Chapter 14: Not Baggage

Hinata did not raise her voice.

She let go of Mai's hand, walked up the long aisle between the nobles, and stopped at the foot of the dais.

"Chancellor," she said. "Say that again."

"The baggage is exiled, Lady Saint. It is the law."

"I don't mean the law. I mean the word."

Vernier smiled thinly.

"Baggage."

"Mai Kurosawa followed me through the Gate with one hand in mine and a thermos on the ground behind her."

A few of the nobles looked down at their shoes.

"She has tended every fever in this house for free, and she has not once been thanked by this court."

"The Saint is tired," Vernier said to the hall. "She speaks from grief."

"The Saint is not tired. The Saint is finished."

Hinata turned to face the two hundred faces.

"The south fields have the grey rot, and you have all been told I will bless them tomorrow."

The room went very still.

"I won't bless one stalk of barley until Mai stands beside me, with her name written as my household before this Temple."

A man in the gallery stood up.

He wore a farmer's plain brown coat and he held his cap in both hands.

"Lady," he said, in a rough voice, "my children eat from the south fields."

"I know," Hinata said. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. This is the only way I know to make it stop."

Vernier's smile slipped.

"A saint cannot refuse," he said. "She is the Temple's, and the Temple is the Crown's."

"Chancellor."

Odile's dry voice came from the side door.

The High Priestess walked into the hall with a very old book held against her chest, and the Temple guards walked behind her.

"The household of the Dawn is not a matter of ink," Odile said.

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