The Alcazar (The Cerulean Duology #2) - Amy Ewing Page 0,36
them go, she wanted to cry and confess all. But it was not time, not yet.
She was grateful to know that her mothers were not wholly unaware. Perhaps there were other Cerulean noticing a change in the City.
She gave her mothers one final squeeze, then stepped back. “I must return to the temple.”
Her orange mother nodded. “We are glad you came.”
Leela smiled through her tears. “So am I. And as you said, I am not going far.”
Her green mother pressed a hand to Leela’s cheek. “We have been so proud of you. But there is a strength inside you that, I admit, I did not always see. It shines through your eyes now. I have never been more honored to be your mother.”
“Nor I,” her purple mother said.
“Nor I,” echoed her orange mother.
Leela’s throat was too swollen to speak. She kissed them each on the cheek, then turned and fled back to the temple, more determined than ever to return to the underground gardens, to bring Sera home and heal her City.
11
THE NEXT DAY, AFTER THE NOVICES HAD THEIR MORNING prayers, Leela was given a mop and bucket of soapy water by Acolyte Klymthe and set to cleaning the floors of the temple.
Leela found she did not mind the work—it allowed her mind to wander, to plan. She felt there was nothing to be done other than wait for the novices to fall asleep and sneak out of the dormitory, back to Faesa’s statue. But she wanted to take Elorin with her. The young novice needed to see that place with her own eyes.
Leela’s arms ached from mopping by the time evening prayers arrived. She had intended to stay awake until the hour of the dark to see which novices slept soundly and which might be woken by the slightest noise, but suddenly it was morning and time for more prayers and more cleaning, and Leela had not even remembered falling asleep.
The next day was the same, and the next, and the next. Leela’s arms grew lean and strong, the mop feeling like an extension of her, the swish it made on the floors comforting, the splash of the water in the bucket its own music.
Swish swish plop swish. Swish swish plop swish.
It reminded her of the sound of the High Priestess feeding the trapped Cerulean with the golden fruit. She was just thinking that perhaps tonight would be the night to try to sneak to the Moon Gardens when a group of novices passed her, whispering, and Elorin trailed behind them. She paused for a brief moment, pretending to encourage Leela in her efforts, but then dropped her voice to a low whisper.
“The High Priestess has not been seen since the last evening of your fast,” she said. “I tried to keep a watch on her as much as I could and I saw her enter the Moon Gardens, but she has not yet returned.”
Leela’s heart sank. She did not dare go beneath the City if the High Priestess was there—and if she had not been seen, Leela was certain she was down with her stalactites.
“There’s something in the Moon Gardens, isn’t there,” Elorin whispered.
“Yes,” Leela whispered back. “And I’ll show you. But we must be careful.”
Elorin glanced toward the gaggle of novices leaving the temple. “They do not think you belong here,” she said. “They are angry about the penance.”
“I know,” Leela said with a sigh.
“I think it is a good thing,” Elorin said. “I think this City might be waking up.”
Leela thought so too, but Elorin scampered off before she had a chance to say so.
The next day, Acolyte Imima gave her a bristly brush and set her to scrubbing the walls of the temple. That lasted for another four days—Leela had to get a ladder to reach the higher parts and the work was less forgiving than mopping had been. She watched every day for a sign of the High Priestess but she never appeared.
The morning after she finished the walls, Acolyte Endaria gave her a cloth and a jar of polish and instructed her to clean the pulpit and the temple doors. Leela decided to start with the doors—she was quite sick of the inside of the temple. She took the ladder with her so she could start at the top and work her way down. The symbols seemed to shift under her fingers as she ran the cloth over them, though they did not spell Heal them or anything else today.