. she is gone. She is gone and I must bear a new daughter and you cannot come here and tell me otherwise. You cannot give me false hope.”
Leela felt a sharp twinge of anger. “There is nothing false about it,” she said. Why did Kandra not believe her?
“Kandra!” one of the midwives called, and the two of them jumped.
“I must go,” Kandra said, turning away. “Do not come back.”
Leela felt empty as she watched her only confidant hurry toward the flower-strewn field to join the other purple mothers. This was not how she had imagined the conversation would go. She’d thought Kandra would be overjoyed. She’d thought she was bringing good news, not sadness and heartbreak.
“I’ll find a way to show her,” Leela muttered aloud to herself. “I’ll prove that Sera is still alive.”
She would return to the City’s underbelly and learn all she could about that underground garden and the clear pools and the stalactites and what it all meant. If Kandra could not help her now, Leela would do this on her own. The weight of it threatened to crush her but she was determined to shoulder it.
She turned to make her way back across the stones to the path and abruptly found herself face-to-face with the last person she wished to see.
“Leela,” the High Priestess said, gazing down from her impressive height with a mixture of confusion and horror. “What in the name of Mother Sun do you think you are doing here?”
8
LEELA’S HEART POUNDED IN HER EARS, HER FEET GROWN into the ground like roots.
“It is forbidden to cross the sacred circle once the birthing season has begun,” the High Priestess said, and Leela nodded mutely. Had the High Priestess overheard any of her conversation with Kandra?
She folded her hands together and fixed Leela with a hard stare. “Please explain yourself.”
“I wished to see how Plenna was doing,” Leela said quickly. “My purple mother brought me along with her to deliver food and made me promise to wait at the path. But I . . . I did not listen. I thought if I could see Plenna happy, it would help heal some of the pain of Sera’s loss.” She looked down in case the High Priestess could read the lie in her eyes. “My heart still grieves for her.”
“Of course it does, my child. But grief is no excuse for breaking such an important rule.” The High Priestess placed a hand on Leela’s shoulder, her skin hot through Leela’s cloudspun dress. She’d never been touched by the High Priestess before, and Leela felt her magic jerk inside her, as if she had just touched a burning stove with bare fingers. “I am afraid a conclave must be called. And a penance must be decided.”
Leela could only vaguely remember the last conclave, when she was just a little girl, called to deal with a Cerulean who had refused to aid in preparations for the Festival of Light, one of the three major Cerulean holidays. The woman had been old, Leela recalled, and lonely. She had lost both her wives and had retreated from Cerulean life. Leela remembered feeling both sad for her and frightened of her, as her penance was announced in front of the entire temple. She was tasked with preparing for the festival all on her own. And she had done it, to the City’s great surprise.
She had died a month later. Leela felt ashamed that she could no longer remember the woman’s name.
“Come,” the High Priestess said. “We must tell your purple mother what has happened.”
The look on her mother’s face when she was told that Leela had disobeyed her made Leela want to slink under a rock. The other purple mothers and midwives had gathered in shock, listening to the High Priestess recount Leela’s breach of faith and announce the conclave. Leela felt she could see her own purple mother’s heart breaking at the thought of her daughter receiving the harshest Cerulean reprimand possible.
There was only one face missing among the crowd—Kandra’s.
Leela was not allowed to accompany her purple mother home. She was not allowed to go home at all. She was marched by the High Priestess straight to the temple. The walk was long and peppered with gardens and dwellings so that Leela had to watch the news of her shame spread throughout the City. All the bravery she’d felt earlier evaporated, leaving her flat and lifeless. She did not know what her penance would be, but she was certain