Author: admin

Our chairs groaned as we sat. The abbess took my hand, her silken glove so much finer than my toughened palm. I loved the way it felt. “You are here about the runaways.” “That’s just it, abbess. I don’t believe they ran away.” The light from the fire cast long shadows over her. She shifted…

“You seem nervous, Diviner,” said a voice behind me. “Should I worry for my boots?” Hairs on the back of my neck prickled. I kept my gaze forward. “Surprised you honored your word and came at all.” “Happy to disappoint.” “If it’s all the same to you, Myndacious, I’d rather we didn’t talk. I’m tired.”…

I took a tentative step. The air-the stones beneath my feet-were the same temperature as my skin, as if I were exploring a vast, pallid womb. I moved on tender feet. Toward what, I did not know. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I should be concerned that I was not falling….

I disagreed. Heartily. “I say we pummel him.” “Absolutely. He was very mean to Six. Let’s flatten him.” Five pressed a reproachful hand to her chest. “But not me, mind. We all know my hands are my greatest beauty.” “He was mean to you, Six?” One popped her knuckles. “I’ll take a shot at him….

The songs played on, and the dancers thinned until it was just us Diviners. The pyre, I realized, was surrounded only by knights and the instrumentalists, as if it were our own private gathering. More ale, have pity, was consumed. We Diviners wove together, clasping hands. “This is better than any dream,” One said to…

And slammed the two of us down onto grass. The outburst from the Diviners, the knighthood, split the sky, cheers and claps and the bang of cups upon the tables a clamorous thunder. I was on top of Rory, hands braced in the grass on either side of his hips. Arms still trapped behind his…

A knock sounded upon the cottage door. Four banished her intensity with a final puff of idleweed, then pinched her cheeks in the cracked looking glass and pushed up her breasts. “Well, shrews. Shall we don our cloaks?” They were for winter months, our cloaks. Wool and undyed, they’d been traded by a weaver from…

The knights eyed each other, like she’d said something funny, and I knew it was she and I, not themselves, they found indistinguishable. The abbess strips you of name, face, clothes, distinction… Careful, Number Six. Someone will accuse you of having too much fun up here on this god-awful hill. I shook my head, but…

I spent the rest of the morning at the east wall. Breaking things. “Knave.” Crash went my chisel into a heart of granite. “Vile, loutish prat. He won’t do it.” The batlike gargoyle, who was supposed to be assisting me and mixing mortar while I broke stone away from the tor to mend the wall,…

“I don’t have any money.” “Well then, Miss Questions, kindly sod off-“ He finally looked up. Saw me, leaning close to his work. Quick as a flash, he raised his lantern. “Aisling’s waters,” he murmured. “You’re a Diviner.” He caught my wrist, bobbing up and down in my face, trying to peer under my shroud….