"Well I'm not. But everyone would think I was if I were to say such a thing aloud inside the Palace walls. I have to figure out a way to prove it."
He thought a moment. "Well, I know you better than anyone, and if you say it's true, then I believe you. I'll help. Maybe we could dig up the bodies, find something to go against what was said about their deaths, find somebody who saw something. We could carefully question the staff. There are ones I know who..."
"Jedidiah, that's not the worst of it."
"What could be worse?"
She held the gold flower in the crook of a finger and rubbed her thumb against it. Her voice came even lower than before. "There are Sisters of the Dark in the Palace."
Even without being able to see him in the darkness, she knew bumps were running up his arms. The night bugs chirped around them as she watched the dark shape of his face. "Margaret... Sisters of the... that can't be. There is no such thing. That is only a myth... a fable."
"It is no myth. There are Sisters of the Dark in the Palace."
"Margaret, please don't keep saying that. You could be put to death for making an accusation like that. If you accuse a Sister of that, and can't prove it, you would be put to death. And you can't prove it because it isn't possible. There is no such thing as a Sister of the..."
He couldn't even say the words. The thought of it frightened him so much, he couldn't even say it out loud. She knew his fear. She had felt it herself until she had happened on things she could no longer ignore. She wished she hadn't gone to see the Prophet that night, or at least not listened to him.
The Prelate had been angry that Margaret wouldn't give the Prophet's message to one of her aides. When she had finally granted an audience, the Prelate had only stared blankly at her and asked what the "Pebble in the pond" was. Margaret didn't know. The Prelate had lectured her sternly for bothering her with Nathan's nonsense. Margaret had been furious at Nathan when he had denied remembering giving any such message for the Prelate.
"I wish it was as you say, but it is not. They are real. They are among us. They are in the Palace." She watched the dark shadow of him a moment. "That is why I am out here. To get the proof."
"How are you going to do that?"
"They are out here. I followed them. They come out into the Hagen Woods to do something. I am going to find out what."
His head turned about, searching the darkness. "Who? Which Sisters? Do you know which ones?"
"I know. Some of them anyway."
"Which ones are they?"
"Jedidiah, I can't tell you. If you knew, and you made even the slightest mistake... You would not be able to defend yourself. If I am right and they really are Sisters of the Dark, they would kill you for knowing. I can't bear the thought of you being hurt. I won't tell you until I go to the Prelate's office with the proof."
"How do you know they are Sisters of the... And what proof have you? What proof could you get?"
She searched the darkness for any sign of danger. "One of the Sisters has something. A thing of magic. A thing of dark magic. I saw it in her office. It's a little statue. I noticed it one time because she has a number of things, old things everyone thinks are just ancient curiosities. I had seen it before, and like all the rest of the things, it was covered with dust.
"But this one time, after one of the boys died, I went to her office to talk to her about it, about her report. That little statue was tucked back in a corner, with a book leaning against it, hiding it, and it wasn't covered with dust. It was clean."
"That's it! This Sister dusted a statue, and you think..."
"No. No one knows what that statue is. After I saw she had dusted it, I had reason to question what it was. I had to be careful, not let anyone know what I was up to, but I finally found out what it is."
"How? How did you find out?"
She remembered her visit to Nathan, and her vow never to reveal how she had learned what that statue was. "Never you mind. That is not for you to know."
"Margaret, how could you..."
She cut him off. "I said I'm not telling you. And it isn't important anyway. What is important is what the statue is, not how I found out about it. It's a man holding up a crystal. The crystal is quillion."
"What's quillion?"
"It's an exceedingly rare magic crystal. It has the power to bleed the magic from a wizard."
The surprise of that left him speechless for a moment. "How do you know it's quillion, if it's so rare? How would you be able to recognize it? Maybe it is just some other crystal that looks similar."
"That might be true if it hadn't been used. When quillion is used to bleed the magic from a wizard, it glows orange with the power of his gift, his Han. For just a brief second as I left her office, I saw that statue, all clean, hiding behind that book. The quillion was glowing orange. But that was before I knew what it was. After I found out, I went back, to take it to the Prelate, as proof, but it no longer was glowing."
"What could that mean?" he whispered in a fearful voice.
"It means that the wizard's power had passed out of the crystal, into somebody. A host. Quillion is just a vessel for the gift until it can be placed into someone else. Jedidiah, I think the Sisters are killing those with the gift, and stealing it for themselves. I think they are absorbing the power into themselves."
His voice trembled. "On top of what they already are? They now have the power of a wizard's gift?"
She nodded. "Yes. That makes them more dangerous than we could even believe, more powerful than we can imagine. That's what scares me the most, not being put to death for making the accusation, but being found out by these Sisters. If they really are taking the power into themselves, I don't know how we can stop them. None of us can match them.
"I need proof, so the Prelate will believe me. Maybe she will know what to do. I certainly don't.
"What I can't understand is how the Sisters are absorbing the gift from the quillion. The gift of a wizard, his Han, is male. The sisters are female. A female can't just absorb the male Han. It is not that simple, otherwise they would simply h
ave bled the Han into themselves when they killed him. If they are really taking the Han from the males into themselves, I don't know how they are doing it."
"So what are you doing out here?"
She folded her arms against an inner chill, even though the air was warm. "Do you remember the other day, when Sam Weber and Neville Ranson had completed all the tests and were to have their collars off and leave the Palace?"
He nodded in the dark. "Yes. I was really disappointed because Sam had promised to come say goodbye, and show me he had his Rada'Han off. I wanted to wish him well after he was a true wizard. He never came. They told me he left in the night, because he didn't want any tearful goodbyes, but Sam was my friend, he was a gentle person, a healer, and it just wasn't like him to leave in that fashion, without telling me goodbye. It just wasn't. I was hurt he didn't come by. I really wanted to wish him well."
"They killed him."
"What?" He sagged down a little. "Oh, dear Creator, no." His voice broke with tears. "Are you sure? How do you know?"
She put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "The day after he supposedly left in such a strange manner, I suspected something terrible had happened. I went to see if the quillion was glowing again, but the door was shielded."
"That doesn't prove anything. Sisters shield their rooms or offices sometimes. You do it yourself when you don't want to be disturbed, like when we are together."
"I know. But I wanted to see the quillion, so I waited around a corner, until the Sister came to her office. I came out from where I waited, timing it so that as I walked past, she would be entering. As I went by, and just before she closed the door behind herself, I saw into her dark office. I saw the statue on the shelf behind the book. It was glowing orange. I'm sorry, Jedidiah."
His voice lowered with anger. "Who was it? Which Sister?"
"I'm not going to tell you Jedidiah. Not until I can take proof to the Prelate. It's too dangerous."
He thought a moment. "If this crystal really is quillion, and it would prove what she is, why wouldn't she hide it better?"