Doppelganger (25 page)

The priestess had finished her closing invocation, and the people in the hall began to move again. The Dancers emerged from behind their curtain, lining up to be presented to Iseman and Terica. First among
them was
the priestess, who exchanged warm words with the Avannan Lord and Lady before gracing Miryo and Edame with a chill nod.

"Blessings of the Goddess on the unbalanced," the woman said, and stepped aside for the company of Dancers.

Edame made a vexed sound. "I
hate
the ones who do that."

"Do what?" Miryo murmured, pitching her voice for only Edame to hear.

"Call us 'unbalanced.' At least most priests have the good taste not to be so…
open
about it. Look at the way she looked at us. Like we're wayward children who refuse to hear what the Goddess is trying to tell us."

Edame's description was an apt one. The woman's gaze had been faintly regretful, in what was quite possibly the most irritating way imaginable. "How many are like that?" Miryo asked. "I know some priests and priestesses don't approve of us, but the teachers never tell us how many are likely to make an issue of it."

The Fire Hand shrugged. "It depends on where you are, and what sect they're from. Less in Currel, for example, being so close to Starfall. Nalochkans aren't bad. Avannans are the worst. They click their tongues and shake their heads over whatever it is we're doing wrong—and of course no one ever
tells
us; we're supposed to guess that on our own."

"So they don't tend to make trouble."

"Not usually, no. But there are exceptions."

Miryo continued to nod and smile at the Dancers at they filed past. She wished the line would hurry up; she was still humming with energy. And dawn was hours away yet. Miryo took a deep breath and forced herself to sit quietly.

The line was nearly finished at last. It went in order of increasing rank, save for the priestess; the first ones presented had been those who did not even perform tonight. Now there were only four Dancers left, the last of whom would be the leader of the company.

The next-to-last woman froze when she reached Miryo.

She recovered smoothly, and bowed with perfect grace to both witches. "Goddess be with you," she murmured, and moved onward. Miryo marked her, though, and her face, with a small scar on her chin. Tonight she would seek that Dancer out, and ask her why she had frozen, as if she recognized Miryo's face.

There was a reception afterward, of course; the visit of a company as famed as Eriot's was an occasion for celebration in this city so heavily populated with Avannans. And even those who did not honor
Temple
Dance
as the highest form of religious adoration knew a social occasion when they saw one. The hall was filled nearly wall-to-wall with people.

Miryo detached herself from Edame as quickly as manners allowed and began to circulate. The Dancers were easy to spot; black hair was reasonably common in the eastern domains, but they were the only ones with bare, unadorned heads. Finding a specific black-haired Dancer, however, was much more easily said than done, especially in this crowd. Miryo was about to give up in frustration when
Kan
materialized at her side.

"Rice wine?" the Cousin said, offering her a goblet.

Miryo took it, distracted. "
Kan
, I need you to do a favor for me. Find Lionra, the seneschal. There's a Dancer in the company with a scar on her chin. I need to know what room she's in tonight. She's high-ranking, just below the company leader. Be discreet if you can." She could go to the company's leader and ask for the Dancer's name, but that would spark interest she would prefer to avoid.

Kan
nodded and vanished into the crowd, leaving Miryo with wine she didn't really want. She continued to peruse the room, keeping an eye out for the Dancer, but before much time had passed Edame reappeared, looking irritated.

"There you are. I realize you are perhaps not planning on joining my Ray, but it will still do you good to speak with some people here. You should be seen." She took Miryo's arm and led her through the crowd.

Socializing was
not
what Miryo wanted to be doing at the moment, but Edame was impossible to argue with. She endured the next few hours patiently, watching the Fire Hand flit from group to group. Finally, pleading exhaustion, Miryo escaped to her own room.

Kan
was not there, and neither was Sai. Miryo stood in the middle of the sitting room and fidgeted, wondering what to do. Should she go seek out the Cousin, or wait here for her to return? They could waste hours tonight chasing each other through the keep. She decided to stay where she was.

Her determination was sorely tested; it was nearly Low before
Kan
came back. Miryo braided and rebraided her hair repeatedly to keep herself busy. She was twisting it into a low bun when the Cousin finally entered and bowed. "I apologize for taking so long. The Dancer's name is Sareen. She has a room to herself in the western wing. It's next to the room of her company's leader, and two down from that of the priestess."

The snapping energy she had gained from the Warrior Dance was still with her, in full force now that she could do something with it. "Thank you. Take me there, please."

They encountered no one in the hallway. Miryo could hear the distant sounds of the revelry still going on. Before she was quite ready, she was in front of Sareen's door, and
Kan
had retired to a nearby alcove. Miryo straightened her dress, then knocked on the door, hoping the Dancer was in.

She was. And she started again when she opened her door and saw Miryo.

"I would like to speak with you," Miryo said.

Sareen recovered and bowed. "Of course, Katsu. Please, come in."

The room was bare compared to Miryo's; this was the sort of housing that would normally be given to the lesser servant of a high-ranking visitor.
Temple
Dancers
lived spartan
lives. Were Sareen one of the younger
Dancers, she would be sharing a room with two or three others. It was a mark of her status that she had even this room to herself.

There were two chairs; Miryo took one and gestured for Sareen to take the other. It felt strange. She still wasn't used to having rank herself, that people would wait for permission to sit in her presence.

"Twice now," Miryo said, having considered and discarded a more roundabout approach, "you've reacted oddly when you looked at me. Why is that?"

Sareen dropped her eyes. "My apologies, Katsu. I didn't mean to be rude."

"You needn't apologize. I'm just curious. Have you seen me before?"

"I don't believe so, Katsu. It's just that you remind me a great deal of someone I used to know."

I knew it.

Miryo swallowed her rising excitement and forced herself to speak casually. "Who?"

"A fellow Dancer. She used to be in training with our company."

Of all the professions Miryo had envisioned for her doppelganger,
Temple
Dancer
had not been high on the list. It was almost as strange as imagining her double as a priestess. "How long ago was this?"

"Quite a while. Twelve years, maybe thirteen."

"And… she was your age?" Miryo had to hastily revise her sentence. Sareen would find it odd if she referred to the doppelganger as "it."

"A bit younger, Katsu."

Sareen looked to be in her late twenties. Which fit, of course; the doppelganger would be the same age as Miryo herself. She had to reach into herself for the calm of Air again before asking the next question. "Where did she go?"

Now the Dancer looked regretful. "I don't know, Katsu."

Somehow I didn't think it was going to be quite that easy.

"Did she go to another company elsewhere, do you think?"

Sareen shook her head. "No. Criel—our leader at the time—said she had a different calling. I don't think she's
still
a
Dancer
."

A different calling? Perhaps it
had
become a priestess, strange though it was to imagine. "Where is Criel now?"

"I think she's in Verdosa, Katsu—in the main temple there."

In the east. Miryo could not believe her luck. Or perhaps it wasn't luck; perhaps the thread she'd been following had been bringing her to Sareen and Criel, not to her doppelganger itself. No way of knowing, at least not yet.

Miryo realized Sareen was looking at her curiously.

She cursed her lack of magic; if only she could use it, she could question the Dancer further and then "encourage" her to forget the conversation. But since the woman was likely to gossip, she didn't want to add fodder by asking more questions.

Sareen was still looking at her. Miryo put her frustration aside and stood. "Well, I won't take up any more of your time. I'm sure you're tired, after that performance. Which was quite beautiful, by the way—I count myself lucky that I was here for it." Despite the danger it had posed.

"It is how we worship the Goddess," Sareen said quite simply. "The beauty brings you closer to her." She bowed Miryo out of the room, and closed the door behind her.

It wasn't until Miryo was well away from Sareen's room that she realized she had never even asked her doppelganger's name.

Climbing around on the rooftops in Starfall was one matter; the Cousins knew perfectly well that students went to the roof of their quarters for privacy and a look at the stars.

Climbing around on the rooftops of Haira's central keep was another matter entirely.

For one thing, it lacked the architecture of the students' quarters, which was well-suited to climbing and hiding. For another, Haira had guards who would be less inclined to look the other way if a mysterious silhouette appeared against the night sky. But Miryo needed fresh air, and quiet, and she was accustomed to doing her thinking while sitting on a roof. She took her chances with the guards and climbed out her bedroom window.

Outside, she took deep breaths and tried to calm her racing heart. She had
proof
. Her doppelganger existed, and someone had seen it. More than one someone. Miryo had not doubted the Primes, but somehow this confirmation made the whole situation more real.

Her doppelganger was out there. Somewhere. And she
was
going to find it. Because she refused to fail.

Criel, former leader of Eriot's company, would know where it had gone. What professions were there for thirteen-year-old former
Temple
Dancers
? Many of them joined the clergy when they became too old to Dance, but Miryo had difficulty visualizing her double taking vows at that age. And why had it left the company in the first place? What "other calling" had it gone to follow?

These were all questions she could ask Criel when she got to Verdosa.

Now that she had a direction, Miryo could not wait for dawn to come. She did not regret this pause in Haira, but she was itching to get back in the saddle. She had to wait a few hours yet, though, before she could wake the two Cousins and get them on the road—

North.

Miryo's heart almost stopped.

North, not east. The pull had moved. And it was distinct; she wasn't imagining the change. Whatever was drawing her wasn't in the east. It was north, now—not the far north, but nearby. Toward Kalistyi, though maybe not that far.

It's on the move.

The pull
did
lead to her doppelganger; she was sure of it now. And it was moving. Heading west.

What's in the west?

Half the domains lay in that direction. It could be headed anywhere, from Starfall to Askavya.

But the thread that led to it was stronger than it had ever been before. Miryo was no longer afraid she would lose it. Whichever way her doppelganger turned, she could follow it. And it couldn't run forever. Eventually—
soon
—she would catch it.

Miryo rose and began to make her way back across the roof to her window. She hadn't gone far, knowing she didn't want any encounters with guards. Her mind and heart were both racing, but she made an effort to quiet them. She
had
to get some sleep tonight. Tomorrow would be early enough to get on the move once more.

And if I keep telling myself that
, she thought wryly,
I might even begin to believe it
.

She did not sleep that night.