It took Auraya several long minutes to sense anything.
Emerahl felt a flash of irritation.
Auraya paused only a moment before she responded again.
The link broke as Auraya’s concentration faltered. Emerahl woke from the dream trance and wasn’t surprised to find Auraya rising from the bed.
“Stay there,” Emerahl warned in a murmur. “You must remain in the void. Tyve will have to come in and talk to you.”
Auraya sat back down. She looked at Emerahl. “You had best pretend to be sick,” she replied.
Another flash of irritation went through Emerahl. She lay down and pulled a blanket over herself. Footsteps echoed from the passage and she turned to see a young Siyee step into the entrance of the cave.
“Tyve,” Auraya said, standing up and beckoning. “Come in. What brings you here?”
His gaze shifted from her to Emerahl. “I have a message for you.”
Auraya beckoned again and the boy approached. He smiled at Emerahl. “How are you, Jade? Feeling better?”
“Yes,” she said. “Thanks to Auraya.”
The boy moved closer to Auraya and murmured something. Auraya looked down at her priest ring then shrugged, and her reply was quiet. What were those two discussing that they didn’t want Emerahl to hear?
Auraya’s voice rose again as she thanked Tyve.
“Tell Speaker Sirri that I must stay and watch over Jade, but I will return soon. Fly safe, fly fast.”
The boy nodded, then said goodbye and hurried away. When his footsteps had faded Emerahl looked up at Auraya, who was frowning.
“What did he have to say?”
Auraya sighed and sat down. “I think Sirri is surprised that I didn’t just heal you and return.”
“How long until they grow suspicious?”
Auraya shrugged. “A week. We can put them off for a while, but if something happens that they need me to attend to and I refuse to leave here...”
“Our cover will be as done as a whore with an empty purse,” Emerahl finished.
Both of Auraya’s eyebrows rose in amusement, then she grew serious.
“If the gods were watching through Tyve, they will have seen us both when he entered the cave. They will also have been forced to leave him when he entered the void.”
Emerahl nodded. “Yes. I suppose you could have prevented them discovering the void by speaking to him from the edge of it, but the gods would have still seen us both and not been able to read our minds and grown suspicious because of that.”
“Or they might not have been watching at all.”
“Do you think they were?”
“I don’t know. They haven’t visited me in months, but that doesn’t mean they’re not watching.” She looked at Emerahl, her mouth set. “Shall we return to the dream trance?”
Emerahl chuckled at her determination. “Let’s have some lunch first.”
Ella was standing by the window when Danjin entered. He suppressed a shudder and tried not to think of the dizzying drop to the ground far, far below. The newest of the White took a step backward from the window and turned to face him. There was something in her expression, a wildness about her eyes as she met his gaze. She smiled crookedly, and suddenly he understood what it was. He felt a wry pang of fellow feeling.
She, too, wasn’t that fond of heights. Probably not as utterly terrified by them as he was, but still unsettled by them.
“Thank you for coming to visit me on such short notice,” she said, gesturing to a chair.
He sat down. “No need to thank me. It’s part of my job.”
She smiled again. “That’s no reason for me to be ungrateful.”
“How can I be of assistance?”
The smile faded. “My fellow White and I met at the Altar today. Juran gave me my first task. It’s a small one, but not an easy one, and I’d like your advice on how to approach it.” She frowned. “He wants me to stop people attacking the hospice and Dreamweavers.”
Danjin nodded slowly. “It makes sense that he gave you this task. You have worked at the hospice. You have dealt with Dreamweavers and protesters before.”
“Juran says the attacks on the hospice have lessened since I was Chosen,” she told him. “But the attacks on Dreamweavers have increased.”
Danjin nodded. “By choosing a healer from the hospice the gods suggest that they approve of it.”
“I doubt that is the only reason they chose me, or my usefulness would expire once the threat to the hospice ended.”
“Of course it isn’t.” He smiled. “But these are the sorts of conclusions the average mortal comes to about such matters.”
“And have some of them come to the conclusion that my Choosing justifies violence against Dreamweavers?”
“I can’t see why they would have. No, I think there may be other factors at work, though I can’t tell you what they are. That’s what we must discover.”
“What would convince people to harm Dreamweavers, despite it being a crime? Do they pay us and our laws any attention at all?”
She looked genuinely distressed, though he wasn’t sure if it was at the harming of Dreamweavers or the breaking of laws. “There will always be people who think they know better, who believe laws don’t apply to them. Or who twist the meaning of what the gods and White decree until it suits them better, so they can still believe they are working for the gods’ benefit while doing what they want to.”
Ella sighed and looked away, her expression full of frustration. Following her gaze, he was surprised to see a spindle and a basket filled with fleece on a side table.
It seemed a ridiculously domestic task for one of the Gods’ Chosen, but it was clear from her expression that she wished she was doing it. Perhaps it was a link to her past, work that kept her humble in the face of the fame, power and responsibility of her new position. She turned back to him, looking suddenly determined.
“What do you suggest I do to stop the violence?”
He considered the problem.
“Understand your adversary. If these people have always hated Dreamweavers, then why have they begun
