope. Not because we are any better than them, but by virtue of our power won by another’s sacrifice.
I have no right to be angry, but I am. Kadeem took advantage of my deafness to ensure himself a place of honor. Amber loves money too much and shows contempt to the Order by using our old names. Then you. Dear one, you must get your love of men under control. I don’t mean to upset you, but lust is far more dangerous than greed or love of power. It is something I don’t understand, nor do I wish to. My friendship you will always have. I will be like a sword in your sheath and the plating on your armor. Be one with me and we shall tear down this institution from the inside out.
Yours, always,
A”
Tatiana tried not to laugh, but the more she thought about it, the more she giggled. The letter was the closest thing to a love letter that had ever been inscribed with her name, and it written by a bad-tempered asexual priest. Helpless in her mirth, Tatiana sat in the dirt and held her stomach, tears dripping down her face.
Alister watched her out of the corner of his eyes, his expression stern. A man stopped in front of them, “Holiness, will you bless me?” Alister signed his blessing, then laid his hands on the man’s head. Tatiana watched Alister carefully. When he was done, she wiped her eyes and stood facing him.
“Does it feel like being electrocuted to you?” she tried to articulate and mind her pace.
Alister nodded.
“And that's okay?”
Alister smiled and shrugged.
Tatiana took a breath and held it. He wasn't speaking to her again. She pushed aside her annoyance, grumbling under her breath, “Start acting like a priest.” She had 2,999 more blessings to give before she could merit an yellow sash.