Page 38 of Insolence
“It’s not that it didn’t surprise me. Something… unusual happened, is all.”
“Oh?” Sadrie cuts into her baked chicken on a bed of cabbage.
Cordelia’s gaze goes dreamy, drifting around the expansive hall. “It was after my bath yesterday. The handmaiden stylingmy hair stepped out to grab more oil for my curls. That’s when I heard a voice coming from the mirror. Except it didn’t sound like any earthly thing at all.”
Sadrie and I exchange glances.
“You heard a voice? From themirror,” I say, unsure if I understood.
“What did it sound like?” asks Sadrie, eyes wide.
“It’s difficult to describe.” Cordelia takes a breath. “It was the sound of rain on a pond and wind through the trees. A crash of thunder. The cry of a baby.” She slowly shakes her head. “It was all of these things and none of them at once. I know it sounds impossible.”
“Not exactly,” says Sadrie with a tilt of her head.
“Did the voice say anything?” I ask.
Cordelia’s smoky quartz eyes go distant and unfocused. “She said my name.”
Goosebumps spring up all over me. I gape at her, fascinated.
“It seemed like the voice was… beckoning me. So I peered into the glass. But”—she pauses, prompting me and Sadrie to lean in closer—“it wasn’t my reflection looking back.”
“What did you see?” whispers Sadrie.
A small smile tugs at the corners of Cordelia’s mouth. “At first it was just hazy white light, but it morphed into a vision. I know it sounds crazy, but the goddessappearedto me.”
“Eisha?” asks Sadrie, completely riveted.
Cordelia nods. “Her head was crowned in blinding light. I couldn’t see her face. But Ifelther. She was there. She told me not to fret. She said that I’m hers, that I’m destined to draw a white sphere and become an acolyte. That’s when I was overtaken by a feeling of intense love and connection to this place. I knew then that being here isn’t a mistake.” Unshed tears stand in her eyes, and she sets down her fork, tucking her hands into her lap. “It was sublime.”
Silence reigns. Nobody moves for several moments. Finally, Sadrie smiles. “Well, no wonder you weren’t unsettled in class. I’m happy for you, truly.”
“I know I have a higher calling. Do you remember what Ghisele said about being ‘touched by the goddess’s hand’?” Cordelia gives a happy sigh. “I feel as if I have been. But not just that.” Reaching for Sadrie next to her and across the table to me, Cordelia grabs our fingers and squeezes. “I have a feeling all three of us will draw white spheres—I canfeelit.”
“That means we’ll be able to stay together,” says Sadrie.
“Exactly.”
“I’ll have to take your word for it,” I murmur, not quite able to pretend I’m convinced.
Sadrie rests her chin on her hand, her grin widening at Cordelia. Secretly, she slips a shoe off beneath the table. The first touch of her warm, stockinged foot to my ankle nearly makes me jump. My surprise is replaced by sharp yearning as she skims her foot up my leg.
Her eyes never stray from Cordelia as she asks follow-up questions, teasing me ruthlessly unbeknownst to the rest of the refectory.
Asoft knock lands on my door not five minutes after I’ve cleaned my teeth and finished changing for bed. Sadrie is leaning on the wall by my doorway when I answer it.
“I can’t stop thinking about you,” she says. “I don’t think I can sleep.”
“Gods, me neither. Come in.” I have no idea how long it is until lights out, and at the present time, I don’t particularly care.
Cordelia may be convinced the three of us are going to stay together, but I’m not so sure. For all I know, Sadrie and Cordelia will draw white spheres, and I’ll draw black tomorrow. And didn’t Sister Delia say acolytes and the betrothed won’t be mingling very much?
This could be the last night Sadrie and I have an opportunity to be alone together. Perhaps the same idea occurred to her. Sapphire eyes fixed on me, she kicks the door closed and eliminates the distance between us.
“I want to taste you,” she says as her mouth closes over mine.
We wrap our arms around one another as we stumble toward the bed, her hands bunched in the fabric of my sleeping shift.
