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family had always been devout! They didn’t worship the deities, but her grandmother was worship leader of their village and could sometimes channel the One directly. She opened her mouth to tell Angelase this, but the girl thrust supplies on her and walked back up the stairs before Sulis could say a word. She shut her mouth, fuming, and hurried to follow.
    They went up several flights of stairs until they reached the top floor. Its peaked ceiling and slanted walls meant this was some sort of attic. The room was dim, illuminated by natural light from windows on the only two vertical sides of the room. Six beds lined the left-­hand wall, from window to staircase. At the foot of each bed was a wooden chest that served as both a bench for sitting and a place for storage. Angelase led her to the bed by the window on the far side of the room—­the only bed that did not have personal items on the side table.
    â€œThis is yours. Put your clothes in the chest when you’re not wearing them. You need to change into apprentice robes. You can keep the robes you’re wearing in the chest as personal items, or give them to the poor.” Angelase looked Sulis up and down as though wondering if even the poor would want such colorful, obviously Southern robes. “You will change behind those screens for modesty,” she said, pointing to a small, closet-­like section of the room, “and the privy and washroom are on the first floor. The housemother will be along after she has spoken to the Crone about your lessons. Normally, the housemother would have welcomed you, but the Crone deals with all problems of Ivanha.” Angelase’s tone let Sulis know that there was no doubt in her mind that she was a problem.
    Sulis kept her mouth shut with great difficulty. She wanted to tell Angelase just what a problem she could be if the girl didn’t lose her smug attitude. Sulis had been in enough tussles to know that what she lacked in size and strength, she more than made up for in speed and ruthlessness. It would be easy to smear the girl’s face into the rough rugs that lined the floor, but Sulis was trying to get along. Breaking the girl’s nose would certainly not fall into that category.
    â€œThank you,” she said meekly.
    Djinn brushed past the girl to leap onto the cot beside Sulis. Angelase drew back as though she’d been stung.
    Sulis looked from the girl to the feli sprawled on the bed. “Aren’t they allowed on the furniture?” she asked.
    Angelase took a step back. “The feli can go wherever they wish,” she said. “There are none that would command a sacred animal.” She sounded as though she wished someone would try.
    Sulis remembered Counselor Elida’s cryptic remark that she didn’t have to worry about Sulis’s being terrified of her feli , and wondered if fear was a common response to the big cats. She could understand fear from the towns­people, who were unfamiliar with the feli , but not the acolytes, who worked around them every day.
    â€œExcellent!” Sulis said, dropping her load of robes and linens and sitting beside the feline. “I’m sure he’ll be a warmer blanket than the sheets you gave me. I thought the Temple could afford better.”
    â€œI’m certain the housemother will be with you soon,” Angelase said stiffly, and left Sulis alone in the room.
    Sulis sighed. “I don’t think we made a good impression, do you?” she asked Djinn. He bumped his head under her chin and purred softly.
    â€œAt least one of us is happy,” she told him. She nudged him aside and stood. She might as well change into the robes that marked her new status. Maybe that would start her off well with the housemother. She needed at least a ­couple of ­people on her side if she was going to survive her internment in the Temple.
    T H E C R O N E S T E E P LED her fingers in front of her, wondering