The Night Dance Read Online Free PDF

much time in the kitchen that surely you’ve met Millicent, Helen’s new helper,” Eleanore elaborated on her question. Ha! she thought triumphantly as Rowena continued to stare at her with helpless incomprehension. I’ve got you now!
    If she ever needed absolute proof that Rowena had not spent a single minute in the kitchen, this was it! Millicent had been helping Helen in the kitchen for more than a month now. If Rowena had been there she would have surely known that.
    Rowena grasped Eleanore’s hand and lowered her voice. “I have been out in the courtyard,” she said. “Ihave found a small break in the wall, and I like to look through it.”
    A flood of urgency surged through Eleanore’s veins. A million questions raced forward in her mind. Had Rowena seen anyone? Had anyone seen her?
    Then she noticed, again, the small piece of leaf in Rowena’s damp hair. “Are you sure you did not find a way through the opening?” Eleanore asked, gently extracting the leaf fragment.
    Rowena took it from her. “This must have fallen inside the courtyard,” she insisted. She suddenly stared intently at Eleanore. “Have you ever seen a battle?” she asked. “The kind with swords, and knights, and blood?”
    Eleanore drew back, surprised by the question. “No. Did you see a battle through the wall opening?”
    “It was a sort of dream,” Rowena replied, her eyes troubled by the memory. “I don’t think I was asleep, though I suppose it’s possible that I dreamt it. It was so real, as if I was actually on the battlefield.” A shudder ran through her as she appeared to relive the awful event.
    Suddenly a strange glow began to emanate from beneath the velvet cape Rowena had tucked between herself and the window. Eleanore imagined a giant firefly had awoken beneath the cape. Before Rowena could stop her, she drew the cape back and beheld a beautiful bowl lined with gold. A ball of light swirled within it.
    “What is it?” Eleanore demanded.

C HAPTER S IX
Rowena’s Scrying Bowl
     
    Rowena looked up at Eleanore, her mind working hard to think of a way to explain the bowl without admitting she’d been in the forest. It would be easier to tell the truth, but then all her sisters would want to go and her father would be on to them in no time.
    The true story was that once again, as she had done the day before, she’d slipped through the opening in the wall and stole out into the forest under the pretense of taking a cooking class. It had been just hours ago.
    The day was gray and she clutched at her cape. Taking off her slippers and stockings, she once again began to pick her way over slippery rocks and fallen branches, moss and damp dirt. A mist of rain had caused strands of hair to dampen against her forehead.
    She’d gone only several steps when she paused.
    An ornate bowl, from which a strange light emanated, had sat nestled in the gnarled roots of a giant, dead tree. The sky had been so gray that the unearthly swirl of light couldn’t have been a reflection of the sun caught in the bowl’s golden interior.
    Rowena had knelt and picked up the bowl, cupping it in her hands. The light continued to swirl inside the bowl, then unexpectedly expanded until it poured out of the bowl.
    Frightened, she’d tossed away the bowl, which had slid across moss before coming to rest upside down. The glow had shone a few minutes more, illuminating the mossy ground, and then receded. Wary yet curious, Rowena had retrieved the bowl, now looking simply like an elegant vessel with a golden interior.
    At that moment the sky had opened, making a furious tapping on the leaves above her head. Clutching the bowl under her cape, she’d run back to the manor. Her first stop had been to her bedchamber, where she’d planned to hide the bowl in her trunk. But two maids were in there cleaning along with plump, affable Mary, who was supervising them. “We’ll be done in a moment, love,” she told Rowena. “Go join your sisters in the