The Dark Ascension Series by Robin Benway

Author:Robin Benway [Benway, Robin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Disney Book Group
Published: 2022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

The morning of their debut, Drizella wakes up, remembers what day it is, then heads downstairs, walks out the back door to their pumpkin patch, and throws up behind a large tangle of dead vines.

When she’s done, she dabs the back of her wrist against her mouth, trying to regain some semblance of decency. The morning is cool and dew has settled everywhere, leaving her bare feet wet. What kind of girl goes outside in just a nightgown, barefoot? Drizella is horrified by her own behavior. At this rate, she’ll probably end up teaching those clothed mice how to waltz—

Her thoughts are interrupted as she leans over and vomits again.

It’s nerves, of course. Drizella never entertains the idea that it is anything else. Her stomach is flipping back and forth like a boat caught in a storm at sea, with no bearings or safe harbor anywhere, and she stands up and wonders if she can just flee back to Madame Lambert’s studio, hide there beneath the stars and moon, bury herself in the leaves of the overgrown plants that line one wall. Would Madame Lambert even shelter her, hide her?

Drizella managed to get a few more days in Madame Lambert’s atelier before her mother cancelled their lessons in town entirely. It was devastating for Drizella to realize that her visits to the village square would be curtailed, but the time she spent in that mysterious, magical atelier was wonderful enough to almost cancel out her disappointment.

They mixed sodium bicarbonate with vinegar and watched as the gas it produced inflated a small balloon. Madame Lambert schooled Drizella on the constellations until she knew as many as her brain could hold: their names, origins, Greek and Roman myths combining with astronomy to create the kinds of stories that Drizella could never have imagined on her own. Madame Lambert showed her how to put tiny slices of plants and leaves on a small glass square and then look at it under something called a microscope, which magnified the sample hundreds of times; Madame Lambert pointed out the green-filled cells, how they all nestled together to create something that was alive.

They also drank tea and read in pleasant silence together, the soft sound of turning pages the only kind of music that Drizella would ever need. Sometimes Madame Lambert talked to her about her experience as a scientist, too—the cruel things that people would say to her, the way her husband had supported her independence, how much she enjoyed working with her students at university. Drizella always felt warm inside when she was at the atelier, as if Madame Lambert’s presence was enough to settle her, comfort her. Drizella hadn’t even realized how tense she was until she felt that tension leave.

She can hear Lady Tremaine calling her now, loud and urgent in a way that suggests anger will be quick to follow, and suddenly that tension is back. She wipes her mouth on the back of her hand and hurries inside to find Ella in the kitchen, already firing up the stove and putting pots and plates out.

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