The Priestess and Her Boy Ch. 16

16 - Suf Herb

It is time to speak of suf herb. Simple, sweet suf herb - that which flavors bread in the Temple and in the homes, taverns and work halls of the City. A sacred herb, beloved of the Goddess for, as it says in the First Book of the Prophet, indeed in the very first chapter:

"[Chapter 1: Verse 9] The woman, born of the Goddess, saw that in the Garden there was already a man. But he was wild and cruel and she hid herself away lest he find her. And the Goddess made sweet herbs grow around her that she could offer to the man. And, when the man took the herbs, he laid down his sticks and rocks and came to the woman and served her and obeyed her."

Is the Word of the Prophet the literal truth? Some would say so. Priestess Hanja perhaps - poor devout Hanja who wept in her chamber the day she lost her Tak. Simple, loving, beautiful Hanja, who would not allow the boy she adored to lay a hand on her body for fear of the Goddess's wrath. And then there is Priestess Shallie of the Library. That night in the room of ancient knowledge - the same night Tak learned that the World is round - she bade him sit in a large, comfortable reading chair while she fetched books. And then she curled up on his lap resting her head on his chest so that they could look at them together. And he touched and caressed her with his hands, of course. How could he not? And in what world, under what deity, could that be wrong? And Shallie, knowing this, just kissed him on his lips, placed her eyeglasses on her nose and opened the first book. And the book - a copy of an old copy of an older copy - talked of animals and plants, and of how they change as the ages pass. And of how, perhaps a thousand summers ago, they changed all at once so that cats were no longer the same as they were before, and dogs no longer the same, and a herb no longer the same.

"Why did they change so suddenly?" Tak had asked her.

"I do not know how to explain it. It is as if the seeds of life became corrupted. The Prophet says that men caused it when they fought one another, although I do not see how they could have."

"Do you not believe the word of the Prophet Mistress?" he had asked.

"I believe in the spirit of her words, Tak. All the priestesses do. Some believe that the words are just stories but that there is truth and knowledge hidden in them. But there are also some who believe that the events in the Book of the Prophet really happened, exactly as they are described. Always be careful when you talk to priestesses Tak! We are all so different."

And so we move on to dear Ruta, Priestess of the Temple Garden. In her seed room, below the Garden's glass-house, she studies suf herb; all the many different strains for - as Taneric stated while he smoked Kamhet's pipe on the ramparts of Queen Zantina's Castle - there are 'hundreds' of them. And who knows more of suf-herb than Ruta who has, for so many summers, cultivated it? With the help of her Garden boys, she selects and crosses, grows, harvests, re-selects and re-crosses. And one day, not long before Tak was taken from the Temple, and as he moved trays of soil into the seed room, he had asked his day Mistress, "Does the Ceremony of Giving improve the herb?". And she had laughed at him and told him no. And then Ruta, now distracted from her work, had asked Tak a much deeper question:

"Tell me Tak. Do you think of nature as the Goddess? I mean, rather, do you think of the Goddess as all nature? I mean the entire natural world; all its landscapes and animals and plants? It is a notion that has only recently occurred to me. What do you think Tak?"

And he had struggled to answer, of course, although much later, when a free man, it would be a question that would return to his thoughts.

"And if the Goddess was threatened," she had continued, "Would She not defend herself? Would She find a way to pacify the scourge that afflicts her?"

And then Ruta had laughed at the look on his face and told him an answer was not required, embracing him before sending him up for more soil. But, not a great number of days later, as Taneric drew suf herb smoke through Kamhet's pipe, staring at Kasmine as he did so, he felt a great peace come upon him as the man spoke; 'My people say the herb is a gift from nature'.

And why that very night did Taneric - or surely Tak - choose to make his way to the room in the Castle that had been provided for Kasmine? 'I wondered when you would come to me like this' she had whispered as he gently woke her, already on his knees. For sure the push he had needed from the herb had only been slight.

And just a few hours later, but many leagues away, Ruta leads Ashala into the seed room where she has lately been keeping a boy in a cage. That is wrong, you think? Well, he would have gone to the quarries, would he not? Cruelty is nothing if not relative. But now the cage is open and the boy greets Ruta with love and sits at her feet as she talks to her astonished friend. No, he has not been beaten. Yes, he has been eating well. Very well.

Ashala, Priestess of the Infirmary, member of the Circle, and soon to be High Priestess; you have browsed the room of ancient knowledge and practiced the art of the physician. You have even saved lives. And well you understand suf herb and its small effect on a boy's mind. Does it help him love? Does it help him adore? Does it push him to obey? Well, perhaps just a little. If he already wants to love and adore and obey. You know Ruta believes more, and you want to be kind to your dear friend. So you humor her all these summers as she plays with her seeds and herb beds. You want a boy for the seed room, Ruta? A wild one? Of course, Ruta.

And now Ashala, what is Ruta saying to you, with that boy at her feet, the one that bit Nikah's hand when he got too close just a few days ago? This is the herb from the Book of the Prophet, come back to us through your skill and patience Ruta. And how much of this strain do we have Ruta?....Praise the Goddess!

So, reader, no more must the Temple pursue ascendancy of the feminine through force, through aggression, even through war. And no longer must it be maintained through fear, through punishment, through acts that, even by their very nature, seem contrary to the teachings of the Prophet. It is a reason for great celebration, this new herb, is it not? Although it must be kept a secret whilst the Temple remains weak. And as, that night, Ashala rose to leave her sister, the question was raised; what shall be done with the poor boy from the market? He is not good enough for the Temple. Should he go to the quarries, now that his purpose in the seed room is served? No, Ashala shrugs, feed him more herb and throw him to the novices!