***
They sheltered inside a small copse of trees for the night and Yelve left Kohau behind at their quiet fireless campsite to scout closer to the ruins. A few hours watching the southern perimeter of the camp showed her a few possible points of entry, as well as a closer vantage where Kohau could wait for her when she finally made her move to infiltrate.
The scholar was huddled in a ball of blankets when she returned. She ignored his surprised gasp as she sat next to him and drew both her bedroll and cloak around them.
“Why did Hauber react like that when you told him about Elder Fornoth? I mean, I know the elder supported the High Lady, but why is he so important?”
Yelve had to admit she had expected this question much sooner. “What do you know of manyol becoming High Lady?”
“There’s a brief mention of a special election in the history they gave me when I arrived, but otherwise people don’t talk about it much.”
“It’s because they don’t like to remember their mistakes.” Yelve sighed as she leaned back against the fallen tree behind them. “Manyol took her seat at the head of the temple younger than any other lord or lady of the past. She wouldn’t have been forced into such a position had the High Lord before her not … forgotten … his duties.”
“How does one forget their duties?”
“Lord Renat felt that Leistros should be greater than it is. Instead of accepting those who come to the serpents of their own will, he felt that the message should be brought to the masses. Forced upon them if they refused to accept the ways of the scale.” She glanced at him, not quite able to read his expression in the light of the half-moon filtering through the branches above them. “The council was divided between those that supported Renat in some way or another, and those that outright refused to go along with his madness.”
“Why … why does no one know about this? Or talk about it? I’ve been at the temple over seven years now and not once have I come across anything relating to this Lord Renat.”
“Would you want your embarrassing failures talked about years later? Or the fact that Leistros itself was nearly ripped in half because a madman was elected to High Lord? They did their best to keep the actual reason for him being replaced quiet, including imprisoning a good portion of the council and forcing a few temple guards into early retirement.”
“Hauber?”
Yelve nodded. “He and a few of his group were paid quite handsomely to keep their mouths shut, along with agreeing to never harm the citizens of Leistros. Which he wouldn’t have done regardless, but things were such a mess back then and people were terrified. Fornoth was against Renat, but he also didn’t agree with what was done to Hauber and the others. Same as manyol. Such thoughts further divided the council – giving us our current situation with Elder Tara and her group.”
“This … this is too much. How can they – how could they hide this from everyone?”
Yelve understood his outrage. She only knew as much as she did from playing the dumb guard people talked in front of, and then confronting the High Lady one evening when there were no other ears around to hear them. If her suspicions were correct, those decisions had come back to haunt the children of scale.
“What happened to the imprisoned council members?”
“They were given the choice of exile or execution. I have no doubt that they found their way to Renat’s side.”
Kohau pressed closer against her side, his head nearly resting on her shoulder. “Is that who you think is behind this?”
“Renat or one of his supporters. There’s no reason to make it look like a raider attack at the orchard otherwise. They didn’t take any valuables or food stores. Nor would most bandits take the time to carve a message we haven’t figured out yet into a body.” She settled her arm around his shoulders. “You should get some sleep.”
“How am I supposed to sleep after all that? I can’t … How can I return to the temple knowing all this?”
“You’re the scholar here. Write your own history.”
“I don’t think it’ll be that easy, not if they’ve done their best to keep this as buried as possible the past twenty years.” He groused before letting his head slip down to rest on her shoulder. “Did you know who sent you to kill the High Lady?”
“No. My former guild master didn’t know either.”
“You sound rather sure about that.”
“I can be very persuasive when the need arises.”
“Oh.”
Yelve smiled into the darkness as his breathing began to even out. Despite his protests, she knew he was exhausted enough to not resist slumber. The man had challenged her views on many things. Not enough to see her change anything; she was who she was. But it wasn’t as hard to think of how someone else might see a certain situation. Manyol hadn’t even really done that much for her, as close as the two of them had gotten considering how they met. She let her head rest against his for her first nap of the night.