Thieves at Heart by Tristan J. Tarwater Page A

compliment dripping from her words. “I’ve been doing this a long time. Longer than you.” Their eyes met and Tavera took a step back, seeing something hard in Old Gam’s eyes she hadn’t expected to see. Just as she took the step back a knock came on the door and then Derk popped his head in, his familiar grin setting Tavera’s nerves back to normal.
    “You ladies doing alright?” Derk asked, stepping in and taking off his cloak. He shook it out before he set it on the peg, running a hand through his hair before he looked at them both, smiling. “What’d I miss? You get to sewing, Tavi?”
    Tavera nodded and walked over to him, showing off the circle she had made, trying hard not to grin too hard with pride. He took it up in his hands, the rough skin scratching against the fabric as he held it gingerly, looking at it before he set his eyes on her. “You did this, Tavi? Well, this is just…I didn’t know you was a seamstress as well as a cunning little girl! You could sew coins into your clothes this way, d’you know that? This is a very good circle!” He pulled his chair over to Old Gam and sat on it backwards, straddling the seat as he looked at the handkerchief. “And more of the same delicate work, beautiful as always.” He took one of Old Gam’s hands and kissed her fingers and Tavi saw him bite her knuckles gently, which made Old Gam laugh. “Celeel, you could get a job in a keep, I swear on Her tits. Any Baron would be more than happy to have your work on their tunics and britches. A priestess maybe.”
    “I started doing work for the priestesses of the temple, actually,” Old Gam said in a matter-of-fact way, as she sewed a few more stitches, lowering her eyes at Derk in a way that was supposed to be demure. “Just the every day clothes, though they might want me to do the altar cloth for Lover’s Day.”
    “Really?” Derk’s eyes went wide and he looked to Tavera. “Did you hear that? What an honor! Oh, speaking of the temple,” Derk said, standing up quickly from the chair, standing upright in one fluid motion, he spun the chair back to its original position with the light touch of his hand, making Tavera giggle with his showmanship. “They was selling these outside the temple and I thought you might like one.” He patted his hands against his chest and pulled out a small carved stone, the impression of a lantern carved into it. “You know about the story of the Goddess as the Light Bringer, I trust.”
    Tavera nodded and looked over the smooth white stone, feeling how cool it was in her hand and how it was warming against her skin. “The…the goddess walked along the night and saw how scared the people was in the dark and how they cried. So she went to her brother, the Sun and asked him for a bit of light for the people in the night, asking for mercy. Her brother said he couldn’t, saying they would love him more if they saw him less and turned her away. So in the night she crept to where he kept his flame and she stole it, just a handful which burnt her hands black but she ran with it back to her realm of the night. She lights the night sky for everyone and every month goes back to steal more light for her people, that they might not fear the dark. And sometimes the moon is red because he catches her and they fight and he bloodies her.”
    “Beautiful. I don’t think I’ve heard a priestess tell the story better,” Derk said. He walked over to her and took her by the hand, her hand so small in his and he spun her around to imaginary music, making her dizzy and pulling a laugh out of the little girl. “Tomorrow we’ll go by the temple so you can make your offering and yes, before Old Gam insists, you and I will go see someone else for a different sort of blessing.” Tavera stood there dizzily and Derk crouched down before her, looking at Old Gam over his shoulder. “He’s in Bluemist, isn’t he?”
    “On personal business is what I heard,” Old Gam said. She shook out