The Gold in the Dark

Chapter Eight

The chime of sixth hour the next morning was followed by a scream that echoed up and down the dormitory hallway. "WHAT?! My father won't hear of it! You will do NO SUCH THING!" The screamer punctuated her pronouncement with a door slam. Moments later, Tia heard a light, quick knock at her door, so soft she could almost have imagined it.

Throwing back the covers, she shuffled to the door and opened it to see a girl who looked to be about her same age, clutching something to her chest. They peered at each other with mutual curiosity, Tia's hazel eyes meeting the girl's green ones. A tumble of golden blonde curls frizzed like an aura around the girl's shoulders, and she was clad in form-fitting dark brown dance clothes that left no curve of her slim body to the imagination. Tia couldn't help but envision herself in the girl's eyes: a long white nightgown hand-me-down from Natlin, brown hair matted and tangled from an anxious, restless night, sleep crusting at the corners of her eyes.

"I'm Tia," she managed, swimming away from her thoughts back to reality.

"Wynna," the girl said, dipping her head in acknowledgment. "I'm taking you around today."

"Who...? What was that all about?" Tia gestured toward the hallway.

The girl squirmed at the question, chewing at her lip. "No time to explain right now," she said finally. She thrust the things she was holding at Tia. "Breakfast's in fifteen minutes. Here are some clothes and slippers. You have hairpins, yes? Hair in a bun, tight at the crown of your head. Come out in the hallway once you're ready, and we'll go together. Oh, and bathrooms are down the hall—that way," she pointed, then hustled away into a room a few doors down. A few girls poked their heads out from their rooms and gawked at Tia as she followed Wynna's retreating figure with her eyes.

Tia closed the door, shutting away their curious gazes, and unfolded the dark brown dance clothes. The next few minutes were spent doing an awkward shimmy to get the clothes on properly, and even when she had them on right she still only felt half-dressed. There was no time to worry about immodesty, though; she could hear girls in the hallway heading to breakfast. She slipped on the leather slippers and grimaced when they immediately started chafing at her ankles. It seemed the whole world was conspiring to be uncomfortable for her today.

A few minutes later she stood in the hallway waiting for Wynna as the rest of the dormitory funneled down the corridor to breakfast. All the girls who swept past her, even the little six-year-olds, walked with light, floaty steps, their bodies long and muscles toned. The effect was inhuman, and she felt a wave of apprehension. Compared to these nymphal dancers, she was positively stumpy.

How long could it take for Wynna to finish getting ready? Everyone who walked past was staring at her unabashedly. One girl with pale blue eyes, an upturned nose, and inky black hair fastened back with a small, shining silver comb even turned to look at Tia, then thrust her head high and swept on past, her expression verging on hostility.

Wynna finally exited her room and motioned for Tia to follow. She'd somehow managed to tame her blonde mane of hair, and now she floated down the hallway beside her charge, posture perfect and each footstep precise. After an uncomfortable, silent moment, Wynna said, "I'm to be your guide for the day, so you can get used to academy life. You're sixteen, right?"

"Yes."

"Me too. Everyone studies with others their own age, so you'll be training with the rest of the tenth-years. There are thirty students in each year."

"When did you join the academy?" Tia asked.

"When I was seven. But a lot of students do come here when someone needs to be replaced." Wynna caught Tia's inquisitive look. "Say you're eight, and you can't keep up with the other eight-year-olds. They'll search for someone from outside the academy who's more talented to take your place, and then you're dismissed."