Free Oubliette (Cloud Prophet Trilogy) by Megg Jensen

want to see?” Alia asked. “I can take you just about anywhere.”
    “I want to see where the first prophet lived,” I said. “Does his home still exist?”
    “It does,” she said, “and I know where it is. But it’s been locked and barred for years. No one is allowed in.”
    I shook my head, trying to figure out how to get around this. There had to be a way into the house and I was going to find it.
     

Chapter Eleven
     
    Alia grabbed my hand as we snuck out of my chambers. I didn’t know where to go since I’d been nowhere other than the council chambers and my own room. I was so glad she was willing to help me, not even just willing, but also excited. And she knew the town. I wouldn’t have to spend hours sneaking around on my own trying to figure everything out. I could get right to the business of searching for the missing journal.
    We snaked our way through the hallways following the twists and turns as we descended the spire. Alia pulled a huge rusty key out of a pocket and unlocked a door, looked to her right and left and pulled me through. A new, narrow hallway greeted us.
    The difference was remarkable. Whereas the main halls were filled with windows and light and beautiful tiles, this hallway was dank. I wrapped my arms around myself, warding off a shiver. The walls were built from mortared rocks; the crumbling pebbles were cool to the touch but so rough. I quickly drew back my hand afraid I would be cut.
    “Servants’ hallways?” I asked Alia. They were so different from the servant halls back home. Even though we didn’t have windows, the passages were dotted with candles that burned all day and night. The contrast was stark.
    “Yes, this is the way to our rooms. Also to the outside. We have a separate entrance and exit than the ruling class.”
    “Can I see where you sleep before we leave?” I asked. My curiosity had gotten the better of me. Seeing where Alia lived wouldn’t take more than a few minutes and might give me more of an idea of what her life was like.
    “Sure,” she said. “Let’s go this way.” Alia turned to the right, leading me down another corridor. I pushed images of spiders dangling from the ceiling and rats running along the floor out of my head.
    “You don’t have any light in here,” I said. “How do you know where you’re going?”
“It’s confusing at first, but we all learn our way eventually. When I first came to the castle to work as a little girl the older girls told me that someone had once gotten lost in these corridors and no one ever saw her again. Scared me silly. Part of me knew it couldn’t be true. I trembled for about the first month and I spent most of my free time exploring these halls so I would never get lost.”
    “That sounds awful,” I said. “How old were you?”
    “Six.”
    “Six? And you had to learn all of this by yourself?”
    Alia shrugged. “That’s the way it is here.”
    Perhaps Kandek had been a kinder ruler than I’d known, or maybe the Malborn leader here was more demanding. Alia seemed to accept things the way they were but my experience had been so different. Sure, they had been tough on us, and I had more restrictions placed on me than most slaves, but it was never so frightening or harsh.
    Alia led me into a room, darker than the hallways. I saw bedrolls scattered across the floor, thin blankets dropped haphazardly across them and no pillows.
    I gasped. “This is where you sleep?”
    “It’s not so bad.” She shrugged. “It’s a good escape from the searing sun.”
    I thought of the chest in my room on the upper levels. It was filled with blankets, blankets I never used because the warm humidity of the Southern Kingdom wafted in my window every night. I was more apt to kick off a blanket than to reach for one.
    Yet down here in the servants’ chambers the humidity chilled me and goose bumps formed on my arms. They could be using my blankets to keep warm at night. They could even use them as a cushion