Page 26 of Sightwitch

Then again as I rang the Summoning bell. “Firmly gripped upon it.”

And again when no answering bell tolled.

Each step I took out of the observatory, then squelching up the mountain path to the Crypts, I said those words.

The Rook flew ahead, a patch of black in a world of gray, until at last we reached the chapel.

I stepped inside; the sound of the storm reared back. No more rain to pelt my hooded head.

The Rook followed me inside, where he settled atop a crooked brick over the Crypts door. He watched while I checked one final time that I had everything I needed.

I was ready.

“You can’t come with me,” I told the Rook as I shook off my sleeves. I was already cold from the rain, and the journey had scarcely begun. “I have no idea what I’ll face in the deeper levels, much less once I’m inside the mountain.”

Assuming you can get inside the mountain at all, said a voice at the back of my brain. I shoved it aside.

“You need to wait up here, Rook—”

He bristled.

“TheRook,” I amended hastily, finally glancing his way. He looked decidedly displeased, his beak turned down and his eyes locked on mine. “Someone has to keep an eye on the Convent while I’m gone.”

I advanced one step toward the door.

He clacked his beak and opened his wings.

I stepped again, and this time he screeched. A clear threat of,“I will dive at you if you do not let me join you.”

“Please, the Rook,” I begged, mimicking Tanzi’s best pity-me face. “You know how much you hate the ghosts—they’ll only be worse in the deeper levels.”

That seemed to give him pause. His wings slumped.

“And there won’t be any sweets for you to eat either. No jam or honey cakes.”

Now he looked mildly appalled.

“Plus, the passages will be so narrow, you probably won’t be able to fly. You’ll have to hop everywhere!”

Finally, his wings furled entirely and his head sank. But rather than feel triumphant, a prickly sadness unwound in my chest.

I would have liked to have his company. Especially since the wordsA LONE SISTER IS LOSTwere carved into a wall mere paces behind me.

I gulped, fists clenching, and whispered, “Firmly gripped upon it.”

Then before my courage could falter, I pushed into the Crypts and left the Rook behind.

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MEMORIES

Cora distracted me today, humming to herself as she always does. We were in my workshop, for I still have much to do and the girls can study their books here as easily as they can in the Convent.

Lisbet sat bowed over a Memory Record, and Cora was practicing her letters, her quill scratching in time to one of the skipping songs I taught her last week.

“One by one into the tombs,

One by one for sleeping.”