Instead of reading Elorin’s heart, Leela was showing her the memories from the circlet. As if they were contained inside her and she could hold them up for Elorin to look into, like a mirror that showed the past. It was so much easier than explaining, and also slightly terrifying. How was she able to do this? Was some part of the High Priestess trapped inside Leela as well? She did not much like that thought.

The images—of Acolyte Klymthe, of Estelle, of the Sky Gardens and the stalactites and all the words the High Priestess uttered—replayed in Leela’s mind and projected themselves into Elorin’s. By the time the memory faded and the girls broke their connection, Elorin was breathing heavily, as if she’d just run the length of the City.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Leela said.

Elorin stepped back and leaned against the dormitory wall. “I didn’t even know it was possible,” she said. “To keep the tether strong with the blood of Cerulean.”

“I think there are many things she is doing we never thought possible,” Leela said.

“Yes,” Elorin agreed. “The sleeping sickness is a lie, a way for her to steal Cerulean magic. So many have mourned for loved ones who never died. That is an unthinkable cruelty. And yet, the High Priestess seemed to believe all she did was for the good of the City. If she truly wished to help the City, she should have allowed it to move!” Her hands were balled into fists. “But the time has come for the City to move, hasn’t it? She chose Sera to be sacrificed.”

“I know,” Leela said. “But she was not expecting it to go wrong. No wonder she has called for a wedding and a birthing season. The City must be distracted while she figures out what to do next.”

“Why not just choose another Cerulean?”

“And if that ceremony fails like Sera’s did?” Leela shook her head. “I do not think she can risk that. But I have a very bad feeling that something terrible is going to happen. And soon.”

Elorin shuddered. “So do I,” she said. “Oh, Leela, what do we do?”

Leela’s resolve hardened. “I saw how she put Estelle inside the stalactite. Maybe I can get her out.”

Unfortunately, Leela was not able to get beneath the City for several days.

Almost as if she knew something had shifted, that some danger to her schemes was lurking and drawing closer, the High Priestess announced there would be groups of novices saying devotionals at each of the three statues in the Moon Gardens at all times, day and night, for one week. They were to pray for the purple mothers still waiting to become pregnant in the birthing houses.