Deeds of Honor by Elizabeth Moon Read Free Book Online Page B

be that was not merely part of the terrifying world of the Verrakai.
    She sat down on a barrel of meal. "Efla. Listen to me. Listen well; I can tell you only once, and I must be quick, before the Lady comes down."
    Sniffles, no words.
    "You know I have a parrion of cooking. That is what makes me able to endure what I endured the other night—what we must all endure. But those of us with a parrion can—can live in that parrion, thinking about it, using it, learning from it. Dying serves them—they can use the dead, with their evil magery. A parrion cannot be corrupted and it holds us in the Lady's peace...Alyanya's peace. "
    "You—you can't say that name—"
    "Hssh! I just did. Older than any Verrakai, the Lady is. You don't say it; you just know it. And you, Efla, you have the parrion too. I saw it that day you added herbs to the eggs for their breakfast; I've watched you since. The Lady of Peace has given you her gift, your parrion, to feed people. You know by smell, didn't you? It just feels right?"
    "Y-yes."
    "So there you are. That's your parrion, Efla. You'll make a real cook someday. Think about that, and not what's growing in your belly. Think about that—they cannot take that from you, without taking your breath. No one can. And if you die, the pain's all gone, forever."
    "They—they said the Blood Lord would always own me—"
    Farin sighed. "They say...and they have powers, no doubt of it, but...I was Lady-blessed at the well near my parents' home, on my name-day. She's no warrior, the Lady isn't, but she's strong and she takes us all when we die. Body to body, she wraps us 'round, and—" A noise from the kitchen stopped her. "Stay here," she said. "Behind the door." Quickly, she reached the measure that hung from the back of the door, and scooped out a measure of beans from the barrel on that side of the pantry.
    "Cook! Where are you?" Lady Verrakai.
    Farin opened the pantry door. "Here, milady."
    "What were you doing in there?"
    "Fetching out beans to test, milady." Farin held out the measure. "I test them every three tendays, to be sure none are softening or sprouting. Milady will remember a hand of years ago, when a barrel went bad—"
    Lady Verrakai looked hard at her, but Farin held her own expression steady. "I do remember," she said. "And do you dig down into the barrel, or take them from the top?"
    "When it's full, milady, I dig down; when it's more empty, from the top."
    "And you have not tested these yet?"
    "No, milady."
    "Show me."
    Farin reached down a bowl, poured water into it, and then poured in half the measure of beans. Most sank at once, a few floated. She pushed them down; two rose up again.
    "Are they rotten?" Lady Verrakai asked.
    "No, milady, but they may have a hole where a weevil was."
    "What do you with the rest of that measure?"
    "Test each bean for hardness, milady," Farin said. She took the big cleaver and cut one bean neatly in two. "See, milady, the inside shows if it's dry or soft, and if there's a growing bit. This one is a good one."
    "And you throw these beans away?"
    "No, milady. That would be waste. The ones I cut will be pounded to bean flour, to thicken soups; the bean flour we keep in a jar, in the same pantry. The ones being soaked will be mashed when they're soft, cooked, then mixed with herbs and lard into a paste for roasting meats."
    "Very well." Lady Verrakai said nothing more, and went away.
    Farin assumed she was still in hearing. "Jaim, bring the pestle over and the mortar; you will pound the beans as I cut them."
    Another five days passed, four hands of days since they'd left and the men did not return. The stable workers and the few militia left at the house looked tense every time Farin went outside for something. The next morning, when coming back to the house from the servants' jacks, Farin saw a group coming in the stable yard gate: four militia men herding some peasants roped together, neck to neck to neck. Nausea gripped her. She hurried across the