Sightwitch (The Witchlands 0.5)

“Surely,” Ryber insisted, “not all questions must be answered with ‘You’ll understand when you’re Summoned!’ There must be something we can learn now. Fazimeh said she learned about the Standing Stones and the glamour spell yesterday. And Oriya said she learned about the Twelve and the origins of magic.

“Tanzi and I are some of the oldest Serving Sisters here, yet we don’t know anything about these pieces of Sightwitch lore. We are woefully behind, Hilga. Please.”

It was an excellent speech. Not that I was surprised. Ry could convince ice to melt. Still, I had to fight the urge to break into applause.

As if sensing my delight, Ry glanced back at me with one of her sly half smiles.

Her smile widened when Hilga huffed a sigh of defeat.

“I suppose Rose is too old to be teaching.”

“She is,” I confirmed, scooting toward the desk.

“And I suppose, at your ages—how old are you now?”

“Fifteen,” Ryber declared as I said, “Fourteen.”

“Then yes, your educations should be further along.” Hilga fixed us both with a wince. “Do you really not know how the glamour spell hides the Convent from the rest of the world? Or how its magic is bound to the Standing Stones?”

“No,” we barked in unison.

Her wince deepened. “Then you indeed have much to catch up on. Here.” She shoved out of her chair, aiming for the wall of books behind the Rook. He fluttered with annoyance when she shooed him aside to pull not one, not two, but three massive tomes off the shelf.

For half a breath, I regretted our decision to come here. MORE WORK was not really what I had wanted.

But then I caught sight of the elation in Ryber’s dark eyes. Her fingers were clutched at her heart, a sign she was itching to pluck the books right out of Hilga’s hands.

“Read these,” Hilga ordered, offering the books.

As I’d guessed, Ryber snatched them up. She even gave a little squeal of delight.

“Then,” Hilga went on, “once you have read them, I want you to come back to me for a list of subjects that you will be researching further in the Crypts.”

I tried not to grimace.

I hated the Crypts.

“You will continue to meet with Sister Rose each day, and then once a week with me. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I muttered, wondering how I was going to fit in time for my daily game of ring-ball with Birgit and Yenna. (Birgit has gotten very full of herself since she beat me last week. It’s intolerable.)

Meanwhile, Ry bounced on her toes. So much excitement! “Thank you, Sister Hilga,” she breathed. “Thank you so much!”

Then, as if she feared Hilga would change her mind, she grabbed my wrist and rushed me out of the office.

Now, as I write this, she sits curled up on her side of the bed reading about the Twelve Paladins. Already, she’s halfway through the massive book—and already, she’s made notes to summarize it all, since she knows I’ll never crack open that ancient cover.





Y18 D156 — 4 days since Tanzi was Summoned


MEMORIES

Six more Serving Sisters were Summoned today.

I am the only pall-eyed left.





Y18 D159 — 7 days


MEMORIES

Hilga allowed me to stay after the morning prayers today. I should have been excited. Never have I been allowed to watch as the Sisters pray for a Future Dreamed. Never have I seen the scrying pool come alive with images. All those years growing up when they told me I would soon be watching the pool with them … It never came to pass.

But I wasn’t excited to watch today. My heart thumped painfully against my ribs, and sweat beaded along my brow.

I was hot. So cursed hot.

What if the pool showed a vision of Tanzi? What if I saw her hurt … or worse?

I sat on the high ledge, where the telescope rests. It was the only place I could see into the pool, for all the Sisters had clustered tightly around it. They formed a spiral, Sister Rose at the fore, right on the rim of the pool, and then hand in hand, moving from oldest to youngest, the Sisters spiraled outward.

I had just crouched upon the ledge, my blood roaring in my ears, when the praying began.

I expected a silent prayer, yet I had not expected for it to feel so … so BIG. Somehow the air in the observatory grew thicker and thicker, heavier and heavier, expanding in time to words I could not hear. It was as if by thinking in unison, each woman’s breath and posture and soul latched on to a similar cadence.

All while the heat kicked higher.

Show us something, I begged. Show me Tanzi. Though I feared seeing my Threadsister, I feared even more that I would see nothing at all.

Finally, when it felt as if the room could grow no hotter, no heavier, it happened. An image formed in the scrying pool.

It was the Rook, sitting on his perch in Hilga’s office. He groomed and fluffed and occasionally clacked his beak.

That was it. Nothing more. For a minute, or perhaps longer, it was just that thrice-damned bird. There was truly nothing I could have cared less about. What did it matter if he hopped off his oak knob and flew out the open window? Where was Tanzi?

Yet despite my rage at the vision, I found myself unable to look away.

I couldn’t breathe either, and my heart boomed in my ears. The Rook flew ever higher. Now he winged over a pine forest. Now he dove low.

The creature himself swooped into the observatory, landing mere paces from me.

He surprised me so badly, I barely swallowed my yelp, and when I glanced back at the pool, the vision had shimmered away.

Cursed bird.

I hate him.





Y18 D161 — 9 days


MEMORIES

Fourteen Sightwitch Sisters were Summoned today.

This is impossible. Sightwitch Sisters reenter the mountain only for sleeping—and they aren’t called by the swifts then. They know from their dreams that it is time to reunite with the Sleeper.

Each Sister the spirit swifts approached today looked shocked. Frightened, even. Yet no one dared disobey the Goddess. If She Summons, we go.

Hilga is worried. Finally, her cool demeanor has cracked. She chews at her fingernails and snaps at anyone who crosses her.

At least this is what she does when I see her, which is rare. She shows her face only at mealtime, if even then. Every waking hour she spends in the Crypts, and each day she enlists more Sightwitch Sisters to help. But not me.

Never me, for I do not have the Sight and I am of no use to anyone.

I have tried to enter the Crypts. Four times now, but no one will go with me—and I cannot defy the Order of Two. Only the Rook will join me. He follows me everywhere I go lately.

Cursed bird.

Tanzi always loved him, but I find him a squawking nuisance.





Y18 D165 — 13 days

Seventeen more Sisters were Summoned.

I feel ill. I do not sleep. No one does.

The mountain shakes, a bare ripple most of the time, yet thrice now we have had full tremors that knocked books off shelves and branches from the trees. Storms have struck too, so I spend every day cleaning debris off the trails. I have never been so focused, so intent on my chores.