Page 84 of The Lustrous Dark
All the fear of waking up in the forest alone and immobilized rushes back to Shay, but the memory pales in comparison to the dark future she envisions for Mekchaouen's women if the Sisterhood should fail.
If she should fail.
“Is it true that you saw them?” Yara asks. Though her voice is soft, Shay is startled she has spoken at all.
Reverence is thick in her voice, and Shay doesn't need to ask whom. “No,” she corrects. “I heard them.”
“They spoke to you? That is so amazing.” Yara doesn't give Shay time to explain that it was more like they were talking to one another than to her. “Mmi had me try on the ring. Not just me. A few of us. All it did was make us pass out. Why do you think it was different for you?”
Shay thinks that is a very good question. One better answered by someone with greater knowledge of how magic operates. But then she remembers what Deebi said about bloodsucker venom affecting some people more than others.
“It may be all the births I've attended,” she says, thinking out loud. Wishing she could ask Ghita. Wishing, with a new wave of self-recrimination, she'dasked Hind when she had the chance. “The time I've spent near the veil of life and death could have granted me a certain sensitivity. Or maybe it's some other reason Hind has knowledge of.”
“We need to know where the other hjabats are, and we don't have time to ask your mother,” the Morchidat says, still holding out the ring. “Besides, she's hardly a reliable source.”
“Not like the Lallat,” Yara adds, the shine in her eyes less sad, more hopeful.
Shay takes a trembling breath. “What if I don't wake up?”
That's when Shadi, who must have been right outside the door, listening, rushes in. The Morchidat narrows her eyes, but makes no outward remark.
“I'm here,” he says to Shay, seeming to cross the room in a single bound to reach her. “I'll make sure you're safe and take the ring off if you're out for too long.”
“I don't think the issue of your safety is in question,” the Morchidat says with a cross between irritation and amusement. “Unless you decidenotto put the ring on.”
“Mmi …” Shadi says, somehow managing to make the word sound like both a warning and plea. A look passes between Yara and Marjan.
“Do not address me as your mother unless this is a situation where you are prepared for me to address you as my son,” the Morchidat says. Her voice is calm, her face neutral as she stares at Shadi until his eyes dip, breaking contact.
“Of course I'm going to put it on,” Shay says, louder than she means to. She gives Shadi a quick smile and takes the hjabat from the Morchidat, fighting the unsettling feeling of history repeating itself.
Shadi and Yara help her into a more comfortable position, sitting her on the floor and wadding towels and sweaters into makeshift pillows, as if she's readying to give birth. Marjan offers a reluctant chin lift in her direction, as close to a vote of confidence as Shay could ask for.
Shay would feel better about putting the ring on if doing so were helping Khawla in some way. But maybe if she can find out where the other hjabats are, it will earn her favor with the Morchidat and make her more receptive to Shay's suggestions. Nothing about her demeanor, especially with Shadi, gives Shayreason to think that would be the case, but it's the only thought that comforts her as she slips the ring on her finger and peers nervously into its crystal face.
She waits for the spinning to start, the intractable downward pull.
That seeping darkness.
“Just close your eyes,” Shadi encourages. “Try to relax.”
“I don't think it's working …” Shay mumbles, realizing her words are slurring right as she feels the off-kilter slope of her body, the makeshift bedding rising to greet her. Vertigo claims her, and her vision sparks—one bright burst of color before it all goes dim and a cloud of oblivion rolls over her.
27
My research indicates that when the Lallat ruled, the monsters of Ard Al-Ghul rarely crossed the boundary into the human world. They steered clear of the populated medinas, where the anxieties and fears they prey upon were in scarce supply because citizens felt safe and happy. This forced them to seek out those in vulnerable situations, hiding in abandoned, uninhabited places, where they would patiently lie in wait for the solitary traveler or explorers in search of a fear-inducing thrill.
My findings also show that the monsters were less organized then, less human in their attributes. More terrifying, existing in their most primitive and eldritch forms. Of the three ghoul clans, the night hags have changed the least over time and are said, by those who have survived an encounter with one, to have retained a most significant portion of their true nature.
—from the historical journals of the Morchidat
Shay floats in silver clouds. Tingles travel over her body. Odd, considering she isn't sure where her body is. Sparkles dance around her like a field of shimmering stars. She watches them glom together, the specks growing larger and more defined until four distinct shapes surround her.
One shines green, one silver, one blue, and one red. Four tall, glowing pillars that look more like the stalagmites in Shadi's cave than women.
“Lallat?” Shay tries to reach out and touch one, which proves impossible when she can't locate her hand.
A voice like crystal chimes flows from the silver pillar. “What do you need, kbida?”
