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

feel that way we’ll have to discuss it. Yet not now. Not on a night like this.”
    The wind thudded against the window as if trying to get in. It sounded both harsh and desperate.
    Hiresha held Alyla for a few moments. Long enough for the provost to fall asleep in the taller woman’s arms. Alyla woke her. They parted ways in front of the novice’s room.
    The enchantress walked away down a hall covered with paintings of birds. Larks and songbirds of all colors cluttered together, one standing atop another, wingtips touching. Each novice painted a bird by tradition. If Hiresha searched long enough she might find her own, with purple wings and less than perfectly drawn feet.
    Most days the profusion of birds added color to the stone and relief from the stark absence of wildlife in the mountain heights. Tonight, as shadows played over the murals, the wings seemed to writhe. Beaks that once gave the impression of opening in song now appeared angled toward their feathery neighbors, ready to peck and gouge. Mistakes in drawing appeared to be broken limbs, weaker birds hobbled and soon to be devoured. Hiresha had a sense the feathered swarm was but one creature with a thousand razor-sharp beaks.
    Before the enchantress could retreat from the hall, she heard a knocking behind her. Another woman was in front of Alyla’s door. She carried a naked candle. In the other hand she grasped a flashing knife.
    No, not a knife, Hiresha realized. A hand mirror. What am I thinking?
    The girl had not seen the enchantress, but it would only take a glance over the shoulder. A sudden pressure built in Hiresha’s chest, and she had a sense she must not allow this girl to see her.
    The Provost of Applied Enchantment ignored the feeling. There is no logical reason for me to be frightened.
    Across the hall, Alyla opened the door. “Minna?”
    “I wasn’t sure I should, but I came,” the girl said. Hot wax leaked over pale fingers.
    “You could get in trouble being out this late in Lark’s Hall,” Alyla said. “You left your veil.”
    It was an obvious thing to say, but Hiresha too found herself staring at the girl’s perfect features. By some trick of the candlelight, the birthmark was no longer visible. From sculpted chin to graceful brow, the girl’s skin shone whiter than ivory.
    Minna lifted her mirror, and a beam of reflected light slashed through the gloom. The girl gazed at herself. She grinned. Then she turned the mirror toward Alyla, and an unforgiving light fell over the novice’s face. Minna’s voice throbbed with emotion.
    “I—I wanted to show you something.”
    “There I am. Oh! Wherever did you get a mirror so clear?”
    “My…father gave it to me.” Minna licked her lips in a strange manner. “Is that something on your face?”
    Alyla jerked a hand up to touch a welt on her cheek. “Didn’t know I had this. It itches.”
    Hiresha had not noticed the red spot either, though it would have seemed darker in her blue light. Something about the nightly meeting seemed wrong, but Hiresha dismissed it and began stepping around her train of gowns to leave.
    “What is it?” Alyla asked. “Ow! It’s stinging.”
    Minna said, “Could it be a spider bite?”
    “Oh, no! Oh, no!”
    Hiresha stumbled back around to see Alyla clutching her face. Minna shoved the mirror closer. Fuzzy dots skittered across Alyla’s cheek. The black specks were crawling from an open wound. Hiresha strode forward and saw they were spiderlings.
    Alyla’s throat convulsed in a silent scream. She stood transfixed in front of the mirror, seemed unable to turn away or speak. Beside her, Minna sucked in a long breath as if savoring a delicious smell. The girl grew taller, her own face sharpening to a greater beauty, her eyes more bright, her lips more red.
    A needle of recognition pricked the back of Hiresha’s neck. The girl is Feasting on Alyla. I brought a Feaster into the Academy.
    “Alyla, it’s illusion.”
    Hiresha grabbed Minna and shoved