Free Gravity's Revenge by A.E. Marling Page B

mistaken? Though her heart thumped, her eyes felt heavy and weary.
    She said, “The Enchantress Miatha didn’t jump by her own will. Perhaps the lord did not either.”
    “Take care how you implicate the Mindvault Academy with speculation.” The chancellor frowned at Hiresha’s bare hand. “The Ceiling remains to the dean.”
    “The dean hasn’t a cohesive thought in her head.” Hiresha pinched her eyes shut then forced herself to speak. “The Academy dropped Enchantress Miatha to her death. The magics of Attraction may be weakening on the plateau.”
    A chorus of gasps rose from the floor.
    “She didn’t say what I thought, did she?”
    “Blasphemy!”
    Veins stood out in the chancellor’s neck. “The Ceiling will come to order.”
    Despite the dismay, Hiresha felt relieved. She was still not certain if she had seen a true plummet or Tethiel’s illusion, but she now felt confident the following investigation would find the truth and save lives.
    The Warden of Faceted Knowledge touched her black mask. “There have been no recorded incidents of—”
    “Can you substantiate that, Hiresha?” the rector asked. She leaned toward Hiresha, and the woman’s black eyebrows jutted with stray white spines of hair. The daggers she wore on her sleeves flashed, more gilt scrollwork than blade.
    For a moment of panic, Hiresha could think of no proof. Then her fatigue receded enough for her to find an answer. “I am prepared to take anyone into my dream laboratory, to view my memories.”
With a snap of silk sleeves, the chancellor passed the Ceiling over to the rector.
The dome-haired woman asked, “You saw the enchantress fall?”
    “Not precisely, but given her facial expression—”
    When the rector frowned, faint wrinkles crossed the liver spots on her ebony face. “Interpreting motive through expression is imprecise.”
    Hiresha knew it was, but she had hoped that the Rector of Rarified Armament—a colleague of equally rare skill—would have supported her.
    The dean flashed her mismatched gloves and spoke next. “Hiresha has an exquisite dream, even if it is monotonous and overly constrained. I trust she has reasons to think the way she does.”
    Hiresha felt sick with resentment toward the condescension. Yet, she met the gazes of the elders. “If you won’t believe me, think back over these last days. Have you noticed any peculiarities in the enchantments? A slip? A misstep on the wallways?”
    “You have been deceived,” the chancellor said. “The novices have tricked you with a prank. Had I known you would be deluded enough to cause this outburst, I would have forbidden it.”
    “A prank?” The Rector of Rarified Armament wore frames of gold over her ears that extended in wing designs, and the metal was blinding in the sunlight. “This is hardly leaving her favorite chair on top of the Ballroom. Or tying her smallclothes to the side of the Grindstone.”
    The frizzy-haired dean spoke next. “If a prank, does this mean Enchantress Miatha still lives?”
    “Twice, a member of the convocation has feigned death by jumping. Both incidents led to expulsion.” The warden’s eyes widened within the holes of her mask. “Or were we discussing murders?”
    “We most definitely were not,” the chancellor said, “because nothing so sordid occurs in the Mindvault Academy .”
    The warden opened her knobby-fingered hands for permission to speak again. Hiresha did not wait for approval. She said to the chancellor. “I didn’t mistake a dress stuffed with straw as a falling enchantress. Why would you call this a prank? What do you know of it?”
    The chancellor’s eyes darted over the circle of elders then up to the floor below them where enchantresses clutched their gowns in distress. The chancellor pawed through the clutter of amulets emblazoned with baboons and scarabs on her chest. Her twitching fingers rested on her access amulet, painted nails tracing around its circle designs.
    When she at last