Briar stepped forward and placed a hand on the latch.
“I know the rules, and I know what I’m doing. He is safe. Please.”
“I cannot.”
“Then I need to speak to Mother Superior. Can you wake her up? This is urgent.”
Sister Magdalena hesitated, lips pursed. The Mother Superior was in her late seventies, and the nuns loved her dearly and protected her, though in Briar’s humble opinion, she was far from fragile, and not that lovable of a woman once you got to know her.
“Sister, Mother Superior tasked me with finding Seraphina and bringing our relic back. I will be candid. Seraphina isn’t here, though I did find her; I just had to leave her behind. I don’t have the atlas vertebra, but I do have him.”
She pointed at Rune, who kept his head so low that he didn’t seem that imposing anymore. Briar mentally thanked him for behaving just right.
The nun’s eyes moved to him curiously but quickly snapped back to Briar.
“He’s more valuable than any relic,” she continued. “Mother Superior will want to see him, ask him questions. She will understand. In fact, if you don’t wake her up now, she might be upset when she finds out in the morning.”
Sister Magdalena pursed her lips, but Briar saw she’d gotten through to her. No one wanted to upset the Mother Superior. The woman had a way with words. She didn’t say much, just the right jabs, and next thing you knew, the priest gave you a single Pater Noster and told you to think no more of it, and still, you’d go back the next morning to confess the same small thing, and the morning after that. By the end of the week, you’d worn your knees raw on the chapel floor over nothing at all, and the Mother Superior had never once raised her voice.
“I will go, but you cannot enter,” she said, slipping back inside and locking the gate.
Briar chewed on the inside of her cheek.
“This is not what you expected,” Rune said.
“It is, in fact. I just didn’t stop to think about it and strategize properly, what with being busy plunging into frozen lakes, shoveling snow, caring for two horses – one lame, bless her – and feeding someone who was intent on starving himself.”
There was a hint of amusement in her voice.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“It’s all forgiven,” she sing-songed. “But it’s your turn to help me. Whatever Mother Superior asks you, answer truthfully. I swear she has a way of knowing when you lie or tell half-truths.”
“I will try.”
“However, keep…” She knocked on the hard cover of the ledger he carried in the right inner pocket of his cloak. “Keep that hidden. As a precaution.”
“Doesn’t that go against what you just said?”
“No. I said to answer Mother Superior’s questions, not volunteer information she doesn’t think to ask.”
“Understood.”
Had it not been for the anxious energy coursing through her, Briar would’ve been frozen solid by the time Sister Magdalena reappeared with the Mother Superior in tow.
Briar took Rune’s arm and pulled him a few steps back, so the women didn’t feel crowded when they stepped through the gate. The Mother Superior shot him one intrigued look before walking up to Briar and placing her warm, calloused hands on her cheeks.
“God be praised, you’re back.”
Briar inclined her head. “It’s good to be home.”
The old woman searched Briar’s face for a minute, then took her hands in hers and drew her to the side.
“What is the meaning of this,” she whispered. “Who is this man, and why have you brought him here? This is so unlike you, Briar.”
“No, it’s not what it looks like,” Briar whispered back quickly. “He’s a master weaver–”
“Sister Magdalena said. Now you tell me something I don’t know. Why is he more valuable than Seraphina, who is your dearest friend and our lost daughter? More precious than our patron saint’s sacred remains?” She crossed herself.
