A Broken Paradise (The Windows of Heaven Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

Atum-Ra. Ask First Father to reveal your uncleanness to you…”
    Tiva started panting until her head began to spin. I have an uncleanness! Does this mean I’ll be sent away, too?
    “…Do this daily until Atum-Ra speaks to your heart. Then report to both your brother and me that we may judge whether you have correctly understood the revelation or if you have made something up as I know you sometimes do. Now go get ready for your classes. Be quick!”
    T he spasms slowly subsided after Father left the room. Tiva wanted to howl and shriek, but she suppressed the urge by biting her tongue until it bled into her mouth. She nearly grew sick from swallowing the blood. She wished her father had simply beaten her so she could have the excuse to let it all out. Better that than to kneel before the ancient coffin, with only a shriveled dead man inside for company. Better the welts and bruises than endlessly reading the stele’s boring pictograph warnings, seeking words from a Deity as cold and silent as the stone.
    Tiva dressed, as she settled toward the uncomfortable numbness that allowed her to function outwardly. Her lateness brought her to the breakfast rug after the boys had left. Mother had already begun to clean up.
    Most importantly, they were alone.
    Mother seemed slightly easier to talk to than Father did sometimes.
    Tiva’s mouth hurt. “M-Mother, I have a b-bad thing that happens…”
    “Hurry up and eat your gruel,” her mother cut her off. “I don’t talk to girls your age who still cry for no reason.”
    She flung her bowl down and left for the Girl’s Academy. It was a stupid idea anyway! She let the door skins flap behind her.
    As she walked, Tiva adjusted the puffy veil her parents made her wear ; uselessly trying to find some angle where it might look a smad less moronic. Finally, she imagined that one garish tilt of the boxy frame hiding her hair might somehow make her appearance a little less dowdy. Then she scurried through the Altar Square toward the footbridge.
    The Girl’s Academy in the ziggurat on the Orthodox side of the brook had absorbed the old school run by the wife of the local Chief Acolyte. Tiva was still unsure how she felt about the way the Archon’s men had simply ordered her former school closed. On the bright side, she had a few new freedoms and a couple of new friends. The Seer Clan’s Chief Acolyte and his wife had gotten too busy to run the place properly anyway, first with the war, now with building their mountain flood haven against World-end.
    “Lit girl! Lit girl! Straight as a mare in a bit, girl!” came the chant from the Archonic side of the brook.
    On the other hand, Tiva didn’t stick out so much in the Seer Clan school. Nobody wore veils anymore!
    “Lit girl! Lit girl! Holes in her knees from the grit, girl!”
    Tiva reluctantly started across the bridge toward the band of Orthy girls who tormented her each day. Unlike Tsuli, these girls’ families had moved in from Sa-utar recently to escape big city crime or had come from other places nearer to the war. In a way, Tiva didn’t blame them. On some days, she would give anything to live on their side of the bridge.
    “Lit girl! Lit girl! Your pahpo don’t scare us a bit, girl!”
    So much for him being the big Dragon-slayer. Tiva walked into their shoves and took her morning punishment in passive silence.
    “Hey, World-end, what’s with the veil? Yer pahpo shave you fer bein’ out last night?” said one skinny imp who yanked at Tiva’s shawl.
    Tiva wanted to shout, Go on — rip it! Rip it off, and throw it away so I can be free like you! But that would have only made them laugh even more.
    A banshee screech ended their laughter. “Why don’t ya leave her alone, ya little scabs!”
    A lithe upper-classman with golden red hair, her arms resting defiantly on her tightly-wrapped hips barred their path.
    Tiva froze. It’s Farsa! I’m really dead now!
    Something did not add up.
    One of the Orthy girls shot