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But Aiz did not sleep, even when everyone else in the cell did. Instead, she relived her strange visitation until every word was etched in her mind. She felt so consumed with confusion that she finally called out to Noa.
“In the Hollows,” Aiz said when the old woman had settled next to her on the cot. “In the darkness, I—I saw something.”
As she told the cleric of what happened, Aiz felt certain that her desperate mind must have conjured all of it.
“I know it sounds like a Spires-forsaken lie,” Aiz said when she was done. “But, Sister, it felt so real—”
“Because it was.” Noa took Aiz’s hands with gentle reverence to drive home what she said next. “To step into the abyss and know Mother Div will catch you—this is faith.The Seventh Sacred Tale. You have beenchosen, Aiz. I know this in my heart, as sure as I’ve known anything in my life. Look, child—”
Sister Noa shifted her rags to reveal a long pin. “It fell out of the Questioner’s hair last night. I took it, thinking to give it to Olnas. But—” She glanced at the lock of the cell. She knew well that Aiz had learned to pick locks and pilfer food as a child. “It was a gift from Mother Div. A sign. You’re not meant to wait. You’re meant to leave. Now, Aiz. Tonight.”
Aiz shook her head. “I’d never make it.”
“Where is your faith?” Noa drew herself up, and Aiz saw once again the woman who’d survived the toil and hardship of Dafra and still had enough strength to be kind. “Always, you believed. And now that you are called to act upon it, you falter?”
“I believe the stories,” Aiz said. “It’s my own heart that I doubt.”
“Do not!” Noa grabbed Aiz’s hand and forced the hairpin into it. “For it is the same heart that remembered the dead children all others had forgotten. The heart that gives first, takes last. I know the strength that lives within your heart, Aiz bet-Dafra. It is time you learned too.”
“They will punish you for this.”
“The Mother will care for us. If Tiral plans to declare himself Tel Ilessi, that is a sacrilege that demands an answer.Youare Mother Div’s answer.Go.”
If Noa died for helping Aiz escape, it would be the first of many deaths. If she fell apart every time, nothing would change for her people. Tiral would win. The Snipes would keep starving, keep dying in the raids that seemed to feed only the highborn. The Kegari would be bound to this merciless place, never to return home.
Sister Noa tilted her head as if she knew Aiz was on a precipice.
“Tell me a dream, little love.”
Aiz drew a sharp breath in. “I dream of freedom from tyranny,” she whispered. “A better life for us all.”
“Mother Div will make it so,” Noa said.
Aiz nodded, took the hairpin, and thought,Mother Div, if it breaks to make two picks, then I will pick the lock.
It broke easily. Aiz rose gingerly from the cot and made her way to the door. There, she thought,Mother Div, if I can open the lock, then I will walk through the door.
The lock was ancient and heavy. But after only a minute of fiddling, it opened. Aiz’s hands shook. She took a breath and stepped through. She moved then as if drawn forward, as if some great cord pulled her. As she passed her brethren, voices whispered.
“Light of the Spires.”
“Light go with you, tale-spinner.”
“Mother Div bless you.”
“Tale-spinner of the Tohr. Hurry. We’ll keep your secret.”
Each voice was a push at her back, urging her onward. She reached the end of the hallway and paused. One iron-banded door led to the Questioners’ chambers—they’d slithered out of it too many times for her to forget. The middle door led to the Hollows. Aiz pushed through the third door, entering a low stone hall.
The hall was silent, the air weighty, as if charged by a storm. A nearby torch illuminated an open door, and Aiz peeked in to find a poorly stocked pantry. A rat scurried away at her approach.
Forward, instinct told her, and she understood why a moment later. The Tohr was built into a mountain, but its layout reminded Aiz of Dafra cloister. Mother Div had built both, after all.
Kitchen’s ahead, she thought, and sure enough, the next open door led into a darkened room where Aiz made out the gleam of an enormous cooking pot. But that was when Mother Div’s blessing appeared to run its course.
Two jailers stepped out of the dining room to her left—a room she hadn’t seen. Gil, stocky and well armed, and Kithka.
Mother Div’s first true test of my mettle.
