Gravity's Revenge by A.E. Marling Read Free Book Online

the Academy. Provost Hiresha was no friend to coincidence.

 
     
    6
    Lark’s Hall
    Hiresha was walking down a wall when she thought she heard someone whisper her name. An itching sensation ran over her back to her chest, and she kneaded the fingers of one hand through her gloves, feeling the concealed jewels there that she had imbedded into her skin.
    A pool of blue light surrounded Hiresha, her earrings shining with the soul of a dreaming enchantress. With no one visible beyond her circle of light, Hiresha took another step. The vertical pathway alternated between bands of black tile and those of lighter marble, granting some sense of depth and a pattern of steps on a smooth surface.
    “ Hiresha. ” The whisper came again, and a woman’s ghost drifted into the corner of Hiresha’s vision. Teal strips of cloth wound around arms and legs, and the apparition wore a skirt of thick cotton.
    The enchantress took another glance, and the sight of an unfortunately broad chin but soft eyes reassured her. This was not a specter of the night after all.
    “Alyla? What are you doing awake? You should be practicing your lucid dreaming.”
    Hiresha spoke faster than she had intended. The girl had surprised her, and the enchantress did not know what she would say if the novice asked why Provost Hiresha—the legendary sleeper—was also awake.
    Hiresha could not very well mention that she intended to slip down to confront the Lord of the Feast.
    “I couldn’t sleep,” Alyla said.
    The enchantress wondered if Lord Tethiel’s presence alone could cause nightmares.
    The tall novice clomped, even as she tiptoed, up a striped ramp onto the wall. She stood beside the enchantress, gazing down a window of hundreds of glass panes, all blue and silvery. The window swayed inward in a crystal bubble, its facets designed to flex under the pressure of the gusts outside. An enchantment contracted the window back to its original shape.
    “Couldn’t stop thinking of my brother out there. I wanted to bring him an extra cloak.” She folded and refolded a swath of linen around her hands. Lifting the bundle, she covered her face with it. “But I couldn’t get myself to go outside. What use am I?”
    Hiresha’s gowns encircled Alyla as the enchantress leaned close to hug the girl. “You’re a thoughtful woman, Alyla. I’ll take Fos the cloak. The door out would’ve been locked to you anyway at this hour.”
    “I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t.”
    “Yes, go to bed. Here, take a yawn for inspiration.” Hiresha’s jaw stretched in a triumphant expression of drowsiness.
    “I shouldn’t be at the Academy at all.”
    “Excuse me?”
    Alyla faced away, into the darkness. “I know what it costs you to keep me here, and I don’t want it.”
    “Never mind the cost. You—”
    Alyla gasped a breath then spoke a gallop of words, more than Hiresha had ever heard from her at a stretch.
    “I don’t belong here. I’m not a princess, no lord’s daughter. Not one of those women who can do anything she sets herself to. The chancellor doesn’t like me. I want to go back home to Morimound, where it’s warm. But I think Fos will be heartbroken if I go so maybe I should stay as a maid then no one would have to notice me except I worry you’ll be mad at me but don’t know what else I’d do, so could I please go?”
    Hiresha coaxed Alyla back into a closer embrace. The enchantress had to admit to herself she had worried the young woman’s timid nature would make dream exploration difficult, but Hiresha believed that internal adventures could help the woman overcome her shyness.
    “You learned the names of the gemstones faster than any novice in years….”
    Hiresha stopped, not sure what else to say. She did not like to think the chancellor was right, that Alyla did not belong here. To Hiresha, the Academy was home, and she only wanted a few people there she could think of as family. Is that selfish of me?
    “Alyla, if you