The Path to the Sun

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Roh sat down, stretched his legs out before him, and closed his eyes. Kiran and Bria hovered over the fire trying to ward off the chill. Kiran kept looking to the cave entrance, expecting Deke to walk back in at any moment.

Bria whispered, “What do we do now?” Despite all of her confidence and strength, he saw fear in her eyes.

He wanted to sound brave. He sat down. “Everything will be fine.”

“Fine? Boys!” She threw her hands in the air and paced to the cave entrance and looked out. “Why is it that boys must always be boys?” She paced back to the fire. “By tomorrow, he’ll simmer down and all will be well. But he had to make a big show of it. I swear, if women led the races.”

Kiran stared, speechless.

“That arrogant fool!” she huffed. “I don’t blame Kail. What was she going to do? He certainly didn’t make it easy for her. I don’t know about Jandon, but Bhau would follow him over a cliff and never know what happened. Can you believe him?”

Kiran swallowed hard.

She paused. He waited.

“We need to stay together. When I see Deke tomorrow, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.” She exhaled with a loud huff. “Boys.” She plopped down next to him, drew her knees up like a child, and laid her chin on her knees. “But you’re not like him. You’re different,” she whispered. Her eyes met his. He wanted to tell her she was amazing, but the words stuck in his throat.

Their eyes were fixed for a moment longer. Then she turned away.

“I’m worried,” she sighed. “We should pray for them.”

“With no Elder to lead us?” he asked, incredulous.

“Well, I could be an Elder you know,” she said, fire in her eyes.

“But you can’t.”

“But I could. Nowhere in the Script or the Books or the Verses, not even in the Songs does it say women can’t be Elders. It’s just an old-fashioned tradition.” She was getting worked up again, her voice sharpened to an edge.

The thought had never occurred to him—that a girl would dream of being an Elder too. Especially Bria. He rarely saw her at the Temple. He was confused and delighted and surprised all at once.

“I don’t want to be a farmwife. I want my life to have meaning. I want to do something important. Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I am spiritually inept. And why was I chosen for this quest anyway? I can’t be an Elder, but I can traipse across the world and face the Voice of the Father? It doesn’t make sense.”

The fire crackled and snapped in the silent space between them.

“So, let’s pray,” she said finally. “You know the daily Verse. We can at least recite that together.”

She took his hand in hers, and he smiled then, as he glanced toward Roh, still asleep against the wall.

In a soft voice, she reached out to the Great Father and he joined her. At the end, she added, “Please watch over the others as they travel in haste to serve You. We are all merely innocent souls, blindly following Your command. Take care of our families back home, for they are at Your mercy.”

When she was done, she laid her head on his shoulder and her hair spilled down his chest. He didn’t move a muscle. He stared into the fire, her hand still in his, her words on his mind. Bria was the first ordinary person he ever knew to pray aloud directly to the Great Father. It was bold. Maybe she is meant to be an Elder, he thought. He tried to picture Bria wearing the robes, but images of her dancing in her wet tunic crept into his thoughts, the soft, sensual curves of her body, now so close to his. He laid his head on hers, his lips touching her hair, and all he wanted was to savor the feeling forever.