Mother Lin’s hand goes to her mouth.
‘To the sanctuary, immediately – both of you,’ she orders.
Mother Lin flutters her hands and the Temple Sisters scatter. Malostra and I are bound by Mother Joca’s force of will and follow her up the spiral stairs to the quarters where the Mothers reside. The sanctuary looked much larger the last time I was here, but everything does when you’re a child. It was my initiation as a Temple Sister, the first place you are brought, where you say your vows to the Bastion. All I remember is being deathly cold, sure I would never be warm again. I was salt-sprayed and disorientated, wondering where home had gone. The pen had shaken in my hand as I had tried to cross out my name. I’d never held a pen before, didn’t even know what my name looked like in written Nishian. I’ve seen tomes of such lists now in the archive, thousands of girls with the same strikes through their names.
Malostra and I stand side by side, not looking at one another. She has made her choice as I have made mine. If our situations were reversed, I believe I would have made her choice. After all, it means one less Temple Sister in consideration for the position of priestess.
‘Necromancy.’ Mother Joca spits the word as filth. She stands behind her desk and stares down at the neatly stacked papers and then back at us. ‘Where did you hear of this?’
Malostra looks at me. I stay silent.
‘She has papers,’ Malostra blurts out.
I snap my head round and glare.
‘Papers?’ Mother Lin asks, stepping forward.
Malostra nods. ‘She keeps them in the west bathroom on our floor. Under the flagstones.’
‘You followed me?’ I can’t keep the bitterness out of my voice.
‘You didn’t hide it very well, Hanan,’ she says, voice cold and smooth. ‘I didn’t see what they were, but she told me she was doing experiments. I only realised what she meant today. The bird was dead. Then it was alive. She did that. It was –... unholy, unnatural.’
‘Of course, Malostra,’ Mother Joca soothed.
‘What is your truth, Hanan?’ Mother Lin asks, her gaze soft and level.
I release a full breath and close my eyes.
‘I have been... studying. Experimenting. This is true. But everything I found was in the temple library. I wanted to push myself, to prove myself worthy to your attentions Mother Joca.’
Mother Lin takes Malostra by the arm and guides her out of the sanctuary. ‘Go back to your room.’
The last I see of her is that frightened moon face and a flash of her dark curls.
Mother Joca steps forward, her eyes roving over me. ‘Did you ever succeed with such experiments?’
Her question surprises the answer out of my throat. ‘Almost.’
Mother Joca bites her thumbnail, standing motionless as she watches me. The tension is broken by Mother Lin returning to the sanctuary.
‘Show us,’ Mother Joca insists.
I furrow my brows. ‘What do you mean?’
Mother Lin points to a cobweb on the table leg. At its centre lies a dead spider, curled in on itself.
I move towards it and stare back at their expectant faces. ‘What do you want me to do?’
‘One of yourexperiments,’ Mother Joca commands. Her emphasis on the final word makes my skin prickle.
I crouch down and focus on the creature. This isn’t like the mokon. This is a quotidian creature, its energy small and distant, far from the shell of this body. It’s like peering through a mist at a shadow.
‘It’s gone,’ I whisper.
‘Try harder,’ Mother Lin encourages.
I gently hover my fingers near the web, feeling the hum of the strings. A pulsing at the base of my skull begins to radiate and then it’s like a candle flame at my fingertips. Here it is. I open my eyes, and the spider is uncurling its legs, like a flower in bloom. It’s a stretch in the late morning. The hum of the web increases. Then I hear Mother Joca’s voice, and I lose it. The creature sinks back in on itself.
