Chapter 6

Matra Glandira wasn’t in her dispensary or surgery, so I knocked on the door to her living quarters.

“Who is it?” she called out.

“Eloyin. And I have a visitor with me.”

“Enter.” The tone of her voice suggested she wasn’t best pleased.

I went inside to face Matra Glandira’s displeasure.

“Eloyin, you returned after the start of fourth quarter,” she said. “I have to disqualify you. And who’s that with you?”

“Matra Glandira, I’d like to Introduce Lizbet. I’ve offered her Sanctuary in the village.”

Lizbet, who had been standing behind me, moved into the light and lowered her hood.

“Well I never, an orc!” gasped Matra.

“Two days ago Lizbet watched all her family and friends slaughtered. I offered her Sanctuary while she worked out what she wanted to do next. After everything she’s been through I was hoping you could give her a health check-up. I was worried she had a fever when I found her because she felt hot but was shivering”

Matra Glandira made a commendably fast recovery “Of course. Where are my manners! Welcome to my home, Lizbet.”

“Thank you. What should I call you?” asked Lizbet.

“Matra is our form of respect from a youngster to a married woman or a widow like myself.”

“Then thank you, Matra.”

“Is it okay if I examine you?”

“Of course. Eloyin speaks very highly of you.”

“Would you follow me to my surgery. Eloyin, wait there. I won’t be long,” Matra instructed.

Matra led Lizbet to her surgery, then returned a few minutes later carrying my extra jerkin. “You can leave Lizbet in my hands, I’ll take good care of her,” said Matra.

“Thank you, Matra Glandira.”

“An orc. I wasn’t expecting an orc,” she mused.

“Were you expecting someone else?” I asked, since Matra’s words didn’t make any sense to me.

“Eloyin, I will share something with you provided you make a life promise to keep it secret,” said Matra.

A life promise theoretically entitled you to take someone’s life if they violated it. That rarely happened nowadays, but it was a warning the promise was to be taken extremely seriously.

“On my life, I promise.”

“I have an Oracle,” Matra Glandira admitted.

“I thought they were just a travellers’ tale.”

“Oh they’re very rare but they exist alright. I seldom consult mine, and only to ask for advice rather than to find out the future. Oracles are very dangerous. They don’t tell you the whole truth, and it’s what they leave out that’s the problem. Unprompted, it warned me that you’d meet someone who would be very important to you, but I had no warning that she’d be an orc or that it would be today and disrupt my trial.”