The Sisterhood

by A. J. Grainger

  “I get how important it is,” Kiran said. “We both do,” he added, looking at Seven, “but . . .”

  He didn’t need to finish. Seven had dipped her head, her back curved in misery. “I don’t know the way,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

  Lil drew in a deep breath. She didn’t want to make Seven any unhappier than she already was. Perhaps they could try again later, when Seven was calmer. “Was she happy with you?” she asked instead. “This Moon helped her?” Her voice was still sharp; there were so many emotions coursing through her, and she was so frustrated that Seven couldn’t tell them anything about where she’d come from.

  “Moon gave her the Light,” Seven said simply.

  What did that mean? Lil exchanged a glance with Kiran, who gave a small shrug.

  “I know you don’t understand me,” Seven said, and then she drew herself upright, as if preparing for something. “I want to talk to you. Now that I know you are Mouse, I believe I can fully trust you, but I have to be careful. The Darkness is tenacious, and I must be sure that I am keeping to the Light’s path.”

  “The Darkness?” Kiran asked.

  “The Light’s opposing force,” Seven replied. “Everything on Earth has its opposite: masculine, feminine; sun, moon; night and day; light and dark. Our high priestess’s name is Moon to remind us of that. The Light is life, and creativity, and love, and all the good things. The Dark is fear and envy and hate. And misery. It can’t ever be completely overcome, but its energy can be countered by the Light.”

  “And this . . . this is a set of beliefs?” Lil asked tentatively.

  Seven nodded.

  It sounded like some alternative religion, almost like a cult. Lil had heard about them, of course. There was one in Texas and another in France and one in the north of Spain somewhere, but they were stories. Things in newspapers and on TV that happened to other people. And the realization was a punch to the gut—in those stories the members had died; either they committed suicide or were killed. “You left the Sisterhood because you were in danger, right? Did . . . did someone try to hurt you?” Lil remembered what a state Seven had been in when she found her and that burn on her arm. “How? What did they do?”

  Seven shook her head and wouldn’t speak, but her blanched face, her wild, haunted expression, was the only answer Lil needed.

  “Did someone hurt Mella the way they hurt you?” Lil asked. She was terrified to hear the answer.

  “I don’t think they have hurt her,” Seven said. “But . . .”

  “But what?” Lil could hear the panic in her own voice.

  “I’m scared to tell you anything else,” Seven said. “I’m afraid of what will happen to the sisters.” Instead of saying more, Seven slowly drew up the sleeve of her right arm to reveal three fresh burn marks. The skin was puckered and weeping. The wounds were in the shape of a sun.

  “Oh my God. Seven.” Lil’s voice was full of tears, and the blood pounded in her ears. “Who did this to you? Why?”

  “The Darkness must be burned out before we can enter the Brightness. I’m the Light’s Gift, so I must be cleaner than all the others, for I will lead them into the Light.”

  “And my sister,” Lil said, her voice shrill and terrified. “Are they going to do this to her?” Lil wanted to run out of the house, run to Mella, but she had no idea where to go. Her brain was doing somersaults, and all she could see were the burn marks on Seven’s arms. If someone hurt Mella like that . . .

  Kiran touched her hand, a tiny bit of her panic retreated, and she could breathe again.

  Seven’s eyes were enormous in her pale face. “I believe that your sister is safe.”

  “How do you know that?” Lil asked.

  “Because of the laws of the Brightness.” Seven drew in a breath. “I have to start at the beginning, so you will understand,” she said hesitantly. “A prophecy surrounded my birth. I am the Light’s Gift, the path to the Brightness. It is why I was made, why my mother bore me.” She faltered and lifted her face to look at Lil. “What I am telling you is a secret known only to the sisters. Telling it will . . . May the Light forgive me. I don’t know where the right path leads anymore.” She drew herself up a little straighter; the candlelight caught in her eyes, making their brown shine gold. “I was supposed to lead my sisters into the Brightness. The place of Light for all sisters, for all eternity. Peace and happiness beyond this world of shadow.”

  “The Brightness. Is that like . . . like heaven?” Lil prompted.

  “Heaven? I don’t know what that is.”

  “Is the Brightness a place you go when you die?” Kiran asked, clearly trying to explain.

  “No,” Seven cried, horrified. “No! The Brightness is the place you go to live. But everything about the ceremony was wrong. The high priestess is the Light’s guide on Earth, our spirit sister. It was her divine calling to instruct us in The Book of the Light in preparation for the coming Brightness. But she has strayed from the Light’s path, into the Darkness.”

  “And Mella?” Lil asked impatiently. She didn’t care about Light and paths. She just wanted to know if her sister was okay. “How does Mella fit into this?”

  “She is one of the sisters, and at tomorrow’s Illumination, I was to lead her and the others into the Sun’s fire, to be reborn in the Light.”

  “Fire?” Lil repeated, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. Her eyes flicked to Seven’s arms, where her long sleeves hid those horrific burns. She could see Kiran making the same connection in his head.

  Seven spoke to the table, as if too afraid to make eye contact. “ ‘At the Illumination the Light’s Gift shall forge a burning path for her sisters. She shall be consumed by the flames, and her sacrifice will open the door to eternity.’ ” She looked at Lil. “I was cleansed with the fire, to ensure that I was free of the Darkness, but the pain from these burns was . . . I could not bear it. . . .” She began to cry. “I could not endure any more of the Sun’s fire, not even for my sisters.”

  Lil’s mind was whirring: Burning path, consumed, flames, sacrifice.

  Oh my God.

  “They were going to burn you alive.” The words were out of Lil’s mouth before she realized what she was going to say.

  Oh my God.

  This was where Mella was?

  She only just made it to the kitchen bin before she threw up.

  • • •

  Kiran was looking at Lil, eyes wide with concern. He handed her a glass of water, and she held it tightly in both hands, taking small sips, to clear the rotten taste from her mouth.

  When she was ten, Lil had accidentally put her hand on the hot iron, which had been left out on the kitchen table. She could still remember the hiss of her skin as it burned. The pain was immense, and she screamed so loudly she brought her mum and Taid running from the end of the yard. Her mum rushed her to the emergency room, and the whole way Lil had to breathe slowly, sucking in the air through her teeth around the pain. She could not imagine the agony of burning in a fire. Burned while you were still alive. Consumed. The terror—the horror . . . There were no words to describe it. Lil was dizzy with the enormity of it.

  She looked at Kiran and saw her own feelings reflected back at her. His face was haunted, eyes dark pips, his lips drawn into a thin line. Lil knew that, like her, he’d never be the same again. Their safe, cozy world now blown apart by Seven’s story and the knowledge that such hideousness could exist. Seven had escaped. She was safe. But Mella wasn’t. That thought was almost too much.

  “We have to get help right now,” Lil said. She felt dizzy, like the world was spinning under her feet.

  “I’ll drive,” Kiran said. “The roads’ll be bad, but we’ll make it somehow.”

  Lil hoped her eyes expressed how grateful she was.

  “No!” Seven cried. “We cannot. The police will take the sisters away! They’ll be forced into the Darkness.”

  “What?” Lil almost screamed. After everything that Seven had told th
em, how could she still be objecting to telling the police? What did this . . . this Darkness matter when Mella might be burned al—Lil couldn’t bring herself to finish that thought.

  Seven shook her head from left to right, left, right, left again. “You don’t understand. The Illumination ceremony cannot happen without me. They’re safe. I didn’t abandon them. I left to save them!”

  “What are you saying?” Lil asked. “That Mella won’t be burned because you’re not there?”

  “Yes,” Seven cried. “Yes! I’m the Light’s Gift. Only I can find the path through to the Brightness. Without me, there’s no path. The doorway won’t open. Moon won’t be able to start the ceremony. No one else will need to be cleansed. The sisters are safe.”

  Lil shook her head; it was so hard to understand what Seven meant. “But . . . but won’t the high priestess . . . Moon . . . just choose another Light’s Gift? Just find someone else to do what you were going to do. To find this path?”

  Seven recoiled in horror. “No,” she gasped. “I’m the Light’s Gift. I’m the prophecy. There isn’t . . .” She hesitated. “There can’t be another one.” Her tone was less sure. “I was born for this. I . . . I left to save them.” Horror filled her eyes. “But . . . it has to be true. Moon told me. This was my purpose. I left to save them!”

  “I think a lot of what you’ve been told might not be true,” Kiran said softly. Seven’s eyes filled with tears.

  “I wanted to save them,” she said. Then, full of panic, she added, “I should have told you everything earlier! If it’s not true, then they’re still in danger. . . .” She slumped forward, hands over her head, and face buried in the table. Her shoulders shook with the strength of her sobs.

  “We have to go now!” Lil said. “We have to get to Porthpridd and find Sabrina.” Her voice shook.

  Mella. Oh God, Mella, please be all right. Hold on, we’re coming for you. We’re coming.

  The high priestess is the Light’s representative on Earth. Her word is Law.

  —THE BOOK

  Everywhere there were huddled groups of sisters, crying, angry, disbelieving, or all three.

  “How could the Light’s Gift leave like this?”

  “Maybe something happened to her?”

  “What will happen tonight at the ceremony?”

  “How will we find the Brightness without her?”

  “We can’t.”

  “Moon will find a way.”

  Moon will find a way.

  Brilliance couldn’t get what had happened in the clearing out of her head. The look in Moon’s eyes, the way she’d spoken to Dazzle, and most of all, her words: “Find my gift,” she’d said. Not “the Light’s.” “My.”

  Those words echoed around Brilliance’s head, until slowly she began to understand something. Moon was the Light’s representative on Earth. She was the reason they were all here. She was kind and thoughtful and she loved them. She was guiding them toward the Brightness, tutoring them in the Light so they might achieve eternal Refulgence.

  But only on her terms.

  The thought came from nowhere, but like the mist rising on a bay, the truth of it became clearer and clearer to Brilliance. Everything here was done to Moon’s specification, to her instructions. Because it was the way of the Light. But who knew that for sure, when Moon was the only one who could read from the Book?

  The idea that Moon was less than perfect terrified Brilliance. Everything—everything—she believed was based on Moon’s teachings, on her goodness, on her perfection. Because without Moon, what were they all doing here? What was Brilliance doing here?

  Doubts niggled at Brilliance. Had she been stupid staying here? Was this going to be another failure?

  Stop it, she told herself, and tried to capture some of her earlier happiness, but it was gone. Like sand, it had slipped through her fingers. Damn it.

  Damn it.

  She didn’t want to be sad; she didn’t want the Darkness back. She’d really believed this time would be different. That the Sisterhood, that Moon, might have something different to offer her. A path to a better her, a happier, calmer, more rational her. To someone with a purpose. Disappointment hit her hard. If not here, then where? She couldn’t go home.

  Anger rushed in too. How could Seven leave like this? She was their only chance at attaining the Brightness. How could she be so selfish? Without her, none of them would know the Light’s eternal embrace, and Brilliance would never be free of the Darkness.

  But . . . again the memory of Moon’s reaction last night came back to her. Her words: find my gift. The way she’d spoken to Dazzle. How much did Brilliance, did any of them, really know about Moon? Perhaps Seven knew something no one else did. Maybe that was why none of them were allowed too near to her. Brilliance had spoken to her only once, early on. Moon had taken her to one side afterward and said that the Light’s Gift was not to be bothered with the daily workings of the Sisterhood. “She is for a higher plane.”

  What a strange and lonely existence Seven must have had. Born here and never ever leaving. But not a part of life here either. Brilliance felt the girl’s loneliness intensely. Brilliance knew what it was like to be in a crowd of people and still be alone. Maybe Brilliance could understand Seven’s reasons for leaving.

  But if Brilliance felt like that, then what was she still doing here?

  The answer came fast: because she had nowhere else to go. A familiar despair caught hold of her. She tried to force it back. She needed some space to think, somewhere quiet, away from the other sisters. She could go up to the Sun’s clearing, commune with the Light in private and ask for guidance.

  She was about half a mile from the clearing when she saw Luster coming the other way. At the sight of Brilliance, fear crossed Luster’s face. It was gone in an instant and she pulled her features straight, like she was settling a sheet, but Brilliance had seen it, and it brought up the hairs on the back of her neck. “Greetings, sister.”

  “May the Light be with you,” Luster finished the saying, palm out, as custom dictated. She was clearly uncomfortable, though, and her gaze flicked back to the way she’d come. Brilliance followed it. She could hear voices in the distance. Moon’s maybe?

  “Where are you going, sister?” Luster asked.

  “To the clearing,” Brilliance said.

  Luster hesitated; confusion, then doubt, flickered in her eyes.

  Brilliance felt that tweak of fear again. “What’s happening?” she asked.

  “Perhaps you should come back to the house with me,” was all Luster said.

  It was innocent, but she wasn’t fooling Brilliance. “Why?”

  That hesitation again. Then Lustre seemed to decide something. “You are one of us now and . . . perhaps you can help her, sister. I know she looks up to you. Perhaps having you as witness will . . .” She looked about at the empty wood as though afraid of being overheard. “She’s young and silly, but Moon can be unforgiving where she fears the Darkness lurks. With tenderness, kindness, Sister Dazzle will learn . . .” She let her sentence trail off.

  “I don’t . . . what are you talking about?”

  “Moon thinks the Darkness is upon Dazzle. She thinks she’s the reason the Light’s Gift left.”

  “What? But how could Dazzle . . . ? We aren’t allowed to talk to Seven. What could we have done?”

  Luster gave a small shrug. “The High Priestess of the Light knows best. She is our guide.”

  “Always,” Brilliance finished, but it felt hollow. Did Moon always know best? Brilliance was beginning to have serious doubts.

  “The high priestess believes Dazzle must be fully cleansed before the Illumination ceremony,” Luster said. “We need the Light’s forgiveness after losing Her Gift.”

  “ ‘Fully cleansed’? What does that mean?”

  Luster gave a sad smile. “I forget how new you are here. How pure.” She rolled up her sleeve to reveal four burn scars, skin puckered and raw, each one in the crude shape of
a sun.

  Brilliance sucked in a breath. The agony . . . she couldn’t even imagine. “Who did this?” But even as she asked, she knew. Moon had done this. Kind, generous, amazing Moon. Moon who had saved her, protected her. Moon who loved them all. No, no, no, no, no. What sort of place was this? “Why?”

  “The Sun’s Light cleanses and purifies. The Light is the only way to clear the Darkness out.” Luster pulled her sleeve down again. “It isn’t supposed to hurt, but sometimes the Dark is embedded so deep.” She shook her head.

  “I don’t . . . how can she do this?”

  “It’s hard to understand at first, I know that,” Luster said. “But we can’t enter the Brightness unless we are pure. Dazzle most of all. The high priestess thinks there is so much Darkness inside her. I only hope the pain won’t be more than Dazzle can bear.” Luster hesitated, eyes dark with fear. “The high priestess doesn’t believe the branding will be enough—”

  “What?” Brilliance broke in, fear rising. “What do you mean? What’s going to happen to Dazzle?”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The water in the driveway came up to Lil’s ankles, and it was still raining. Gushing down like someone had slit the sky across the middle. It was insanity to drive in this weather at four in the morning, but what choice did Lil have? From what Seven had said, Mella and the others were in terrible danger. They had to do something to save them.

  They headed to the car as quickly as possible, but all three were soaked through by the time they got there. Even Lil’s bra was wet. Once inside, Kiran turned the key in the ignition. It spluttered for a second, and then the engine choked and roared. Kiran patted the dashboard. “Good girl, Astro,” he said out of habit. Kiran’s twin brothers had insisted on naming Kiran’s car. Tan had suggested calling it 134340, in memory of Pluto.

  After everything they’d just learned, the normal comment felt wrong. Everything felt wrong. Lil was sick with worry. “What if we’re too late?” she asked Kiran.