The Cultivated Girl

Chapter 33 - The Longest Night

Simone and Joli stumbled into the Snug just as the other three were leaving. The cosy cave was in a state of chaos. Clothes and pieces of material were strewn everywhere, along with small pots of glittering powders and kohl sticks. The sweet scent of jasmine and ylang-ylang was so strong it made Simone cough.

"What happened?" said Simone and Nada simultaneously.

Nada blushed and answered first. "We've been getting ready for Winter Solstice. I couldn't decide what to wear."

Her dusky skin glowed as if she'd swallowed an elixir of stardust, set off by a long, pale lavender shift cut to the thighs on the sides.

"Who cares? It's just a slightly fancier dinner in the Mecca."

"Clearly not you, look at the state you're in," said Nada.

"It's an opportunity to get higher marks, remember," added Alexia. "And the way you look right now you're going to attract a lot of the wrong type of attention, or should I say, more of the wrong type of attention?"

Alexia looked as mesmerising as Nada in an ivory and charcoal sweeping gown that highlighted her sparrow's bone structure and petite frame perfectly. Even her long eyelashes matched, alternating black and silver.

In comparison Simone and Joli were wrecks. She clocked her own reflection in the mirror. She was scratched and smeared with dirt and yellow fungus from crawling through the service tunnels. Her rich brown hair looked lank and dusty and her amber eyes were wide and startled. Joli didn't look much better.

"Cherie, we need to tell them."

Simone could have cried. It was the first time Joli had called her cherie since her return to Sanctuary.

"Ok but then it's truce time. I'm tired of being treated like some leper." She drew a deep breath. "By my own clutch."

"This had better be good," sniffed Alexia.

Simone and Joli quickly filled their clutchmates in on what they had seen in the Loom Room while Bloduewedd, Nada and Alexia got to work on getting them ready for Solstice.

"This is bad, this is really, really bad, said Nada as she deftly applied make-up to both their faces. "Eyes closed please... we have to tell someone."

"But who can we trust?" said Joli, sitting ramrod straight so Bloduewedd could wax her waist-length dreadlocks and decorate them with sea flowers conjured from the air. The flowers went perfectly with her filmy turquoise dress that hinted at the shifting tattoos entwined around her statuesque frame.

"What about Lady Alva? She's our hearth mother. Step into this Simone, it'll suit you. At least we got rid of that awful smell surrounding you."

"Not so tight Alexia! I have to be able to breathe you know." The Sanctari had dressed Simone in a tightly fitted burgundy corset dressed that made the most of her lean frame and the chocolate highlights in her dark hair. It flared out below her knees in a froth of material which made movement easy.

Once she'd shimmied a bit to loosen the internal corset strings Simone replied: "No, not Lady Alva, she thinks we're just kids."

"Lady Hazel? She saved Joli."

"Did she? I don't trust her cherie. She poisoned us and she's always having secret meetings with Godiva."

"And anyone who is part of the Principal is out, who knows what plans they follow? Half mad the lot of them," said Simone.

"I hate to say it but I think it's up to us. Amira's going to try something during the Benediction. And she's going to use me to get my mum to do something terrible. I think she's crazy. She hates men for some reason and she wants to kill everyone except for a few priestesses. I don't know about you but I really don't think that's what the Goddess wanted for her third coming."