Mistress Of Masks (Book 1) Read Free Page A

apparition that appeared before her. She merely marked her place in the open book on her desk and set the tome aside.
    “Child Eydis, I see you have arrived safely at Silverwood Grove,” she said. “I had no doubt you were equal to the dangers of the road.”
    “Yes, Hearer.” Eydis shivered in the shadows, goose-bumps pimpling her arms. She might be only an insubstantial ghost in this place, but she could still feel the draft wafting up from the floor. She pushed a clinging tendril of hair out of her face and glanced around. “Why have I come here?”
    “A pilgrimage to Silverwood and the Pool of Tears,” said the Hearer, “is part of the test every adherent must face before dedicating her life to the First Mother.”
    “I meant, why has my vision in the pool brought me to your study back in the seclusionary? It has been only eight days since I stood here in the flesh.”
    The Hearer shrugged. “The First Mother transports you where she wills. Who can know her reasons?”
    “Does that mean she has chosen me? Because she grants me this vision?”
    The Hearer didn’t meet her eyes, and Eydis could sense her reluctance. “It means she has not rejected you. She has chosen to acknowledge you. But there are more ways than one to serve the Mother. Dedicating one’s self to a lifetime of solitude in a seclusionary requires sacrifices for which few are suited.”
    Eydis bit back her frustration, saying, “I stand prepared to make those sacrifices.” Hadn’t she lived alongside the adherents for the last ten years? Hadn’t she eaten the plain food and slept in a cold, hard bed in a tiny cell, identical to those of the adherents who had taken their vows? She knew the life and the work. What made the Hearer so reluctant to accept her?
    The Hearer seemed to follow her thoughts. “No one has said you are unfit, Child Eydis. You have done all we have required of you, and you have much to offer the seclusionary. But if you are to be an accepted adherent, you must learn to squelch your anger and hold your impatience in check. Tumultuous emotions are indicative of a soul at war with itself.”
    Eydis winced. The other woman knew her too well. “I understand, Hearer. I will learn to command my feelings.”
    “I don’t doubt you will try,” said the Head Hearer dryly.
    Her words barely reached Eydis’s ears before both the Head Hearer and her study slipped away without warning, receding into the shadows. Eydis was alone again, floating at the murky bottom of the Pool of Tears. Only this time her lungs were aching. The surface seemed a long way above. How long had she been under? She needed air! She kicked and flailed in an effort to get back to the top.
    But the First Mother wasn’t finished with her yet. As a new vision took hold, her head jerked backward, her body arching painfully. She was transported again. This time when the dizzying rush stopped, she opened her eyes to find herself in unfamiliar surroundings.
    The ghost of Eydis crouched in the shadowed corner of a dimly lit chamber with a high vaulted ceiling and green-tiled walls. There was a dampness in the air and a smell she associated with earth and old stone. Where was she? Torches flickered along the walls, and there was a lit brazier in the room. But neither was the source of the eerie green glow cast over the floor, the sculpted monuments, and the funerary relics arranged on shelves around the room. She caught a glimpse of what looked like a bony hand inside one of the shelves. Were those skeletons resting in the long niches?
    She became suddenly aware of unfriendly eyes on her. Looking up, she found herself under the scrutiny of a pair of gleaming golden eyes, belonging to a large raven perched on a wall ledge above.
    Her gaze darted away from the bird, drawn to the room’s other occupants. A giant knight in dark armor, his eyes glowing red from inside a massive winged helm, loomed like a monster over a smaller man on the floor. The slender human with