A Lady in Crystal by Toby Bennett

Author:Toby Bennett [Bennett, Toby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-01-08T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

‘Wake no child as she sleeps, for dreams are sweetest for the young;

Ask no matron why she weeps for her dreams, long lost, are all unsung”

Lights blazed from the pale walls of the Cardinal’s palace, so that the stone itself seemed to glow. The children blinked in the light, shuffling forward with a mixture of wonder and trepidation. Tera watched the lines march towards the great gates that had been thrown open and wreathed in white and yellow flowers. The pallid moon blossoms were familiar enough to any of Niskaar’s children but the bright coloured flowers, which had been wreathed between the familiar blooms were a wonder for many of the orphans, who walked towards the great archway.

Tera was not from one of the orphanages outside the Asylum, she knew that the flowers were not natural, she knew many things that the other children did not. Tera scratched idly at the lump on the inside of her wrist. Father Danith had said that she would grow used to the pain but despite what he said, it never got easier. There was another growth on the sole of her foot, which would make it hard to walk normally, if it grew any bigger. The father took great pride in his own marks of faith and he had even let her look beneath the bandages he wore to see them. She hadn’t wanted to at first and it still scared her that she felt the itches stirring beneath her skin, even in the few places he hadn’t touched her, but now she began to see what her guardian had been trying to teach her, the physical world meant little, it was in the realms beyond the veil where you could be truly free and the body was only an impediment to that.

Tera was not impressed by the lights or the flowers because she had already seen things that were far more impressive and Father Danith had made sure that she did not lose her dreams like so many others had. Danith said that she shouldn’t tell about her dreams but she didn’t see why, they were not bad dreams, such as they took from the others and when the Meerbus had done its work she could join the father in his task. That would have to be soon because she didn’t know how much longer she could hide the marks of the father’s blessings from the others. It will all be all right, she told herself and took another step forward. She resisted the urge to look back at Father Danith, who was following along behind their column, he’d cuffed her once for turning back and trying to talk to him and she didn’t want to make him angry. Tera understood that the father was nervous today, he hadn’t said anything but she knew him well enough to tell.

Music started up from inside the palace and the children’s pace quickened in excitement. The smell of cooking wafted through the gate and

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