The False Martyr by H. Nathan Wilcox Read Free Book Online Page A

through perfect alignment with the Order,
though a perfect structure to our lives, can we provide the Master
with the clear strands he needs to create the pattern that will
preserve the Order from chaos. It is a calling that requires
tremendous sacrifice and extraordinary discipline. We could never
achieve it if all our members were not wholly
dedicated.”
    Teth took a slow breath,
realized how silly she was being, how she had allowed imagination
to outpace logic. She opened her mouth to speak, but the man lifted
a hand, and the words seemed to leave her as if the very air had
been snatched from her lungs. He examined her with rheumy grey eyes
without seeming to see her, as if he were trying to look through
her to something inside.
    “ And now you come.” He
pondered that. “What you saw today is beyond rare. Not for
generations have we used the axe, but the Master has allowed us no
room for error. It is stretching us to our limit. We are allowed
not the slightest step from the path, not a heartbeat out of
rhythm, not a breath out of sequence.” He considered again,
speaking as if to himself. “But he orders you brought from the
river, gives you free rein.”
    Teth opened her mouth
again to speak, but as she drew the breath, a huge wasp appeared
before her. It hung in the air inches from her nose, stinger
extended toward her as if in warning. She watched it hover, frozen
in place for fear of inciting its anger. She had been stung many
times by honey bees, but only once by a wasp such as this. It had
stung her cheek, and for days, her eyes had been swollen to
slits.
    “ We do not allow outsiders
here,” the man continued at the same time the wasp lost interest.
Teth recovered just in time to catch what he was saying. “Not in
years and not a woman ever. I do not know that one has set foot on
this path in the two hundred years of its existence. Had the Master
not ordered it directly, we would have left you and your companion
to the river and the Order that controls it. But he knew that you
would be there. He sent us to find you, told us that you are to be
protected, to be given all deference even as we struggle under the
strictest possible requirements.”
    He paused to let that sink
in. “Obviously, you are important to the pattern. And so it must
be. But you must know that you can cause great harm here. If you
act as you did today, I cannot stop you, but I will have no choice
but to remove those that you disturb from the pattern, and next
time meditative exile may not be enough. Do you understand? If you
disturb our patterns, the punishments will fall not on you, but on
those you have disturbed. The men around you can be afforded no
mercy, no break from the pattern they must maintain. They must
remain silent, show no emotion, work in perfect unison unless the
Master orders otherwise. If they do not, they are to be removed
from the Tapestry. Better the death of a few than to ruin a pattern
generations in its creation, than to see us all cast to the
Maelstrom.” The man paused, studying Teth again. “I will leave you
to ponder that.”
    He turned to go. Teth reached for him – she
had to know about Dasen – but was distracted by a movement at her
feet. A squirrel darted between her and the monk, close enough that
she could have kicked it. A bird called out, with a screech that
sounded like a child’s scream. She searched for the sound, found
nothing. When she turned back, the man was gone.
     

Chapter 4
    The
14 th Day of Summer
     
    The door was locked. Ipid
turned to Eia surprised and a bit embarrassed. Where was the butler
that should be manning the door, the maids that should have been
bustling around inside, the gardeners that should have been
patrolling the green expanse around them? He could not remember
ever seeing the house so quiet. Again he tried the door. Still
locked. He flashed a half-smile to Eia and brought his hand up to
knock.
    His fist struck the carved
oak three times. The sound echoed. There