Dindi
From her hiding place, Dindi couldn't hear the lecture from the underground storeroom connected to the kiva by a stone passage. But through a crack in the rawhide door, she could see into the kiva. That was enough. She watched Zavaedi Brena carefully and copied her movements as she taught the Initiates.
It wasn't perfect. But Outcastes couldn't expect front-row seats at the Vooma.
The quiet lesson had gone on forever. But once the dancing started, time moved fast. Before Dindi knew it, Zavaedi Brena clapped her hands and dismissed the Initiates. The students ran up the ladder in a noisy stampede.
Brena didn't wait. She picked up the small wooden cage she'd used earlier and walked straight toward the storeroom—right where Dindi was hiding.
Her giant of a slave followed close behind. He was tattooed and scary, but at the moment, he followed Brena like a big dog.
Oh, muck and mercy. Dindi had a way out—but she hadn't expected to need it this fast.
She had learned that the kiva needed skylights for light and air. At first, she hadn't known what the strange stone cylinders were. They looked like wells—but had no water, just a square hole at the bottom. She had tied a rope to a stone ledge inside one shaft and used it to climb down into the storeroom.
Now, she grabbed the rope and climbed back up. She pulled the rope after her as she went.
She was only halfway up when Brena and her slave entered the room below.
Dindi didn't dare move. She froze, legs wedged in the airshaft. She just hoped they wouldn't notice the lack of sunlight from above.
Luckily, they seemed too busy to care.
"You don't really plan to keep me beside you all day and night, do you?" the slave—Rthan—asked.
"Why not?" Brena said. She opened the cage and let out six pixies.
They flew straight up, right into the airshaft—right to Dindi.
"Hello! Hello!" the pixies cried, delighted to see her.
"Shhh!" Dindi hissed. She nearly slipped trying to wave at them to be quiet.
"Oh, don't worry, Dindi," said a Purple pixie. "Those two can't see me."
"Me neither!" laughed a Red pixie, landing on Dindi's leg. Her thigh was starting to cramp.
"Will you come dance tonight?" asked a Yellow one, spinning in the air.
"Yes! Come dance by moonlight!" added the Blue.
Below, Rthan's voice sounded confused. "What?"
Brena's body stiffened.
Dindi groaned and slapped her forehead. Doomed by pixies. I might have known.
Brena turned sharply toward Rthan. "Did you just ask me to dance with you?"
Rthan looked just as confused. "You asked me to dance with you!"
"I did not!"
"In the moonlight," he said with a teasing grin. He stepped closer—so close that Brena was caught between him and the wall. "So you really plan to stay with me day and night, hmm?"
"Just because I have to bring you with me to teach the Tavaedies doesn't mean I'll do fertility dances with you," she said.
"Oh, right," Rthan said, playful. "Blue and Yellow make Green, is that how you dance fertility? We do it differently."
"How do you do it?" she asked—and her voice sounded more like an Initiate than a widow.
Rthan leaned in even closer. From above, all Dindi could see were their heads, nearly touching.
"Say the word," he said, "and I'll show you."
"Don't forget you're a slave," Brena snapped. She pushed him away and walked out of the room.
He followed, chuckling low and deep.