Read A Broken Paradise (The Windows of Heaven Book 3) for Free Online

into her heart , as though it was just an old box with a crusty dead guy in it. Part of her still wanted to unravel the mystery of her situation, while most of her simply craved the ability to shrug it all off with Farsa’s kind of unruffled insolence.
    Some uncleanness both Father and Yargat could believe… but nothing so horrible that it will get me in too much trouble …
    Her first penitential yarn had not satisfied Henumil. It had doomed her to a second day before the stele. The grit on the floor bit into her knees through her long smock. She would have given anything for an interruption.
    A familiar heavy hand rested on her aching shoulder.
    Well, almost anything!
    Yargat stood over her. His hand moved under her boxy veil, into the curls around her neck, a spider probing for prey tangled in its web.
    “I spoke to Father for you,” he said quietly. “I reminded him of E’Yahavah’s mercy. He’s agreed to let me counsel you in pr ivate.” Yargat removed his hand and held up the keys to the Shrine’s inner sanctum. Then he turned to shut and lock them both inside the vault.
    “Here?” She swallowed her sudden nausea.
    He suddenly broke from his fake Low Archaic dialect and spoke to her in a refreshingly normal voice. “I know you don’t get it. That’s okay. You don’t need to be afraid anymore. Everything’s gonna be fine.”
    “But, here?”
    His eyes flared for a split second, then softened. He smiled at her with warmth that actually met those same eyes, and spoke quietly. “Wanna know a secret? Don’t tell the others, but between you and me, I think Atum-Ra’s been dead a long time. He doesn’t speak as often as he used to, and he sees even less inside that beautifully decorated old box.”
    Just a crusty dead guy… Tiva hung her head and shut herself off inside like some big-city machine. If only I could shut myself off forever…
    Yargat gently helped her to her feet , and whispered, “I would keep our special times secret—for your own sake. Father and the others would not get it at all. I’ve been schooled at the academies in Sa-utar, so I know a few new things that Father doesn’t—stuff the sages and mages have just found out. Things aren’t like what you think. Still, Father probably is.”
    He sat Tiva down on Atum-Ra’s coffin and removed her veil, freeing her luxuriant black curls. New things… On the First Father’s sacred coffin!
    “I understand you, Tiva. But if Father knew what you were doing, he’d publicly shame and disown you for playing whore. That’s what it’s called, you know, ‘playing whore.’ Boys often get around it. But girls—like when Ish’Hakka enticed Atum-Ra with forbidden fruit—girls caught at this game are not so lucky. Why’ja think the Watchers came down on us, after all? Girls just drew’em down! I know it’s not fair. I wish it were different. Maybe someday it will be. I’ll keep you out of trouble if I can. We all have weaknesses, after all. I just want you to get it, so you can feel safe and happy.”
    On one level , she believed him implicitly. On another, she noticed that he’d gone from total silence to talking too much too easily too fast. The sense of wrongness lurked too close to the surface, a contradiction in the running conversation in her mind that she could not quite see past. At least he’s finally told me the name of the game.
    Yargat continued, his dark blue eyes flashing dreadful anticipation, “I know, Tiva, it’s not that you mean to do anything wrong—you simply can’t help yourself. It just happens with some girls—you unknowingly have this effect. I mean, you never dress immodestly, do you?”
    “No.”
    “Exactly! Yet you still create fire in boys and men.”
    “But I don’t want to! I don’t mean to! ”
    His shoulder massage felt so soothing . The relief at him finally talking to her was greater than Tiva had expected.
    “ I know you don’t. I also think I might know what’s happening. Did you know