Nadiah tried to comfort her but Councilor Rast was obviously still engrossed in what he had called “the scene.”
“This is the strangest looking dagger I’ve ever seen. Looks like it’s made out of one big silvery diamond or something.”
“Let me see.” Nadiah stepped forward and looked down. “It’s hard to tell since her hand is still locked around the handle but…I think that’s mirror-mere.” She sounded amazed.
“Mirror what?” Councilor Rast looked up with a frown.
“One of the rarest and most expensive substances in the universe. Some people call it a jewel, but it can be molded like metal,” Nadiah explained. “How in the world Minverna got her hands on this much of it, I have no idea.” She gestured at the bloody dagger. “If that’s pure mirror-mere, there’s enough of it there to buy a small planet.”
“Wow.” The Councilor shook his head. “Where would she get the money for something like that?”
Nadiah frowned. “I don’t know…but I have my suspicions.”
“Which are?” He looked at her but she shook her head.
“No, let me do a little more research first. I need to be certain before I speak ill of the dead.”
Rast sighed. “All right. Well, I guess we’d better get this cleaned up.” He looked at Lissa. “Uh, I hate to ask you when you’re so upset, but is there any kind of protocol we’re supposed to follow here? Any customs you have when a priestess dies?”
Lissa nodded, feeling cold inside. “Yes. When a high priestess dies, all the other priestesses have a time of mourning. We cut our hair and go naked—as bare as the Goddess sent us into the world—to show our respect and sorrow.”
Councilor Rast’s eyebrows shot up. “Uh, really? Is that necessary? I mean, she wasn’t high priestess anymore at the time of…of her death.”
“No, but she was high priestess for many years.” Lissa felt like someone had tied a stone to her heart and thrown it into a bottomless well. “I won’t require the other priestesses to do it, but I will myself. I will spend my period of mourning in the desert, alone.”
“Oh Lissa, you don’t have to do that!” Nadiah put an arm around her waist.
The Councilor cleared his throat. “Honestly, I agree with Nadiah. That sounds unnecessarily harsh to me. Not to mention Goddamn dangerous. You could die of exposure out there.”
Lissa lifted her chin. “No, I must do it. It is my duty, and the last respect I can pay to she who was my high priestess for so many years.”
“Lissa—” Councilor Rast began but Nadiah shook her head at him.
“Let me.” To Lissa she said, “Come on, let’s get out of here and talk.”
Nadiah led Lissa away from the gory scene on the floor of Minverna’s room and down the long hallway. They stopped in a small alcove, bathed in sunlight from the gaps cut in the rock wall opposite it. The holy mountain was full of such fissures, cut to let in the light and illuminate the darkness. How the early First Kindred had done it, no one knew—it was a lost technique. However it had been done, Lissa was grateful for the warm light on her face. It helped ease her shivering.
“Now, Lissa,” Nadiah began, but Lissa was already shaking her head.
“I know what you’re going to say, my Lady, but I’m afraid I can’t change my mind. Minverna was my head priestess for years—I owe her this respect.”
“Are you sure you’re doing this out of respect and not guilt?” Nadiah asked quietly. “You had every right to assert your authority with her, Lissa. You told me the things she said to you—they were unforgivable.”
“Perhaps.” Lissa looked down at her hands. “But they were also true. I do still desire what I should not. Still wish for what I must never have.” She looked up at Nadiah. “I can’t tell you how many times I wake in the middle of the night, feeling his touch on me. And how I weep when I find it’s just a dream.”
“You never forget your first love.” Nadiah hugged her consolingly but Lissa shook her head again.
“I should. I must. He is my brother, my Lady. The feelings I have for him are completely unforgivable. And, to everyone else of my clan, unimaginably wrong.”
Nadiah frowned. “How can they be so inflexible? Surely you and Saber can’t be the first ones from the same clan to fall in love!”
“It has happened in the past but only very, very rarely.” Lissa sighed. “It almost never happens since the kinship compound was invented.”
“Kinship compound?” Nadiah frowned. “You said something about that before. What is it?”