The Alcazar (The Cerulean Duology #2) - Amy Ewing Page 0,80

meals with the rest of us, or sing, or pray. She mostly sat in her doorway and sewed. I wish she would move into my house now that I am gone. She might be happier if she were in the center of things.”

“Mm,” Leela murmured as Elorin said, “It is so good of you to think of her well-being.”

“Well, we purple mothers must stick together. Just like you novices.” Plenna gave them a wink.

“Indeed,” Leela said with forced cheer. But she knew that if Kandra became pregnant, it would not bring the joy Plenna hoped it would, only deep sorrow. Kandra had not believed Leela about Sera being alive, but what if Leela could free Estelle? Would that bring Kandra comfort?

After a week, the devotions finally ended, and all the novices seemed quite happy. There was something that felt forced about these prayers for fertility, something that did not sit well.

But still, no purple mother had been blessed with a child except Plenna.

Leela and Elorin did not need to speak to one another to agree to return to the Sky Gardens that night. The two girls waited until nearly the hour of the dark before slipping out of the dormitory.

The Moon Gardens were blissfully silent. Fireflies dotted the rosebushes as Leela and Elorin made their way to Faesa’s statue—Leela making sure to move the statue over the opening to cover their tracks—and down the cold stairs to the City’s underbelly. When they arrived at Estelle’s circle, they both stopped and gazed down at her—the memory of putting her inside this stalactite was crystal clear in Leela’s mind, and she sensed Elorin was thinking of it too.

“Do you think she will be all right if you take her out?” Elorin asked in a hushed voice.

“Yes,” Leela said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. “The High Priestess does not want to kill them. Besides, Estelle escaped once, years ago, and Kandra saw her—the High Priestess simply erased her memory of the meeting.” She looked at the cone of moonstone, and its pulsing red heart seemed dim to her. “The stalactites absorb Cerulean magic,” she said. “Which feeds the pool, which strengthens the tether.” She turned her eyes upward to the boughs of vines. “The moonstone uses the magic of the tether to make the fruit, which she feeds to the Cerulean, replenishing the magic the tether is taking from them. Until it can’t anymore and then she needs to make new stalactites and imprison fresh Cerulean.”

“I wonder how she even thought to do it in the first place,” Elorin said. “What could have caused her to make such a drastic choice?”

Leela felt that if she’d kept the circlet on longer, she might have found out. All she could do now was try to help those imprisoned. She knelt at the edge of Estelle’s stalactite and recalled the movements the High Priestess had made when she’d first trapped her here.

She ran one hand in a clockwise circle over the ice. “For devotion,” she said, her voice trembling. She passed her other hand counterclockwise. “For wisdom.” Then she passed both hands in a long line down the center of the circle. “For love,” she whispered.

Leela waited, hardly daring to even breathe. Suddenly, Elorin gasped and Leela saw cracks appear in the surface of the ice. Liquid began to weep from them, spilling across the ground and soaking the knees of Leela’s robe. And then the ice was gone. Leela reached out and touched the inside of the stalactite—the liquid was clear as water but much more viscous.

“Estelle?” she called, unsure of exactly what to do.

For one agonizingly long moment, nothing happened. Then Estelle’s whole body lurched, limbs flailing through the thick fluid, until she burst from the stalactite, coughing and choking and heaving up water onto the cold ground.

We should have brought an extra robe, Leela thought as she and Elorin helped pull her out. She realized how much she had doubted that this would actually work.

“I’ll get her a robe from the dormitories,” Elorin said, as if reading Leela’s mind.

Leela nodded and Elorin quickly left. It was only after she’d gone that Leela remembered she’d sealed up Faesa’s statue and Elorin would not be able to get out.

But Estelle had stopped coughing and now turned her eyes to Leela. They were flat black, no trace of blue at all.

“Who are you?” she croaked.

“M-my name is Leela Starcatcher,” Leela stammered. “I—”

Estelle grabbed her arm so tight it hurt. “Are you working with