floats, and then came Shorefall Night with all the dancers…>
Something flickered in the darkness of Sancia’s mind—a glimpse of walls, and a canal, and glints of soldiers’ helmets…
said Sancia.
A thoughtful pause. When she spoke again, her voice was quiet and sad.
And then Sancia saw it—just a flash, again, but then more: there was the rippling, slate-gray face of the Dandolo campo walls, and the clouds swirling across a black sky…and then a dark, empty Commons square, and muddy streets under flocks of floating lanterns, and the sounds of many shouts…
And she was there. Sancia could see it, feel it, smell it. It was like a juggler holding a ball in the crook of his elbow—you had to contort and flex yourself just right to hold on to it, but once you had it, it was secure.
whispered Sancia, awed.
Berenice did so, turning a full 360 degrees where she stood. Sancia watched, feeling disoriented and more than a little amazed as the vision in her head turned with her.
said Sancia.
said Sancia.
There was an anxious silence.
asked Berenice.
Sancia thought about it, puzzling over how to transfer her talents miles and miles across Tevanne. Then she had an idea.
said Sancia.
Sancia took a deep breath.
Sancia took a deep breath. She shut her eyes, and breathed deep again.
And then she flexed.
She almost groaned as the little invisible muscle inside her mind pulled taut. It felt like she was opening up her very skull, exposing her brain to the air so it could catch the scents and aromas drifting around her, but there was just so much to experience, just so much sensation, all of it pouring into her, pouring through her…
And then the vision in her mind lit up.
* * *
—
Berenice gasped as the world changed around her. Suddenly every sight—the walls, the gates, the lanterns above—was overlaid with the curiously wispy tangles of logic she’d seen just hours ago, back in the Foundryside