The Light of the Oracle Read Online Free PDF

Bryn nodded, very glad that she would not have to walk up all those stairs just now. Clea nodded too, resentfully, and Nirene led on past a corner of the Temple, along a wall, and around another corner where soldiers guarded a studded door. Nodding to the guards, Nirene opened the door, pushing Bryn and Clea into a wide hallway lit by flaring torches.

Four
    Dawn was the tallest handmaid in the Temple of the Oracle. Her morning was beginning badly, and she believed her height was to blame. She'd already bumped her shins on the edge of her bed—
twice
—and had nearly upset the basin while washing, though she'd purposely risen before the gong to give herself extra time. At seventeen, she should be done with growing taller—would she ever stop? Her student robe was getting short. Again.
    She hurried back to the long room she shared with dozens of other handmaids. She would make her bed, straighten her desk, and draw her curtain so that it hung evenly as it should, all before the gong sounded and woke the others.
    As she wrestled with the stiff loops of the heavy beige curtain that separated her bed from those of the handmaids on either side, Nirene approached her. Dawn sighed, expecting to be reprimanded for something, but the Sendrata of Handmaids bade her sit on her rumpled bed, and then abruptly told her that it was time she became a duenna. Duennas looked afternew handmaids for their first year at the Temple, guiding them, helping them study and learn.
    “Ohh!” Dawn cried, excitement vying with surprise within her; she'd been doing well in her studies and not causing too much trouble, but she wasn't bird-chosen yet and might never be.
    “For pity's sake, don't squeal,” Nirene said, frowning.
    “I'll be the best duenna you have, Sendrata,” Dawn whispered fervently. “But which handmaid will be my ward? You brought in two last night.” Dawn hoped she'd be assigned to the ragged peasant girl, who'd been so tired when she arrived that she'd fallen onto the bed assigned her. Nirene, lips pursed in irritation, had drawn the curtain around the sleeping girl herself. The other new handmaid, the yellow-haired one with a false smile who put on airs, was rumored to be a cousin to the queen.
    Nirene pointed across the room. “Her name is Bryn. A stonecutter's daughter. You may begin by getting her out of bed and explaining what is expected of her.”
    The one she'd hoped for! Dawn grinned, even as nervous fear rose in her chest. Bryn was sleeping in the bed formerly belonging to Selid, the handmaid who had disappeared a week or more ago. “Won't Selid be coming back?” Dawn asked.
    “No,” Nirene snapped. “ You'd best forget her, and there's no need to gabble about her to Bryn.”
    “ Yes, ma'am.” Dawn wanted to ask where and why Selid had gone, but it would be useless.
    “Remember, duennas are responsible for the actions of their wards. As you know, Queen Alessandra will be visiting the Temple in a few weeks.” Nirene's lips tightened. “ You must teach Bryn protocol, so she doesn't disgrace you.”
    Dawn sucked in her breath. Yes, of course she knew about the impending visit by Sorana's queen. “I'll teach her everything she needs to know, Sendrata.”
    “See that you do. Today, you'll show her the work areas and grounds; you're excused from your studies. And try to divine any abilities Bryn may have so that when I assign her chores I won't be too gravely disappointed.”
    “Me? Divine her abilities?”
    The Sendrata frowned. “Haven't you been studying the stars for more than two years? Ishaan tells me your progress is adequate.”
    Adequate?
Dawn didn't know what to make of Nirene's comment. Ishaan was teaching her about the heavens: the stars and planets, led by the gods, influenced people and events. She'd been chosen to study the stars because she was head of the class in mathematics and she could calculate planetary positions in the skies. But Ishaan had never given Dawn the least indication that