Without allowing herself a moment to think, Leela stretched out a hand and a fat golden fruit plopped into it, as if she had called it down from the vines. Elorin gave an impressed half gasp half squeak and Leela felt a stirring of pride, but Estelle was already grabbing it, devouring it swiftly and discarding the pit. Then she lurched forward, her palms slapping against the cold ground, her skin beginning to glow, until there was a sudden flash. She rose to her feet slowly, straight and strong.

She stretched her arms out and flexed her fingers. “I feel . . . almost myself again.” Then she looked at Leela. “Oh, thank you. It has been so long since I’ve felt my legs beneath me. It’s been so long since I’ve moved of my own accord, or spoken, or seen anyone besides the High Priestess.”

Leela helped her into the robe. “We must go quickly,” she said. “It will take us time to reach the birthing houses.”

Estelle grabbed her wrist. “What is your name again?”

“Leela,” Leela said. “And this is Elorin.”

Elorin gave a little cough by way of greeting. They climbed up the stairs beneath Faesa’s statue and as soon as they emerged into the Moon Gardens, Estelle collapsed onto the earth, sobbing and pulling up giant fistfuls of grass.

“Stop,” Leela whispered. “Oh, please, Estelle, stop, we cannot be seen or heard.”

Estelle took a deep, shuddering breath. “I am sorry,” she said. “The feel of grass, the fragrance of roses, the whisper of the wind . . . how precious these things are, that I once took for granted. How painfully beautiful the world is.” She turned her eyes upward to the stars. “They do look as I remember.” Then she rose to her feet, her legs unsteady beneath her.

“How long will the fruit sustain you?” Leela asked.

“I’m not sure. It lasts longer when I am . . .” She swallowed, and Leela knew she could not bring herself to name her prison. “A few hours, perhaps.”

Leela turned to Elorin. “Wait inside. No sense in both of us getting caught.”

Elorin nodded, then turned and headed back to the dormitory. Leela beckoned for Estelle to follow her. They crossed Faesa’s Bridge in silence and headed past the stargem mines, down the lesser used paths that Leela had become familiar with over the course of her late-night visits with Kandra. Only when they reached the forest and slipped in among the trees, where no Cerulean could hear, did she begin to tell her tale to Estelle. She listened with surprising calm, Leela thought, though perhaps she was just grateful to be listening to anyone at all again. Occasionally she would pause to touch the wrinkled bark of a tree trunk, or cock her head at the chirp of a cricket as if there were no more beautiful sound in the world.