The plateau of Adyll was born out of the sea, pushed up through tectonic pressures over a million years ago. To the east, beyond the cliffs where the capital city is located, lies a formidable desert which stretches for hundreds of miles, uninhabite...
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Work continued the next day as usual. Nasreen was sent to the brothel to train with the older women. Aisha was sent to work preparing parchment for the scribes, a foul-smelling process that involved soaking sheep skins in urine, then stretching and scraping the any remaining flesh. She worked on the downwind side of the temple to keep the stench from contaminating the rest of the complex. Aisha was thankful for the task as the the old hag - formerly known as the high priestess - had decided to use another girl as her Eyes during the parchment preparation as having lost her sight heightened her other senses including her sense of smell.
From Aisha's vantage point on the temple wall walkway, she spied the temple eunuchs scrubbing the courtyard floor below. The Locust's priests must have removed the corpses of the street people from the previous evening, as they were not present when the women arose to begin their daily work. The women whispered among themselves about the disappearance of the street people, but the high priestess had told them that the young ones were now serving at the palace and the rest had left the temple. The women knew this to be untrue, judging by the pools of blood in the courtyard, but they said nothing to the old woman out of respect for her position. All except Aisha believed Baraz had lied to the high priestess and in her blindness she believed him.
Aisha knew the truth better than any of them but she remained quiet. The metallic smell of the bloodshed from the night before mixed in her nostrils with the stench of the urine soaked sheepskin and the sweet jasmine that grew on the temple walls. The overpowering scents in combination with her guilt and blood-drenched memories made her want to retch. She continued to scrape the bits of flesh from the sheepskins with her knife. At least the evil old woman wasn't here to torture her.
Aisha became engrossed in her task, pushing all her frustration into scraping the skins. She worked for hours in the sun, not pausing even to sip from the skin of water next to her. The Locust King had spoken of righteousness, of penance for sins. She was guilty. Guilty of all the lives taken – her mother, her father, the street people. The task at hand wasn't horrible enough to cleanse her of their blood.
The sound of bleating sheep and goats drifted to her from the other side of the wall. The herds were being brought to the temple for shearing and slaughter, as Baraz commanded. The meat would be distributed to the army and the wool sold at market. Shepherds and shepherdesses in simple woolen tunics accompanied their flocks. The women wore veils that covered their eyes, exposing only their mouths. These were proud Adyllians, widely respected for their craft. The shepherds maintained the lifestyle of the first people of this land, the ones to whom the Lady gave her child to raise and keep safe. They lived in the open with their flocks, taking shelter in the caves that riddled the mountainside only when the worst storms came. One of them played his pipes as they gathered the sheep into the courtyard for inspection by the new high priest. It was a mournful tune. Aisha recalled the words of the song:
