Lilac Child Chapter 22

“We’ve never spoken of which God you worship,” Son’dali said. He was perched on a stool just beyond the bars. It was too small for his bulky form, but Aggie had gone through so much trouble to make him comfortable that he felt obliged to use it. “I always thought you didn’t follow one. That knowledge was your god. I should have asked.”

“What do I know?” Zini said from the rear of the cell. Her joy at seeing her tutor had been a fleeting thing, and now she felt the weight of her confinement all the more. He could come and go while she was trapped. Two days had passed since the Emperor had sentenced her to death, two mornings spent waiting for the soldiers to arrive and haul her away, but she was still alive. “More than most. More than you should, I’m sure.” Seeing her locked up pained the older cleric, but there was nothing more he could do. His petitions for clemency had been met with a warning from Fic’dars to stop. The clerics in The Grand Temple were fighting for their lives and angering the emperor was only hurting their cause. Just crossing the city to the prison had been dangerous enough. But it was a risk he was willing to take. “There’s so much more...” His stoic exterior cracked a little as he wiped at an unshed tear. Zini slid forward on her bed and set her feet on the flagstones. The cell was cleaner than most homes, but then Aggie took pride in his job and wanted to make Zini as comfortable as possible. “Maybe we’ll still get to go to The Zento?” Zini said with a forced smile. It would never happen, but she felt like living a lie, if only just for a while. “We could be the first people to walk inside for a hundred years.”

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