Page 16 of Sightwitch
The Six and I balance beneath a knife’s edge. Which side will cut us, though, is yet to be seen.
Eridysi Gochienka
Y2786 D132
MEMORIES
Head Sister Nadya made me go outside today.
“When was the last time you saw sunlight?” she demanded, having cornered me in my workshop. She scuttled around the room, clucking her tongue at my piles upon piles of notes. And my piles upon piles of rocks.
“What are these even for?” She scooped up a handful of coastal limestone. “They leave dust everywhere, Dysi.”
“Don’t touch them, Nadya.” I rubbed at my temples. By the Sleeper, this headache was getting worse. “Please. Everything is where it is meant to be.”
“Except for you.” She dropped the stonesclack, clack, clackatop their brethren and turned sharply toward me. “You do realize that you were supposed to take Sorrow duty three weeks ago.”
My forehead wrinkled. “That sounds … vaguely … Maybe?” My frown shifted to a scowl. “You know I do not have the Sight like you. ’Tis hard to remember.”
“Which is why I covered for you, Dysi, though I have a thousand other things to do.” Her expression softened. “And I covered the time before that too.Andthe time before that as well. Even though you lack the Sight the rest of us have, that does not excuse you from all Convent duties.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled, though truth be told, I was not sorry. My inventions and my workshop—this was my world, and right now, I was stuck on this blighted Vergedi Knot. Everything beyond seemed trivial.
“Well,” said Nadya, “you can pay me back by going to the Sorrow today.”
It took half a beat for those words to settle in my mind. Then I was on my feet in an instant. “I cannot go to the Sorrow!” I opened my arms. “I am right in the middle of this—I think I have figured out the Knot, and if I can do that, we can finally open the doorways. No more Exalted Ones to enslave the people—”
“ENOUGH.” Nadya drew herself up to her fullest height. “You make this excuse each and every time, and though ’tis a noble one, I am sick of it. When was the last time you bathed? Your blond hair has turned black with grime. A single day outside of this cave will not affect the Exalted Ones’ grip on the land.” She thrust a pointed finger at the door. “Besides, a change might shake things loose. Now, go.”
I cringed.
“Go, Dysi.”
I went, and it was easily the longest ascent I’ve ever made. Or at least it felt that way. My thighs burned and my lungs ached, and I realized—with some horror—that it had been several days since I’d actually left my workshop in the mountain’s heart.
I will say, though, now that I have bathed and sit at the Supplicant’s Sorrow to await any visitors to the Convent, Head Sister Nadya was right. It was good to step away. I needed the exercise, I needed the sunshine, and I needed the spring breeze against my cheeks.
The scent of lilac is thick on the air.
LATER
Someone came to the Sorrow today. A man with sadness in his eyes and two daughters he could not raise.
“Their mother … died.” He struggled to get those words out, speaking in the mountain tongue, though he looked No’Amatsi.
“Can your tribe not help?” I asked. Afternoon fog curled around us, wispy vines to caress the bridge and the island.
“I am amalej.” He shifted his weight, and his eyes briefly met mine. The first time since he and his daughters had joined me on the island. “I am a soldier in the Rook King’s army,” he continued, “and I’m often away. Please, can you not take them?”
Lisbet, a girl of eight, stared at me, unflinching, with huge hazel eyes. I liked the stern set of her jaw; she would fit in well here. The younger girl, Cora, hid behind her father’s legs.
“We can take them,” I said slowly, choosing my words with care. “But you must tell no one we have done so. The war brings too many orphans to our doors, and we struggle to find space—much less food.”
His shoulders relaxed slightly. Relief…and loss too. No man wishes to be parted from his children, especially if they are all he has left of his wife.
Lisbet, to her credit, gave no reaction at all.
The man then twisted to reach for Cora, ready to pull her around. Yet he paused, his hand upon her dark head.
