Nightsworn | The Whispering Wall #2

Seven: A Coin

When Dela woke up in the schoolroom just like she always did, it took her a moment to remember that life had been turned upside down.

Trying to shake off the fog of sleep, she sat up, frowning. Something rattled in the corridors; then she remembered there were guards in the temple now. Harkenn's guards, in their ram skull livery, all looking very severe. It unnerved her to pass them when they stood guard outside the vaults, completely still and expressionless under their visors, with long, sharp swords at their hips. She wished they would go away and everything would go back to normal.

Lin stirred on the next pallet along, and grey eyes stared blearily at her. "Is it dawn?"

Dela looked around. Most of the other girls were still asleep, and the candles were still unlit. She didn't know what had woken her.

"Go back to sleep," she muttered. She never managed to get back to sleep once she was awake, but Lin could sleep like the dead on command.

Sure enough, when she next looked over, her friend was snoring again.

The schoolroom wasn't her favourite place in the temple. It was bare, with hard floors and little decoration except for the big blackboard mounted on the wall. While there was an investigation going on, the dormitories were off limits. A sleeping person, she supposed, might go missing just as easily as a dead one.

She couldn't judge by the light how close it was to dawn – there was still little difference between day and night – but going back to sleep would be impossible. Her bladder urged her to get up, and the tinny sounds of patrolling guards unnerved her. Rain battered the windows of the schoolroom like rolling drums.

She stood up and crept among the sleeping forms of the other acolytes, trying not to lose her balance. They were all squeezed in tight; it was easier to fit everyone in when they were sitting rather than lying down. She let out her breath as she reached the tiny closet in the corner and ducked inside. Shelving rose to the ceiling around her, stacked with boxes of chalk and writing tablets and abaci. The Clerics had left a chamber pot on the floor in the middle.

When Dela emerged, a Cleric was lighting the candles. She breathed a sigh of relief that she had not lost too much sleep. There was supposed to be a practical lesson today, and they didn't tend to go well if she hadn't slept much. Scalpels and insomnia rarely mixed.

Some of the other girls stirred as Dela hurried back to Lin's side and shook her gently. "It's dawn."

Lin blinked at her, then groaned and closed her eyes again. Without opening them, she rolled up into a sitting position and yawned. "I'm opting out of today."

Dela snorted. "I'm sure Maniel will be very understanding."

Lin opened her eyes wide, looking around the room for the stern Cleric, then grinned and nudged Dela so that she swayed where she squatted. "Don't scare me like that."

They dressed and lined up at the schoolroom door. Dela stuck close to Lin, as she didn't want to admit how much the guards frightened her. The Cleric scurried up and down the row, organising them into a neat column, and then three guards marched in to escort them to the dinner hall. Though the second instance of bodysnatching had occurred in another temple, security had buckled down tighter than ever. Nothing Dela had overheard the priests whispering about had suggested that anyone had any idea who they were dealing with yet.

They ate a thin porridge of grain and goat milk. Dela had heard rumours that the dairy had lost so many livestock to demons over the dark season that there was a severe shortage, which had some weight now that the acolytes were only receiving milk from the temple's own goats. When she was halfway down her bowl of mush, Lin nudged her elbow and indicated the priests' bench. Dela's heart caught in her throat when she saw Lady Kerrin sitting there, beautiful as ever. None of the priests were eating.