The birthing houses looked the same as they had yesterday, rounded one-room dwellings made of sunglass, but the clearing with the moonstone obelisk was changed. Garlands of flowers had been strung from its tip to the doors of each house, daisy chains and ropes of fire lilies and strings of silvery moonflowers. Bouquets of forget-me-nots and tulips and chrysanthemum were piled high around its base. Tables had been set up on the grass and Leela saw Treena and a few of the older midwives stitching together a canopy to prop over them. There were a handful of purple mothers bringing food, and Leela caught sight of her own mother talking with Plenna. Of Kandra, however, she saw no sign.

Quick as a sunlizard, she darted to hide behind another tree, then another, letting her intuition guide her. She found Kandra sitting at the foot of an old spruce between two houses, her head leaning against its trunk, a length of blue seresheep wool in her hands. It looked as though she had been trying to sew something and given up halfway through.

“Kandra,” Leela hissed. Kandra did not seem to hear her; her eyes were as dark and vacant as they had been in the days after Sera’s sacrifice. “Kandra,” Leela tried again, as loud as she dared.

Kandra started and looked around. When she caught sight of Leela she gasped and hurried to join her.

“Leela, I told you—” she began, but Leela had no time to spare for a scolding.

“I know, I know, I came with my purple mother and I must get back to the spot where I was told to wait for her. But I went to the Moon Gardens last night. I found a set of stairs beneath the statue of Faesa. Stairs that were not blocked by sunglass as the ones beneath the obelisk were.” She gripped Kandra’s hands in her own. “I went below the City and found what the High Priestess has been hiding.”

Kandra’s eyes widened. “Tell me everything,” she said. “And quickly.”

The story poured out of Leela and when she got to the part about discovering Estelle, Kandra made a sound that was half cry, half gasp.

“Estelle?” she choked. “She’s still alive?”

Leela nodded. “I don’t know what the High Priestess is doing with her, though. And there were so many others trapped just like her. The High Priestess was feeding them golden fruit that grows among the vines surrounding the tether. And then she held her hands out and all the stalactites began to glow and the ground shook and the tether . . . the tether . . .”

Leela could not find the words to describe its brilliance or the way the High Priestess’s face had contorted in silent agony.

“I wish I could see it,” Kandra said.

“So do I,” Leela said. “But that is not all.” She took a breath. “I saw Sera.”

Kandra blinked. “In a stalactite?”