The Daylight War

7

300 AR

Inevera always hated when her father brought Sharum to their home. She and her mother did all the cooking and serving while her father shouted and swatted at them, making a great show before his friends as they grew increasingly drunk and rowdy, playing Sharak with clay dice. Even before he took the black, Kasaad had forbidden Soli to do work of any kind. ‘You’re a warrior, my son, not some khaffit or woman!’

When she was younger, the men had ignored Inevera and leered at Manvah, but as she approached womanhood some of those leers had turned Inevera’s way. One Sharum, a disgusting man named Cemal, had even tried to paw at her.

But though he could not cook or carry, Soli was always there to protect. Cemal’s hand had barely begun to squeeze before her brother put a hard knee between the man’s legs and broke his nose.

Kasaad had laughed, mocking Cemal and congratulating his son, but he hadn’t so much as glanced at Inevera to see if she was all right. Worse, he had continued to invite Cemal into their home, and did nothing to stop the leering. Inevera knew the Sharum were only waiting for Soli’s attention to lapse.

Serving her father and half a dozen drunken Sharum terrified Inevera, but not half so much as serving Waxing Tea to the dama’ting.

A semicircle of velvet pillows was spread on the thick carpet of the dining chamber. Kenevah sat first at the centre, and was immediately served a steaming cup of tea by Melan. The girl was like a wisp of smoke, appearing to fill the cup and then vanishing again.

‘Qeva, sit at my right,’ Kenevah bade, gesturing at the pillow there. ‘Favah, my left.’

Qeva sat as she was bade, as did Favah, a venerable Bride who looked older even than Kenevah. Asavi and another nie’dama’ting stepped forward to serve them.

Kenevah lifted her cup, and the three women drank. Then Kenevah invited two more Brides to sit, one on each side. They were served hot tea, and all five drank.

The tea for the next pair of women, served from the same pots, was barely hot. For the next pair, it was merely warm. By the time the last Bride sat and all of them drank, it was cold.

Food was served in the same order, with Kenevah’s most favoured getting the choicest cuts of meat, though all dined on food finer than Inevera knew existed. The smell of it made her dizzy with hunger.

After these rituals, the dama’ting relaxed, talking quite amiably among themselves. Their handsome eunuchs did the cooking and most of the carrying, but it was up to the Betrothed to attend the Brides directly.

The dama’ting before Inevera finished her tea and set the empty cup before her. When Inevera did not immediately move to refill it, she glanced back with a raised eyebrow. Inevera hurried forward with the pot, spilling a single drop on the table. The dama’ting to her other side glanced at it, sniffing disdainfully.

When she returned to the service, Melan pinched her and it was all Inevera could do not to cry out. ‘Idiot,’ the girl whispered. ‘We’ll all pay for that. Spill again and next time you bathe we’ll hold you under until you meet Everam.’

Even in such exclusive company, the dama’ting kept their veils in place, leaning over their bowls and using a pair of smooth sticks to quickly bring morsels to their mouths. Occasionally Inevera caught a glimpse of a mouth or nose, and immediately averted her eyes. The sight felt more obscene than watching Kasaad bend Manvah over a pile of baskets.

When the dama’ting had finished their supper, the Betrothed served themselves from the remains in the kitchen. Melan and the other girls shoved Inevera to the back of the line, and there was little food remaining when they were through. She managed to scrape a bowl’s worth from what clung to the sides of the cookpots, but even then the other girls sat in tight circles, deliberately shutting her out. She ate alone, and followed numbly as Qeva ushered them back to the Vault at sunset.

The nie’dama’ting slept in a communal chamber, lit by a ceiling that glowed with clear wardlight. Inevera’s eyes drifted up and stared at the magical symbols with unbridled wonder.

‘You’ll learn your warding soon enough,’ Qeva said, noting her stare. ‘Melan, where is your cot?’

There were several neat rows of cots at the centre of the room. Melan pointed to a corner spot, well away from the door.

Qeva nodded. ‘Who sleeps there?’ She gestured to the cot next to Melan’s.

‘Asavi,’ Melan said, and the girl stepped quickly forward.

Qeva grunted. ‘Your pillow sister will have to find a new place. Inevera will sleep next to you for the next twelve Wanings, that you may better instruct her.’

Melan gave an almost imperceptible hiss as Asavi moved to collect her possessions — books and writing implements, mostly. She glared at Inevera as she passed, and the look might as well have been knives.

‘You have your liberty until the wardlight fades,’ Qeva said, and left the room.

Inevera held her breath, waiting for the girls to come at her, but again they ignored her, breaking into small, tight circles, locking her out. Inevera went to her cot, took out the Evejah’ting, and began to read.

It was hours before the wardlight faded, but she had barely made a dent in the thick book. She set the ribbon on her page and passed into a fitful sleep.

Inevera woke to find someone hovering over her in the darkness. Her eyes were adjusted to the darkness, but it was still little more than a silhouette, moving cautiously to keep quiet. She caught her breath a moment, then remembered herself and began an even breathing to feign sleep. She let herself snore softly, as her mother often did.

Inevera had no possessions save for her Evejah’ting and hora pouch, nothing to use as a weapon, if such would even do her good against a room full of girls who despised her. Could they kill her here, in the dark, and get away with it? She tensed to run, though there was nowhere she could run to. Even if she could find the door in the blackness, it was barred from the outside.

But the silhouette moved past, shuffling to Melan’s bed. There was a rustle as the blanket was thrown back.

‘I think she might have heard me,’ Asavi whispered.

There was a pause. ‘She’s asleep. I can hear her snoring,’ Melan said. ‘And who cares what the bad throw thinks?’

Inevera lay in her cot, trying to keep the rhythm of her snoring steady as she listened to the sounds of kissing and whispers of love from Melan’s cot. She had never kissed another girl, never even considered it, but she did envy them. Inevera had never felt so alone.

Inevera woke again, this time to a stabbing pain in her side. She cried out, half sitting, and saw Melan drawing back her foot for another kick. ‘Up with you, bad throw.’

The wardlights were active again, and most of the other girls had already woven their bidos. Aching to make water, Inevera moved quickly for the privy curtain, but Melan caught her arm. ‘You should have woken sooner if you wanted time for that. The dama’ting will come at any moment, and if your bido isn’t fully woven when she arrives, a full bladder will be the least of your worries.’

Inevera’s face went cold, and in an instant she was leaping for a fresh silk, her discomfort forgotten. The other girls watched her with scowls on their faces as she quickly wove her bido.

Asavi spat at Inevera’s feet. ‘So she’s a weaver’s daughter. It proves nothing.’

Barely a moment after Inevera finished tying, the heavy doors to the sleeping chamber opened and Qeva stood waiting. The girls lined up in only their bidos, and Inevera followed them out of the Vault and into another great chamber of the underpalace.

‘We begin each day with sharusahk,’ Melan advised. ‘You will not speak. Do exactly as the dama’ting does.’

Inevera nodded as the girls lined up in neat rows, each standing two paces apart. Qeva strode to a small dais at the front of the room, reaching to unfasten her robe. The silk fell away in a whisper, and she stood nude before the assembled girls, save for her veil and headscarf.

Slowly, she began doing a series of stretches. The other girls copied her, and Inevera struggled to do the same. Qeva’s flesh was smooth and muscled, soon coated in a sheen of sweat and scented oil. Inevera wondered how such slow movement could make the woman sweat as if she had run in the hot sun for an hour.

The movements were gentle and precise — nothing like the broad, brutal motions Soli had practised. But though gentle in appearance, the poses proved far more complex than Soli’s. Inevera was forced to attain positions she hadn’t known possible and hold them for extended periods of time. Never-before-used muscles screamed at the strain, and she broke into a heavy sweat, heart thumping as she struggled for air. It seemed no amount of gasping could pull in a full breath, and she feared that at any moment she would lose control of her water.

Qeva leaned forward on her left leg until her body was perpendicular to the floor, arms out before her as if to embrace. Her right foot raised high into the air and curled back over, toes nearly touching her tailbone.

Inevera attempted the pose, but lost her balance, pitching forward onto her hands.

‘Hold pose,’ Qeva said, and the other girls were left balanced in that precarious position as she stepped down from the dais.

‘Stand up straight,’ the dama’ting commanded. Inevera got quickly to her feet, and Qeva put one hand on her bare chest and the other in the hollow where her shoulders met. ‘Breathe in through your nostrils. Deeply.’ She squeezed, and Inevera had to overcome the resistance to inflate her chest.

The dama’ting grunted. ‘Out. Slow.’ She continued to squeeze as Inevera slowly let the air out at an even pace.

‘Again,’ Qeva said. ‘Breath is life. If you have breath, you have your centre. If you have your centre, nothing can truly touch you. You will not feel hunger or pain. Not love nor hate. No fear. No anxiety. Only the breath.’

Already, Inevera felt herself calming. The insistent cries of her full bladder and empty stomach faded as she followed the path of her breath from her nose to her belly and out again. Around her, the girls began to wobble, strain telling on their faces as they held the difficult pose.

‘With me,’ Qeva said. Still squeezing, she began to breathe in a slow rhythm, and Inevera paced her own breaths to match. ‘As the breathing cleanses your mind, these will hone your body, until the two act as one.’ When they were in sync, the dama’ting took her hands away and grabbed Inevera’s arms, spreading them wide above her.

‘Cobra’s hood,’ Qeva said, and glanced at the other girls. ‘Resume.’

There were sighs of relief throughout the room as the girls all stood straight, reaching for the ceiling with arms spread.

‘These are the sharukin,’ Qeva said as she guided Inevera through the next several movements, gently correcting her posture. ‘Vulture’s beak. Jackal’s spring.’

She leaned Inevera forward into the position she had stumbled in. ‘Scorpion’s tail.’ The dama’ting stepped her left foot on Inevera’s, holding her in place as she hooked her right foot around Inevera’s right ankle and lifted her leg until she could catch it, pulling it higher and higher, then bending it over until Inevera felt her tendons straining to the limit. She gasped and wobbled.

‘Breathe,’ Qeva said. ‘You are the palm, and breath is the wind. Use its power to lead you back to balance and guide you from one form to the next.’

Inevera returned to the rhythm, and found the steady breathing did indeed aid her. Qeva noted her renewed balance and nodded, returning to the dais.

The lesson went on for some time. Inevera still wobbled and felt awkward, her joints stretched into fire, but she kept her breath steady, and was relieved when Qeva finally relaxed, reaching into a box beside the dais. There was a clatter of metal and she came away with four tiny cymbals, one strapped to each thumb and forefinger.

At a nod, Melan went and took up the box, taking her own cymbals and passing it along. All the other girls did the same, and soon they were back in place, waiting for Qeva to begin this next part of the lesson.

Qeva turned to stand in profile, her hands held high, cymbals poised. One leg was stretched out before her, the other kept close.

The other girls assumed the same pose, and Inevera did her best to imitate it.

‘Knees bent,’ Qeva said. ‘Weight on the balls of your feet.’

When Inevera corrected herself and found her centre, the dama’ting clapped her cymbals four times, each time snapping her round hips so they cracked like a whip.

‘All,’ she said, and repeated the move. The other girls copied her with practised precision, but Inevera found the move trickier than it looked.

‘Again,’ Qeva said. ‘Watch closer.’

Again she rang the cymbals and snapped her hips, and again the move eluded Inevera. At first she could not figure out how to move her hips, and then her cymbals were out of sync with the others. Doing both at once seemed impossible.

Over and over Qeva took her through the move. Inevera could sense the irritation of the other girls as she struggled, but there was nothing she could do save try and try again.

Finally, Qeva seemed satisfied. She grunted and began to ring the cymbals in a continuous pattern, snapping her hips to match. Inevera fell into the rhythm, and soon it was second nature. She found herself smiling.

But then the dama’ting began to move, stepping around her dais with lithe grace, never ceasing the rhythm of the cymbals or her hips. It was beautiful. Mesmerizing. And when Inevera tried to imitate her, she walked right into Melan, bringing them both down in a heap.

‘Idiot!’ Melan snapped.

Qeva leapt from the dais, slapping Melan hard on the face, her cymbals rang with the impact. ‘The fault is yours, Melan! The Damaji’ting assigned you to teach her the ways of the nie’dama’ting! What have you taught her? She did not know so much as cobra’s hood or the first turn of the hips.’

She lifted a finger and put it in Melan’s face. ‘You must learn to take your responsibility seriously. Until Inevera can keep pace with the class, you are denied the Chamber of Shadows.’

All the other girls gasped, and Melan’s eyes bulged.

‘Point those wilful eyes at me a moment longer,’ Qeva said, ‘and you will find yourself living in the great harem, a plaything of the Sharum.’

Melan dropped her eyes, bowing deeply. ‘Yes, Dama’ting.’

After sharusahk, the girls lined up by the kitchens where a pair of aging eunuchs gave each a ladle of thin porridge. Inevera could see in the eyes of Melan and the other girls that they meant to shove her to the back of the line, so she gave way freely. There was nothing to be gained in pointless confrontation. It was best to appear meek as she learned the ways of the nie’dama’ting.

Inevera’s bowl was less than half full, the final watery remains of the porridge pot. Even so, she barely had time to gulp it down before Melan came for her.

‘It is nearly dawn,’ Melan said. ‘The dama’ting leave for the pavilion shortly, and Nie take us if we are late.’

‘The pavilion?’ Inevera asked.

Melan looked at her as if she were an idiot. ‘The Sharum will be returning from the Maze at dawn, and the injured are taken to the pavilion. We assist the dama’ting in the healing.’

Inevera remembered the screams of injured Sharum filtering through the canvas walls the day before, and imagined men all around her, covered in blood, howling as she helped the dama’ting cut and stitch their flesh.

She felt suddenly dizzy, and her face flushed hot. The thin porridge rose back up her throat.

Melan slapped her hard in the face. Porridge and bile flew in a spray, spattering the stone floor as the crack echoed off the chamber walls. Every girl in the room looked up at that, their gazes cold. There were no dama’ting present, and the eunuchs were mute as ever.

‘Everam’s balls, find your centre!’ Melan snapped. ‘The dama’ting take nothing so seriously as the healing. Already the Chamber of Shadows is denied me. If so much as a drop of Sharum blood falls because of your weakness, the dama’ting will have it from my hide a hundredfold.’ She moved in closer, her voice dropping to a whisper. ‘And if that happens, I will cut off your nipples and make you eat them.’

Inevera stared at her as the words sank in. Melan gave her no time to respond, grabbing her arm and pulling her back towards the Vault. The girls quickly washed their hands and faces, donning their white robes and lining up once again. Melan led the way back to the Vault doors, where they met the dama’ting who guided them out of the palace and through the Undercity to the catacombs beneath the Kaji dama’ting pavilion, where they waited for the dama to sing the dawn from the minarets of Sharik Hora.

Assisting the dama’ting in their healing was every bit as bloody and horrid as Inevera had feared. Her ears rang with the shouts and screams, half from Sharum too lost in agony to embrace their pain, and half from Melan and the dama’ting, cursing her slowness.

Once, while carrying a jug of instruments soaking in a harsh fluid that made couzi smell mild, she tripped and spilled a few drops. Melan punched her full in the face for that, with Qeva and another dama’ting looking on. Neither woman said a word, more interested in the instruments Inevera carried than her swelling cheek.

On the table before them, a warrior thrashed and flailed as they tried to cut the black robes away from a deep gash in his abdomen. The Brides tossed shattered bits of ceramic armour plates into a palm basket where they clattered, wet with blood.

Qeva threw a pair of silk cords to Melan. ‘Pin him.’

Melan took one of the cords, handing the other to Inevera. ‘Be swift, and do exactly as I do.’ She wound the cord around her fists with perhaps a forearm’s length between.

Inevera had no time to ponder those instructions before Melan moved in, impossibly fast and graceful as she wrapped the cord around the warrior’s wrist, twisting back and using leverage to hold his arm out straight. He tried to resist, but Melan knew the angles where his arm was weakest and kept control.

‘Now!’ she shouted, as the man grabbed at her awkwardly with his other hand. Inevera rushed in, attempting to do as Melan had. She caught the Sharum’s wrist in a twist of silk, but she did not know precisely where to step or how to shift her weight as Melan had. The warrior caught her with a backhand blow that made Melan’s punch feel like a kiss.

Inevera hit the floor hard and Qeva hissed, stabbing two stiffened fingers into the man’s shoulder joint. His arm spasmed and lost its strength long enough for Inevera to recover her cord and pin him once more. Qeva glared at Melan in irritation, and Melan in turn glared at Inevera silently as they held the warrior prone. The dama’ting forced a sleeping draught down his throat, and he soon went limp. The Brides began to cut, oblivious to the blood and other, fouler fluids that stained their pristine white robes.

‘This will not do,’ Qeva said after a time.

‘He needs hora magic, if he is to survive,’ the other Bride agreed. She looked at Melan. ‘Take him to the catacombs.’

Melan nodded, and she and Inevera heaved at the poles of the stretcher that hung limp at the sides of the operating table. The warrior easily outweighed the two girls combined, but Inevera was no stranger to hard work, and her steps did not falter. Asavi scurried ahead to open the trapdoor, and the dama’ting led them down into the darkness.

Asavi waited until Inevera and Melan had descended the steps, then pulled the door shut behind them, leaving them in perfect pitch until Qeva produced her glowing bit of demon bone, lighting the way to a stone chamber with another operating table. There was a steel door cut into the rock wall, and Qeva took a key from around her neck and opened it, revealing what looked like an assortment of coal lumps and blackened bones. Alagai hora. She selected a modestly sized lump and closed the door with a click as the locking mechanism re-engaged.

‘Suction,’ Qeva said, and Melan fetched a device of tubes and bellows, operated by a foot pedal. Inevera pumped the pedal evenly as Melan inserted one of the tubes into the warrior’s open wound, siphoning the blood into a glass chamber.

The dama’ting cleaned the edges of the wound, first clearing the blood and then shaving the surrounding area. As they worked, Asavi prepared brushes and a bowl of ink.

‘Inevera, step close,’ Qeva said. Asavi took her place at the pedal, and Inevera approached the Brides, taking care to stay out of their way.

Qeva did not look at her as she spoke. ‘First, the siphon ward, drawn at the north edge of the wound.’ She dipped a brush in the ink and drew a strange symbol. Inevera watched intently, expecting the ink to glow, but there was no effect. ‘Next, the wards for strength, endurance, and blood.’ She drew quickly, moving her brush clockwise along the Sharum’s flesh, putting wards at each compass point around the wound.

‘Now they must be connected,’ Qeva said, drawing the same ward four times in the gaps between the others, forming an octagon.

When she was done, she gestured to the other dama’ting, who held forth the lump of demon bone from the cabinet. As soon as the bone was brought close to the wound, the wards Qeva had drawn did indeed glow, flaring fiercely to life.

‘The wards are not magic,’ Qeva said, ‘but they leach magic from the demon bone and turn the alagai’s power to Everam’s purpose.’

As Inevera looked on open-mouthed, the Sharum’s flesh began to knit back together, the wound closing like two cupped hands of water brought together as one. In moments the wound was gone without so much as a scar. The new flesh looked paler, untouched by the sun or ever-blowing sands, healthier even than the skin around it.

‘Praise be to Everam,’ Inevera whispered, awestruck. ‘With such magic, no Sharum need ever die again.’

Qeva shook her head sadly. ‘If only it were so. Even hora magic cannot cure the most serious wounds, and such power is not without its price.’ She gestured to the lump of demon bone, which was crumbling away in the other dama’ting’s hand. ‘Healing is the most taxing of magic, and not used lightly. The alagai may be an endless scourge, but harvesting their bones is costlier in lives than the bones can save. We must use the power sparingly.’

‘And secretly,’ the other Bride added sternly. ‘The Sharum are already too reckless with their lives. Everam only knows what heights of idiocy they might reach if they knew we possessed such power. Better to let as many as possible heal naturally.’

Qeva nodded. ‘We will keep this one from his brothers for some time, drugged senseless as he “heals”.’

‘But is he not needed to defend us from the alagai?’ Inevera asked.

Melan laughed, and Qeva glanced her way. ‘Thank you for volunteering to carry this warrior back up to the pavilion and wash bido silks for the rest of the day, daughter.’

Melan stiffened, but she bowed. ‘I apologize for my disrespect, Mother.’

Qeva whisked a hand, dismissing her. ‘Accepted. Take Asavi with you.’

Unsure of what to do, Inevera stood frozen as the two girls heaved the healed Sharum back up on the stretcher and carried him from the chamber. The other dama’ting led their way with a glowing demon bone.

When all were gone, Qeva turned back to her. ‘Despite her lack of respect, Melan is not incorrect. It is the wardwalls, not warriors, that protect the Desert Spear. Until the Deliverer comes again, alagai’sharak is only the pride of men, throwing lives away for victories not worth their price.’

Inevera’s eyes widened at the blasphemy. Soli and Kasaad risked themselves in the Maze every night. Her grandfathers, uncles, and male ancestors going back three hundred years had died in the Maze, as she had always thought her own sons would. It could not simply be the pride of men. ‘Does not the Evejah tell us that killing alagai is worth any price?’

‘The Evejah tells us that obeying the Shar’Dama Ka is worth any price,’ Qeva said. ‘And the Shar’Dama Ka commanded we kill alagai.’

Inevera opened her mouth, but Qeva raised a finger and cut her off. ‘But the Shar’Dama Ka has been dead for three thousand years, and took the fighting wards to his grave. Each night, more men die in the Maze than are born each day. There were millions of us before the Return. Now, less than a hundred thousand, all because of men and their ridiculous game.’

‘Game?’ Inevera asked. ‘How is defending the city’s walls from demons in sacred alagai’sharak a game?’

‘Because the walls need no defence,’ Qeva said. ‘Kaji built the Desert Spear with two wardwalls — one outer, at the city’s ancient perimeter, and one inner, to protect the oasis and its surrounding palaces and tribes. Between them lies the Maze, built on the ruins of the outer city.’ She paused, making sure to meet Inevera’s eyes. ‘Neither wall has ever been breached.’

Inevera looked at her curiously. ‘Then how do demons get into the Maze each night?’

‘We let them in,’ Qeva growled. ‘The Sharum Ka opens the gates wide till the Maze is well seeded, then closes them again, trapping the demons in the Maze for his men to hunt.’

Inevera felt much as she had earlier in the day, when Melan slapped her. She felt dizzy, and put a hand to the wall to steady herself.

‘Breathe,’ Qeva said. ‘Find your centre.’

Inevera did as she bade, drawing deep, rhythmic breaths and using them to steady both her limbs and her pounding heart.

The technique helped, but not enough to step away from all the anger she felt. Part of her wanted to slap every man in the city across the face. She had thought Soli and her father brave; their sacrifice great as they stepped into the Maze each night. But if the solution was to simply leave the gates closed …

‘Those … idiots,’ Inevera said at last.

Qeva nodded. ‘But idiots or no, it is not the place of nie’dama’ting to make light of their sacrifice.’

Inevera remembered Qeva’s punishment of Melan, and her face flushed. She bowed. ‘I understand, Mother.’

Qeva’s eyebrow arched. ‘Mother?’

Inevera bit her lip. ‘Is “Mother” not the proper form of address from a Betrothed to a Bride?’

Qeva’s eyes crinkled in what Inevera took as a smile. ‘No. Melan addresses me so because she is my daughter.’

The knowledge did nothing to quell Inevera’s sudden tension. ‘She called Kenevah Grandmother …’

Qeva nodded. ‘And so she is. I am the Damaji’ting’s heir.’

Inevera felt her heart clench. Qeva had always seemed stern, but fair. Not a friend, perhaps, but neither an enemy. But now …

‘Breathe,’ Qeva said again, holding up a hand and waiting as Inevera found her centre. ‘I am not your enemy. I’ve grown used to my place of power as second among the dama’ting, but I learned long ago to accept that I would not succeed my mother in leading the women of Kaji. Melan has yet to embrace this truth and bend before its wind, but I pray to Everam that she will in time.’

Qeva’s placating hand changed into a pointing finger. ‘But do not mistake my meaning. I am not your enemy, but neither am I your friend. It takes a special woman to lead the Kaji dama’ting with strength, competence, and humility before Everam as my mother does. If you prove not humble, competent, or strong enough to survive and advance to the white,’ she shrugged, ‘then that is inevera.’

Inevera’s face went cold, but she focused on her breath and kept her centre. ‘Yes, Dama’ting.’

‘Good,’ Qeva said. ‘Come with me.’ She strode from the chamber, and Inevera followed her through the hidden passages of the Undercity leading back to the Dama’ting Palace. Most of these tunnels were lit by glowing wards running in continuous lines along the top and bottom of the tunnel walls.

When they arrived at the dama’ting’s quarters, the eunuch Qeva had spoken to the day before admitted them, naked save for his golden shackles. Stoneless he might be, but his manhood hung heavy before her, and Inevera could not help but gaze at it.

‘Impressive, is he not?’ Qeva asked. ‘Khavel is a favourite of mine, a skilled lover and a loyal servant. But you must tear your gaze from him now, I’m afraid. You will see his prowess first-hand during your pillow dancing lessons.’

Pillow dancing lessons? Inevera felt a wave of anxiety at the sound of that, though there was at least a little curiosity bound up in it.

Qeva gave her no time to ponder. She produced a square box of fine white sand and a slender stick. There was a track along the top and bottom that allowed her to slide a pane from one side to the other, smoothing the sand into an unblemished flat. She handed the stick to Inevera. ‘You watched me paint five wards this morning. Draw them for me now.’

Inevera pursed her lips, but she took the stick, closing her eyes to visualize each ward before carefully drawing. As Qeva had, she drew an octagon, a ward at each of the points. Four were unique, and the fifth was repeated four times to connect them. She held the stick close to its end like a pen, forming the curved symbols with precise turns of her supple wrist. When she was finished, she looked up proudly.

Qeva studied her work for long minutes before grunting. ‘You were better at sharusahk. Only two of these hold any power at all, and little enough at that.’

Inevera’s face fell as the Bride slid the pane to clear her work and took the stick. ‘Let us begin with the siphon ward. These are the demon’s fangs,’ Qeva said, drawing two curved marks in the sand as Inevera leaned in, studying the markings closely. ‘They float next to or hide within every ward, drawing magic into the symbol. The shape of the ward is what guides that power into its final form.’ She continued to draw, holding the stick at its far end. ‘See how my wrist remains straight. I move the brush with my arm, not my hand. Wards are strongest when drawn in a single continuous line, and you cannot do that with your wrist alone.’

Quickly, Qeva drew the siphon, and Inevera saw just how poor her memory had been. Her cheeks coloured in shame, but Qeva seemed not to notice, clearing the sand and handing the stick back to her.

‘Again.’

Inevera complied, but holding the stick as Qeva had shown was awkward, and if anything, her warding was worse the second time.

Qeva’s eyes were expressionless as she cleared the sand again.

When Inevera at last returned to the Vault, her arm ached from holding the stick almost as much as her bladder, which was ready to burst. Her robes were still spattered with Sharum blood.

But these seemed distant things, physical discomforts easily ignored. With Melan and Asavi occupied, she was finally able to empty her water and use the baths.

There were scented oils and cakes of soap, tools for paring nails, and rough stones for smoothing skin. The other girls pointedly ignored her as she took a razor and finished the job they had begun the night before, shaving away the last ragged bits of hair from her head until it was completely smooth to the touch. It felt alien, like someone else’s skin.

But while her body relaxed, Inevera’s mind was in free fall. Everything she had ever known, ever believed, had been stripped from her or revealed as a lie. Nothing made sense any more. Nothing seemed to matter.

Inevera felt as if she had stepped outside herself at dinner. She was dimly aware of her body as she served the dama’ting, hopping at their need and vanishing just as quickly. Ironically, this seemed to be just what the women wanted, and she served better when giving the task no conscious thought. Not that she had thought to spare, still struggling to find a constant or truth to cling to. Even the Evejah she had been raised to, once believed to be the ultimate truth, was proving subjective now, the great deeds of Kaji and the laws the dama drew from them unravelling before her eyes. The Evejah’ting included the Damajah’s perspective on those world-shaping events, and it was often very different from the male account.

Which was true? Kaji’s account, or the first Inevera’s? Or were both full of lies and half-truths? Did the events of thirty-three hundred years ago even matter?

She ached for her mother’s arms, for the safety she felt when Soli roughed her thick black hair. But that hair was gone now, and Soli with it. Perhaps she would see him again, but more likely he would be killed in the Maze before she became dama’ting, if she ever did. She even felt a pang of regret for Kasaad and his drunken Sharum friends. Could she truly judge the actions of men forced into the Maze to needlessly face hordes of demons each night?

But for all her pain and turmoil, Inevera realized that even if she could wave a hand and take back the last two days, she wouldn’t. She had spent nine years in darkness, and now for the first time there was a flickering light.

Magic. They were teaching her hora magic.

Inevera thought back to her revulsion at the sight of the tiny demon bone Qeva had used to light the way to her foretelling. Could it only be a day ago? It seemed a lifetime. Now she wanted nothing more than to clutch a demon bone in her hand and cure men’s wounds with a wave.

She felt her heart thudding, and forced herself back into the rhythmic breathing of her centre. Soon she felt her body relaxing and was able to step outside it once more. The problems and questions continued to swirl around her, but they were more like blowing sand now, a nuisance that could be ignored.

She shuffled wordlessly along at the back of the nie’dama’ting food line, and managed to scrape a full bowl’s worth from the eunuchs this time. She ate in silence and was escorted back to the Vault with the other girls.

Find your centre! Melan had snapped at breakfast, just before the slap. Inevera almost wished she would do it again, just so she could remember what it was like to feel.

Was this what finding one’s centre meant? What it meant to be dama’ting? Did these women truly feel nothing as they looked into the future and made decisions that meant life or death for men and women alike — all the while living like Damaji in their great palaces, their every desire catered to?

When they were back in the Vault, the dama’ting left them to their nightly liberty until the wardlight faded. There was a heavy clicking of locks as she pulled the doors shut behind her. Inevera moved directly for her cot and the Evejah’ting that lay upon it.

She was barely aware that Melan was approaching her until she found herself flying through the air. She struck the ground hard, and a flash of pain brought her back to herself.

She looked up as she put her hands under her to rise. As in the baths, the other girls had formed a ring around her and Melan as the older girl approached.

She sighed. Not this, again.

‘I am to teach you sharusahk,’ Melan said. ‘I am denied the Chamber of Shadows until you learn!’

Inevera slowly gave ground as Melan advanced until her back came to the ring of girls, and one of them shoved her forward.

‘Scorpion!’ Melan cried, bending smoothly at the waist and wrapping her arms around Inevera’s hips as her foot came up behind her, kicking Inevera square in the face.

Inevera fell back, stunned, and took several moments to recover herself before she got back to her feet. Melan continued to hold the pose.

‘Scorpion,’ the girls around them chanted, each falling into the pose themselves. ‘Scorpion. Scorpion …’

Inevera kept her breathing steady, and was surprised to find she was not afraid. Melan obviously meant to give her a beating, but it seemed pointless to resist. She doubted the girl would do her any lasting harm, and there was little she could do to stop it in any event. Best to submit for now, and learn what she could.

Her centre was strong as she assumed the scorpion pose, steady despite her rapidly swelling face.

Melan seemed more angry than ever at this response, as if expecting Inevera to cry and beg. Inevera pitied her in that moment. Melan’s own mother, Kenevah’s heir, had cast the bones that called her. What was all this anger and jealousy supposed to prove?

‘Wilting flower!’ Melan cried, moving in fast and low, thrusting the stiffened fingers of her right hand into Inevera’s abdomen.

There was a blunt pain, and Inevera lost all feeling in her legs, collapsing to the floor.

‘It is not just knowing how to strike,’ Melan said. ‘One must also know where.’ Before Inevera could find the control of her limbs to rise, Melan pinned her on her back, knees pressed into her upper arms, keeping them helpless and without leverage.

Melan reached out, pressing the knuckles of her index fingers hard into Inevera’s temples.

The pain was intense, like lightning arcing through her brain. She saw flashes of light and struggled helplessly, her breathing forgotten.

It seemed an eternity before Melan eased back, getting to her feet. Inevera lay there, breathing slowly until she could find her centre again.

‘Wilting flower,’ the other girls began to chant, each flowing into the gesture as they did. ‘Wilting flower. Wilting flower …’

Inevera rose shakily to her feet and copied the move.

‘This is a tunnel asp,’ Qeva said to the girls, presenting a glass box for the nie’dama’ting to observe. Inside was a hollow bit of stone sitting on a sand floor, and within that hollow, a small coiled snake with dull grey scales. ‘There is no deadlier creature under the sun.’

Inevera and the other Betrothed leaned in for a better look. Months had passed, and the days had fallen into a rhythm of sorts, beginning as always with sharusahk and treating injured Sharum, followed by lessons, some shared with other girls her age, and others with Qeva alone.

‘It’s so tiny,’ she whispered.

‘Do not be fooled by its size,’ Qeva said. ‘Tunnel asp venom makes scorpion stings feel like sweet kisses. A single bite can kill a Sharum in minutes. The tunnel asp strikes quickly, then retreats to wait for its prey to die. It can afford to wait. Other animals will not feed on those it poisons, lest the venom kill them in turn.’ As she spoke, she took the lid off the box, rolling one of her silk sleeves up to the elbow. In one hand she held a small sand mouse by the tail. It squeaked and squirmed desperately, sensing the danger. She dropped it into the asp’s box, just in front of the hollow stone.

Instantly, the snake uncoiled, snapping at the mouse, but fast as it was, Qeva was faster. Her hand was a blur as she caught the snake behind its head and lifted it from the case. It thrashed at first, but Qeva’s grip was firm, and she cooed at it, stroking its head until it calmed.

‘We can force the asp to reveal its fangs by applying pressure to the base of its skull.’ She pressed with her thumb, and two curved fangs, previously flat against the roof of its mouth, extended. There was a tiny glass bottle on the table, its mouth covered with a thin membrane. Qeva pressed the fangs through this.

‘The poison sacs are on either side of its head, here and here.’ She pointed. ‘Squeezing will empty them into our vial.’ She did so, and a few drops fell into the glass. Qeva then dropped the snake back into the glass box, where it immediately coiled and stared at the mouse, head bobbing slowly from side to side. The mouse stared back, frozen in place save for its nose, which followed the dance of the snake’s head precisely. At last, the snake struck, biting but once before retreating into its stone hollow, leaving the mouse to thrash in the sand. In moments it stiffened and lay still.

‘Even milked of its poison, the bare residue on its fangs was more than enough to kill,’ Qeva said as the snake slithered from the hollow to claim its prize, its jaw unhitching to swallow the mouse whole. ‘The asp will feed, and sleep, and by this time tomorrow, its poison sacs will be full again.’ She held up the tiny bottle, which held perhaps three teardrops’ worth of venom. ‘This is enough to kill everyone in this room. Who can tell me how the antidote is prepared?’

Several girls raised their hands, but none faster than Inevera.

Inevera and the other girls knelt in a ring around the pile of pillows, their backs straight and their eyes attentive. In addition to the nie’dama’ting, there were several dal’ting girls in black headwraps, sent to study in the dama’ting palace before going to the great harem.

Qeva stripped off her white robe, even her hood and veil. Beneath, she wore diaphanous leggings that flowed like lavender smoke about her calves and thighs, ending in anklets tinkling with golden bells above her bare feet, the toenails painted to match the lavender cloth. Her top, too, was transparent, loose around her firm breasts, leaving her smooth midriff bare save for a golden chain that secured her black velvet hora pouch and a small vial. Dozens of golden bracelets jingled at her wrists. Her sex was uncovered, shaved smooth like the rest of her save for her eyebrows and thick black hair, which fell in lustrous ringlets, bound in gold. Only her face remained covered, her silk veil an opaque purple that accented the diaphanous lavender. Her body shone from scented oil.

In the back of the room, a trio of aging eunuchs began to play a steady rhythm on zurna, tombak, and kanun. Qeva beckoned, and Khavel approached. The muscular eunuch was clad, as usual, in nothing save his golden shackles and a silken loincloth that hung like a flag from his great, stiffened member. Like many of the girls, Inevera felt her eyes drawn to it like metal to a lodestone. She shifted uncomfortably.

The dama’ting laughed. ‘As you can see, already Khavel is prepared for his duty. But a man should always be tantalized to the point of madness before being allowed to sheathe his spear.’ She took Khavel’s arm and pivoted, using the eunuch’s own weight to throw him onto the pillows.

Then she began to dance. Her hips swayed in time to the music, even as she beat a complementary rhythm on the tiny brass cymbals attached to her thumbs and forefingers. The golden bells on her ankles and the bracelets on her wrists added to the spell as she gyrated around the bed of pillows, her feet as quick and sure as they were at sharusahk. Indeed, many of the movements she made were the same as those practised each morning in the hours before sunrise.

Khavel stared at her, mesmerized like the mouse before the tunnel asp. His loincloth was taut, seemingly about to tear, and his great muscles were no different, tense and defined, veins pulsing with the pounding of his blood.

It went on until Inevera began to feel dizzy. The room was hot, filled with sweet incense smoke, and she began to sway to the music and the dama’ting’s endless rhythm. The other girls were no less affected, all watching intently as the Bride stalked her hapless prey.

Finally, Qeva struck, moving to the pillows and tugging Khavel’s loincloth away to reveal his proud spear. She ran a finger along its length, and the tongueless eunuch moaned. Taking the vial from her waist chain, she dribbled oil into her palm and rubbed her hands together until both had a coating of the slick substance.

‘There are seven strokes laid down by the Damajah, as she told of the nights she lay with Kaji,’ the dama’ting said, reaching for Khavel’s member. ‘Watch closely as I demonstrate each one.’

Khavel soon threw his head back, moaning again, but the Bride squeezed tightly at the base of his mushroom-like tip, cooing softly as she waited for him to calm again. ‘Though Khavel is stoneless — the men you will lie with will not be. In their loins lie the future generations of Krasia, and the Evejah’ting commands that none of their seed be spilled or swallowed.’

Several more times, the dama’ting’s ministrations brought poor Khavel to the brink, but each time, she applied pressure and patience until he regained control.

‘Seven strokes,’ the dama’ting said, as she moved to mount the eunuch, ‘but there are seventy and seven ways to lie with a man. This is the first, Jiwah Superior. It is not enough to simply move up and down his spear. You must … twist.’ She demonstrated, using many of the same gyrations of her dance, now practically applied.

‘When you control a man’s loins in the pillows, you control him,’ the dama’ting said, ‘and you can ensure your own pleasure besides. Most men barely know where to put it, and will simply hump like a dog if given their liberty.’

As she stretched for morning sharusahk, Inevera’s muscles ached from countless hours spent practising the pillow dance. There were tiny calluses on her fingertips where the brass cymbals were held, and her feet were red with blisters. She would smooth them with pumice in the bath later.

But though she was stiff and sore, Inevera felt strong. Stronger than she had ever felt, even when hauling great stacks of baskets through the bazaar. She was ready to assume the sharukin, but Qeva did not remove her robe. Instead she beckoned the girls to form a ring around her, and summoned a muscular eunuch. It was not Khavel this time, but one named Enkido.

Like the other eunuchs, Enkido spoke with his hands in an intricate language of gestures that Inevera and the other nie’dama’ting learned as part of their studies. The dama’ting could give their servants complex commands with quick gestures, and receive equally detailed answers on the rare occasions when one was required.

But the similarity ended there. Unlike the other eunuchs, Enkido was always clad in black robes, though he still wore the gold shackles of servitude. His veil was red, meaning he had been a Sharum drillmaster before coming to the Dama’ting Palace, an expert in sharusahk and a master of the Maze. It was said that he had killed many alagai, fathered many sons, and taught many warriors before falling under a dama’ting’s spell and willingly allowing his stones and tongue to be cut from him.

Inevera heard he continued to wear the black to hide the terrible scars he incurred as a Sharum, but when the dama’ting clapped her hands, he pulled off the robe and she gasped aloud, as did several of the younger girls.

He did have scars, but they were long healed — more badges of honour than unsightly blemishes. It was not that which made the girls gasp, but the tattoos on his shaved, muscular skin. All over his body, there were lines and small circles, the black markings running up his limbs and all over his torso, onto his neck and shaved head.

Qeva dropped her robe as well and they stood nude, facing each other, though as always she kept her veil in place. She motioned, and Enkido attacked, moving with sudden, frightening speed. He outweighed the woman twice over, but it did not seem to slow him as they grappled and he put her quickly into a submission hold, lifting her feet from the ground so she could find no leverage.

But the dama’ting seemed unconcerned. She shifted slightly, then drove two stiffened fingers into one of the tattooed points on his chest. Immediately one of his arms slackened, and she pulled it away like the arm of a toddler, twisting from his grasp and flipping him onto his back.

‘All of Everam’s creatures are guided by lines of power and points of convergence, where their muscles, tendons, bones, and energy meet,’ the dama’ting said. ‘These are places of great strength, but also vulnerability. Touch the right place, and even the most powerful will lose their strength.’

She beckoned and again the warrior attacked, this time refusing to grapple, striking with lightning-fast kicks and quick, snapping punches like the strikes of a tunnel asp.

But the dama’ting bent like a palm in a windstorm, flowing this way and that, his blows never striking home. Finally, she reached out almost gently while he was mid-kick, pressing one of the points marked on his supporting leg. It collapsed under him, and while Enkido managed to control his fall and quickly come upright, his leg was now slack and would not support him. He stood balanced on the other, hands up protectively as he waited on the dama’ting’s command.

Instead, she turned back to the girls. ‘Trained in Sharik Hora, Enkido was the greatest sharusahk master the Kaji Sharum had known in a hundred years. No man of any tribe could stand against him, and alagai quailed at the sight of him. More than one dama’ting sought his seed to bless their daughters, and through them he learned of our art. But though he begged time and again, he was forbidden to learn it. The Damajah teaches that no man can be trusted with the secrets of flesh. At last, the Damaji’ting took pity on him, and told him that only by yielding his tongue and his freedom would he be allowed to glimpse our secrets. He broke his spear over his knee right there, using the point to cut out his tongue and sever his own manhood, root and stones. Bleeding to death, he laid them at the Damaji’ting’s feet. No longer a man, he was healed and blessed with the right to aid in your training. You will accord him every honour.’

As one, Inevera and the other girls bowed to Enkido. Though he was only a eunuch, he looked at them all with the stern eye of a drillmaster assessing his nie’Sharum, and when he spoke with his hands, the girls quickly obeyed.

Inevera kept her hand on the Evejah’ting but did not open it, eyes closed as she recited the holy verse:

Qeva nodded as Inevera finished, gesturing to the workbench the nie’dama’ting had gathered around, where bowls of metal filings were arranged, ready to be melted down. ‘Precious metals conduct magic better than base ones. Silver is better than copper, gold better than silver. But the transfer is never perfect. There is always loss.’

She looked at Inevera. ‘What is more precious than gold?’

Inevera hesitated, though she knew better than to look to the other girls around the workbench for aid. At last she shook her head. ‘Apologies, Dama’ting. I do not know.’

Qeva chuckled. ‘You might truly be your namesake reborn if you did. The Damajah, blessings be upon her, gave us many secrets in her holy verses. But in her wisdom, she kept others still in her mind lest they be stolen by her rivals. Now many are lost to the millennia. The wards of unsight, the powers of the spear and crown, and the sacred metal.’

She took up a bowl. ‘And so we begin our lessons with copper …’

Weeks passed, and Inevera found herself standing before a silvered glass, drawing wards around her eyes in soft pencil. She had practised the sigils a thousand times, as they were in the Evejah’ting, and inverted, as she must draw them in the mirror for full potency.

Some of the older girls, Melan and Asavi among them, had progressed beyond pencil, wearing delicate circlets of warded coins across their brows, but Inevera’s first circlet was still a clinking collection of unfinished coins and gold wire in a pouch at her waist.

Qeva inspected her closely when she was finished drawing, holding her chin in a firm grasp and roughly turning her head this way and that. She said nothing, giving only a slight huff of satisfaction, but that breath meant more to Inevera than the most glowing compliment. If there had been the slightest flaw, the dama’ting would have announced it derisively to all and made her wash her face and draw anew.

Inevera felt a chill as the dama’ting touched a finger to a small bowl of black liquid. It looked like ink, but she would have known from the stench alone that it was the rendered ichor of demons.

It was warm when Qeva touched the barest smudge to her forehead, but it did not burn as Inevera feared. The spot tingled like static, and she could feel the magic crawling across her skin, drawn to the pencilled wards, dancing along their delicate lines.

And then her eyes came alive, and Inevera gasped for the wonder of it, her centre lost. The dim wardlight of the room was washed out by light from every corner, drifting across the floor and seeped in the walls, shining in the spirits of Qeva and the other girls. It was Everam’s light, the line of energy they reached for and drew upon each morning in sharusahk, the fire in their centre that gave life and power to all living things. It was the immortal soul.

And she could see it, as clearly as the sun.

‘Praise be to Everam in all his glory.’ Inevera fell to her knees, shaking as she wept for the joy and beauty of it.

‘Place your hands on the floor,’ Qeva said. ‘Let the tears fall free, lest they run through the pencil and rob you of the sight.’

Inevera immediately fell forward, terrified of losing this precious gift. Her tears spattered the stone floor, sending tiny whorls through the magic drifting up through the ala. She expected derision from Melan and the other girls, but there was only silence. Doubtless they had all been as overwhelmed as she when they first saw Everam’s light.

When her convulsions eased, Qeva dropped a silk kerchief to the floor and Inevera carefully dabbed her eyes. The other girls stared silently at her as she rose.

Qeva pointed to a stone pedestal, its smooth surface carved with dozens of wards, some covered in smooth stones. Inevera had seen the dama’ting use the pedestal to control light and temperature in the chamber, but the pattern was far too complex for her to comprehend.

But now, her eyes awash in Everam’s light, she could see the power as it moved through the net. The pattern that had been a mystery a moment before was clear now, a child’s puzzle easily solved.

‘Dim the lights,’ Qeva commanded. ‘We will not need them for this lesson.’

Inevera immediately complied, shifting the polished stones to other positions, and removing others entirely, setting them in a small basin.

Immediately the wardlight dimmed, but Inevera’s vision only sharpened, an unneeded glare removed, allowing her to see even more clearly in Everam’s light.

‘The wardsight will be invaluable to you as you learn our craft,’ Qeva said. ‘It is forbidden only in the deep cells of the Chamber of Shadows where you carve your dice.’

Months passed, and Inevera’s studies consumed her. She woke to sharusahk, assisted dama’ting in the healing, and attended regular classes in history, warding, potions, jewellery making, singing, dance, and seduction. The other girls continued to shun her, especially once they saw her carving wooden dice years ahead of many who had been born to the white.

And every night, Melan beat her, calling it sharusahk practice. Even after half a year, Qeva was not sufficiently pleased with Inevera’s sharusahk, and Melan was still denied the Chamber of Shadows.

Each night Inevera slept alone with nothing save her Evejah’ting clutched to her breast as the other girls whispered to one another in the darkness, or shared beds and caresses. Even her dreams were haunted by the shapes of the seven dice that had ruled her life since the day of Hannu Pash. She would have wept, but for fear that Melan and Asavi, always together in the bed next to her, would take pleasure in the sound of her sobbing.

Inevera stood proudly as Kenevah inspected the large bowls. There in the sand Inevera had drawn the most complex circles she had ever attempted. Each was made of forty-nine wards, all linked to work in unison. Between the bowls lay her practice box, a single ward drawn at its centre.

The wards were crisp and clear in the fine yellow sand, but Inevera’s warding had never truly been tested, and she had no way of knowing if they would hold power.

Qeva stood beside her mother, regarding the wards but saying nothing. She didn’t have to. That she had thought Inevera worthy to test for hora after less than two years spoke volumes. Next to Qeva stood Melan, her face serene as her eyes cut at Inevera.

At last Kenevah nodded. ‘Draw the curtains.’ Inevera did as she was bade, and the Damaji’ting drew a large demon bone from the thick velvet of her hora pouch. Inevera wondered how much Sharum blood had been spilled to collect that bone.

Inevera made a cradle of her hands, and Kenevah placed the priceless bit of alagai hora in them. It was the first time she had ever touched demon bone, and though the Evejah’ting had told her what to expect, it was still an alien feeling, tingling with power and pulling at her blood as a lodestone might pull iron.

Carefully, reverently, she laid the bone atop the ward centred between the two bowls, and the wards began to glow softly, brightening as they drew power from the bone. They flared with a golden light even as the sand darkened in colour. The circles began to swirl. At first was a slow churn Inevera thought she was imagining, but it grew faster, like whirlpools in a cookpot after vigorous stirring, flowing into one another in a figure of eight.

The demon bone disappeared into the centre of that vortex, and there was a bright flash of light before the bowls went black. Colours danced before Inevera’s eyes in the darkness, leaving her dizzy and disorientated.

‘It is done,’ Kenevah said. ‘Open the curtains.’

Inevera stumbled through the darkened room more by memory than sight, finding the thick layers of curtain and drawing them back, flooding the room with light.

She returned to Kenevah and Qeva’s side, gasping as she saw the bowls, each sitting in a bright beam of sunlight. The sand within was gone, as was any sign of the demon bone laid between them. The bowl to the left was filled with clear water. The one to the right was filled with couscous, steaming and ready to eat.

In preparation for this trial, Inevera had fasted for six days, taking only one couzi cup of water each morning and one at night. Her throat was parched, and her stomach ached, hollow and sullen. It growled unexpectedly at the smell of the couscous.

Kenevah raised an eyebrow at the sound. ‘Your fast may soon be over.’ She handed Inevera a pair of ivory eating sticks, the handles capped with gold and jewels. ‘If you formed your wards precisely, a mere stickful of the food will fill your stomach …’ She produced a golden chalice encrusted with jewels, dipping it into the water and filling it. ‘… and the water will be the purest, sweetest draught you have ever tasted, quenching your thirst with but a sip.’

She looked at Inevera grimly. ‘If not … you will be dead within moments of either touching your tongue.’

Inevera felt a chill run down her spine. Her hand shook as she took the chalice. ‘Must I?’

Kenevah shook her head. ‘You can set them aside, but if you do, it may be years before I waste another hora on you — if I ever do.’

Inevera found her centre, and her fingers stopped shaking enough to steady the sticks. She reached out, lifting couscous smoothly to her mouth.

She chewed, and her eyes widened. The consuming hunger that had her stumbling on her feet vanished. Already, new strength was flooding through her limbs as she lifted the goblet and drank deeply.

Kenevah smiled as Inevera finished the cup, her eyes aglow. Indeed, she had never tasted water so sweet and refreshing. It was like a sip from Everam’s own river.

The Damaji’ting took the sticks and chalice from Inevera, passing them to Melan. The girl’s nostrils flared, and Inevera allowed herself a slight smirk. Short of dying at the taste, there was nothing Melan could do now to prevent Inevera gaining access to the Chamber of Shadows.

‘Please, sisters,’ she spoke the ritual invitation, ‘eat and drink of my bounty, for we are all the Damajah’s children.’

Melan snatched some of the couscous from the bowl, and dipped the chalice, drinking it quickly to wash the food down. ‘The Damajah’s children.’

Qeva took the items next, handling them with more reverence and not a little pride. She lifted her veil just enough to bring the sticks and chalice to her lips. Inevera caught a touch of smile at the corner of her mouth as the silk slipped back into place. ‘The Damajah’s children.’

Qeva refilled the cup for Kenevah, but the aged Damaji’ting handled the sticks deftly, quickly taking a mouthful without dropping so much as a grain. She chewed slowly, thoughtfully, then sipped the water, swishing it gently in her mouth. At last she swallowed, drinking again to empty the chalice. ‘The Damajah’s children.’

The Damaji’ting set the items aside and turned to regard Inevera. ‘What are the best conductors of magic?’

Inevera stood silent a moment, sensing a trap. The Damaji’ting might as well have asked her two plus two. It was an idiot’s question.

‘Gold, Damaji’ting,’ she said, ‘followed by silver, bronze, copper, tin, stone, and steel. Iron will not conduct. There are nine gemstones to focus power, beginning with the diamond, which …’

Kenevah waved her off. ‘How many wards of prophecy are there?’

Another simple question. ‘One, Damaji’ting,’ Inevera said. ‘For there is only one Creator.’ The ward was placed at the centre of one face on each of the seven dice, guiding the throw.

‘Draw it for me,’ Kenevah bade, signalling to Melan, who produced a brush, ink, and vellum.

Inevera had spent the last few months drawing in sand and the brush felt awkward in her hand, but she made no comment, dipping it carefully and wiping off the excess ink on the bowl’s edge before beginning to draw on the valuable vellum.

When she was done, Kenevah nodded. ‘And how many symbols of foretelling?’

‘Three hundred and thirty-seven, Damaji’ting,’ Inevera said. The symbols of foretelling were not wards, but rather words that represented different twists of fate, one adorning the centre of each remaining face and along each side of the seven polyhedral dice the dama’ting used to read the future. Instinctively, Inevera clutched at her hora pouch and the clay dice it contained, their edges now worn from a year of careful study.

Each die had a different number of sides — four, six, eight, ten, twelve, sixteen, and twenty. Each symbol had multiple meanings, based on the pattern of the surrounding symbols and context. The Evejah’ting contained detailed explanations of those meanings, but reading the dice was less a science than an art, and one that was much disputed among the dama’ting. Inevera had witnessed them arguing frequently over the results of a throw. In the most extreme cases, Kenevah was called upon to make a ruling. No one ever dared argue once the Damaji’ting spoke, but they did not always appear convinced.

Kenevah signalled Melan, who laid a fresh sheet of vellum before her. Inevera dipped her brush again. She drew the symbols smaller this time, and though her hand moved with quick precision, it was some time before she was finished. The Damaji’ting had been watching over her shoulder the whole time, and nodded immediately when she was done.

‘Have you dice of clay?’ Kenevah asked formally.

Inevera nodded, reaching into her hora pouch for the clay dice the Damaji’ting had first given her. Kenevah took them and set them on the table next to a block of ivory. This she lifted, smashing it down on the dice until they were little more than shattered lacquer and dust.

‘Have you dice of wood?’ Kenevah asked. Inevera reached into her hora pouch a second time, producing the dice that she had painstakingly carved, sanded, and etched from a solid block of wood. Her hands were crisscrossed with tiny scars from the work.

When Qeva had given her the block, Inevera had thought warding the dice would be the most difficult part of the process, but she had no skill at woodwork, and coaxing even the simplest shapes from the wood almost proved her undoing. She cut herself numerous times, casting aside uneven chunks of wood again and again before setting the block aside and carving from soap until she mastered the tools.

The simple shapes, four, six, and eight, came quickly after that, but even with the geometric calculations laid out in the Evejah’ting, it took hours to carve the ten-sided die, and even then one side was slightly larger than the others, coming up more often than not when thrown. She had to discard it and begin again. For her to pass the test for hora, the dice she gave Kenevah had to be perfect in every way.

Kenevah examined the dice carefully, then set them in a brazier. Melan squirted the precious things, the product of untold hours, with oil and set them ablaze. Inevera had known to expect this, but was still unprepared for how the loss cut at her. Melan looked up at her with a smirk of her own.

Inevera breathed deeply, finding her centre as Kenevah looked at her again. ‘Have you dice of ivory?’

Inevera reached for her pouch a third time, emptying into her hands the dice she had carved from camel teeth, these done blind, with strands of bido silk woven over her eyes. They had taken even longer than the dice of wood, months of work, and every time she needed to request a new tooth, she had spent a week washing bidos.

Kenevah rolled the ivory dice through her fingers, studying them intently. Then she grunted, hurling them against the stone wall of the chamber with surprising strength. The fragile dice shattered on impact. She reached out and took the empty hora pouch from Inevera’s hands, throwing it onto the pyre of her wooden dice. The velvet caught flame, giving off a thick, black smoke.

‘You may enter the Chamber of Shadows,’ Kenevah said, handing Inevera a new hora pouch, this even finer than the first, black velvet tied with golden rope. ‘Inside you will find eight alagai hora. You will carve your seven dice from them, preserving every shaving. If you make no mistakes, the last is yours to use as you see fit; if you need more, it will be a year’s penance for every bone.’

The Chamber of Shadows. Other nie’dama’ting spoke of it only in hushed whispers. Deep in the bowels of the palace, untouched by sun or candle or chemical light, it was said the chamber was so dark its walls seemed miles away at times, and closing in on one the next. A darkness so complete it seemed like the abyss itself, and if one was quiet enough, one could hear Nie whispering in the black.

Melan’s eyes were those of a tunnel asp as Inevera took the pouch.

No sooner had the Vault doors closed for the night than Melan shoved Inevera to the ground. She was fifteen, and Inevera not yet eleven. The difference was clear in their size, though not as great as it had been when Inevera first came to the palace.

‘My dice were nearly done!’ Melan shouted. ‘Another year at most, and I would have been able to take the white veil. The youngest since the Return! But instead I waste two years trying to teach sharusahk to a clumsy pig-eater, only to see her enter the Chamber of Shadows before me!’

She shook her head. ‘No. This will be your last lesson, bad throw. Tonight I kill you.’

Inevera felt her blood run cold. Melan looked angry enough to mean it, but what would the dama’ting do if she carried out her threat? She looked to the other girls around them.

‘I see nothing.’ Asavi, ever loyal to Melan, turned her back on the scene.

‘I see nothing,’ the girl next to her said, turning as well.

‘I see nothing. I see nothing.’ It was repeated like the names of the sharukin as each girl turned her back.

Melan had the other girls well trained. And why not? She was the Damaji’ting’s granddaughter, and undefeated among the Betrothed in sharusahk. The other girls looked to her as their leader, and she had indeed been expected to become the youngest dama’ting since the Return. Only her own mother’s order prevented that.

Inevera had never understood why Melan’s punishment was so severe, and had held on so long. Inevera had excelled at dancing and sharusahk. By her second month in the palace, her forms were as good as the other girls her age. Now, after two years, they were as good as any. Qeva should have lifted the ban long ago, but she had not. Why? It served nothing but to antagonize Melan. If the dama’ting thought she could teach her daughter humility this way, she was a fool.

And then, suddenly, it clicked, as Qeva’s words from two years gone came back to her.

If you prove not humble, competent, or strong enough to survive and advance to the white, then that is inevera.

Carving and warding were not the only tests barring the Chamber of Shadows. Qeva wanted the strongest leader for the Kaji, and she had set her own daughter to bar Inevera’s path, whether Melan knew it or not.

‘Scorpion,’ Melan hissed, coming forward hard.

But Inevera was through pretending to be weak. She had spent two years humble before Everam. Now it was time for strength.

Inevera had never fought back during these nightly beatings. There had been nothing to gain. But she had watched, and waited, and planned. She knew Melan’s weaknesses now, and in her mind she had fought this battle a thousand times.

She dropped down on one hand and the balls of her feet, driving her stiffened fingers into the point of convergence on Melan’s thigh. ‘Wilting flower,’ she said as Melan’s supporting leg lost strength and she collapsed to the ground.

Melan rolled quickly to her feet, massaging strength back into her leg, and Inevera gave ground freely, offering no aggression of her own. More than one of the girls forming a ring around them peeked over her shoulder.

‘You see nothing!’ Melan shrieked, and they quickly turned away.

‘We see nothing,’ they all echoed.

‘Lucky,’ Melan snarled. Inevera only smiled in return as the girl came at her again, meeting Melan’s cobra’s hood with a deft strike to her throat before melting out of her path.

‘Shattered wind,’ she said as Melan stumbled past, overbalanced and gasping for air. Girls were looking again, but Melan paid them no mind, turning and launching herself at Inevera, her kicks and punches moving like tunnel asp strikes, followed close behind by targeted strikes at Inevera’s own convergence points.

But Inevera bent and swayed like a palm in wind, seeing the lines of energy clearly as Melan set her feet and eyed her targets. Again and again she broke those lines, sometimes simply taking away her breath and balance, other times adding a sharp stab of pain to accentuate the lesson. She was careful to cause no permanent harm, though. Inevera had never told the dama’ting of how Melan and the other girls abused her, but she held no such faith in them. Qeva would be looking for excuses to deny her passage into the chamber, and killing or maiming her daughter would surely qualify.

But she was through being abused. Melan came at her again, appearing to use camel’s kick, but then flowing unexpectedly into ram’s horn, trying to smash Inevera’s nose with her forehead.

Inevera caught Melan’s robe, swaying to the side with a leg left in Melan’s path to trip her into a throw. She kept a hold on Melan’s arm, and if the other girl resisted, her arm would pop from its socket. As expected, Melan added her own momentum to the throw to avoid that, practically leaping along to crash into Asavi’s back. Both girls went down in a heap, and the others around them gasped and scattered.

Melan let out a low growl, twisting and scissoring her legs around Inevera’s feet, tripping her as well and rolling atop her. They struggled for several minutes on the floor, and here the older girl’s strength began to tell as she worked her way behind Inevera into a hold, bashing her forehead against the stone floor more than once. There was a flare of light behind her eyes after each one, leaving Inevera’s ears ringing and her equilibrium shattered.

She managed to free one arm as Melan pulled the cords of Inevera’s bido around her neck, sacrificing control for the hold. After all, what could Inevera do with one arm and Melan firmly planted on her back? She threw her head back to strike Melan’s nose, but the girl was wise to the trick, pulling her face back and to the side.

As Inevera knew she would. Quick as a flame demon, she stuck her index and middle fingers into Melan’s nostrils. Her fingernails were sharp, and they cut into the tender cartilage as she pulled hard, threatening to tear Melan’s nose clean off.

‘Will Asavi still want to kiss you when your nose is a ruined hole?’ she whispered.

Melan wasn’t the prettiest of the nie’dama’ting, but she was easily the most vain. She shrieked, dropping her hold in order to preserve her beauty. Inevera struck several quick blows in the ensuing chaos, then rolled away and got to her feet. Melan followed wobbling unsteadily. There was nothing she could do as Inevera scorpion-kicked her in the face, feeling Melan’s cheek and nose crumple under the blow. Melan hit the floor hard and struggled to rise again.

‘When she sees your face tomorrow, I think Dama’ting Qeva will lift your banishment,’ Inevera said, holding up her new hora pouch. ‘We will enter the Chamber of Shadows together. And I will finish my dice before you.’