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At the same moment, the sconce above Kosmel flares. The shadows on his marble form shift—and I swear I catch a shape like a gowned figure leaping headfirst into a thicker clump of darkness.
A chill settles over me. Maybe I only imagined that.
But even Casimir said that’s how he feels Ardone guides him sometimes—drawing his attention to meaningful details in the world around him.
I raise my eyebrows at the smirking godlen. “Just dive farther in?” I murmur.
He doesn’t say anything, naturally. In frustration, I pick up a die and toss it by his feet.
It lands five up. The most emphatic yes.
Swallowing thickly, I pull myself to my feet. My innards feel all jumbled up.
Until the last few weeks, I’ve avoided the notice of the gods. I don’t really like the sensation of one of them dabbling in my life.
Is that reallybetterthan being left to my own devices?
My skin creeping, I stride out of the temple. There’s nothing more for me in there at the moment.
The apparent message nags at me all the way back to the college. I pause in the outer courtyard, marking the eleven peals of the bell, and veer around the Quadring to make for the woods.
Isn’t it awfully early?Julita asks.
I let out my voice in the barest mutter. “He wants me to dive in; I’m diving in. They can ignore me until one o’clock if they want.”
Or maybe we can get the next trial over with, and I can take a break from the precarious balancing act I’ve been performing for a day or two.
I count out my fifty paces into the woods and sit down on the forest path, settling in for what might be a long wait. The warble of the breeze through the leaves and the periodic buzz and chirp of forest life are becoming familiar.
There’s nothing in this darkness I really need to fear except the human beings venturing into it alongside me.
I breathe in and out at a regular pace, absorbing the sounds around me, the shifts in the cooling air. I might even drift into the sort of meditative state the clerics sometimes talk about, though I can’t say any great insight comes with it.
Apparently Julita can’t do the same. She stirs restlessly within my head.Of course they’d have to pick the creepiest time and place to conduct their initiation tests. I’m sure they simply want you to be as off-balance as possible.
As if to prove her point, a voice abruptly breaks through the quiet. It’s distorted by the same magical effect as usual, but this once I have a definite impression of it coming from somewhere ahead of me and a bit to the right.
“Why are you here already, Ivy of Nikodi?”
Interesting. So there are probably at least two conspirators who’ve been conducting these trials, only one of whom is able to project their voice widely.
Determining that fact doesn’t get me any closer to knowing who those people are, though.
I consider what sort of answer the scourge sorcerers would most want to hear from a potential recruit. “What’s been happening out here feels much more important than anything I could be doing in the college. I thought I’d see if I can get more in tune with the All-Giver.”
Julita gives a chuckle of approval.Buttering them up. Very nice.
I can’t hear any hint of movement in the forest. Either the speaker has been standing wherever they are for a long time without moving, they’re propelling their voice from quite far away, or they’re incredibly stealthy.
They don’t bother to answer, maybe waiting for companions to join them. I go back to my sort-of meditation, but I keep my ears even more pricked than before.
Sometime after the midnight hour has been rung in, a voice breaks the quiet again, surrounding me in the more usual fashion. “The All-Giver would appreciate your commitment, Ivy. We’d like to know what else you can do for the Great God.”
I ease myself carefully to my feet. “Did you have anything in particular in mind?”
“You made a small sacrifice of your finger, it appears. What godlen are you dedicated to, and what is your gift?”
My heart stutters for an instant before I remember Casimir’s gentle touch as he re-imprinted my false dedication brand yesterday night. When I looked at it this evening, the pink-toned mark between my breasts still looked completely believable.
