Then something bumps against my ankles, and when I look down, Nimh’s cat is staring at me meaningfully.
“Where did you come from, Captain Fluffypants?” I ask, dropping to a crouch and offering him my finger to sniff. He reaches up to hook it with a paw, pulling it in closer. Then he very gently bites me—not hard enough to break the skin—and turns away, stalking off a few steps. He looks over his shoulder to see if I’m following.
I only met my first cat yesterday, but I’m already clear that it’s better for everyone if I do what he wants. So I follow him around the edge of the room. Bordered by columns, the huge, circular chamber has six grand entrances, but we take none of them. Instead, he butts his head meaningfully against a service door, and when I open it for him, we both slip through.
The hallway waiting for us is empty of decoration and of people, but there’s a lantern hanging on a nail, and I bring it with me to light our way. After a couple of minutes and a flight of stairs that takes me up a floor, the cat pauses at a section of the wooden paneling that looks no different to me from any other and makes a loud, talky sort of noise.
“Here?” I say, holding up my lantern to study it. I knock on the wooden panel.
Nimh’s voice rings out from the other side, startling me. “Come in.”
Only when the cat butts his head up against the wooden paneling do I see it give a fraction. When I push on it, a door swings open soundlessly to admit us. The room inside is carved from rock, and strings of glowing lights illuminate plants that tumble down from high-up ledges. An intricately carved wooden screen lets through pinpricks of light, and the soft murmur of voices and music—it must look out on the hall I just left.
In the center of the room is a large pool, the dark water gently rippling. Nimh’s standing in it waist-deep, her eyes rimmed with black, her lips dusted gold, and …
… and she’s not wearing a single thing.
“North! I thought you were a handservant.” Her words are like a dim buzzing, and I barely hear them. It’s only when she recovers from her own surprise and tilts her head inquiringly that I realize I’m staring, and spin around to face the way I came, cheeks burning.
A distant splashing gets past the buzzing in my ears, and then the slight sound of bare feet on stone. It’s a moment before I register her voice again, and I realize she’s been saying my name.
“North? There is no need to be ashamed. I am my people’s goddess. No corner of my life is private. None of it has ever been.”
I risk a look over my shoulder. The pool is empty now except for the ripples she left behind, illuminated by the light coming through a series of screens set up just beyond it. Behind the screens …
I swallow. Her silhouette is unmistakable, every detail cast against the sheer fabric. An intricately carved chest sits at one end of the screen, draped with a thick, folded stack of fabric. Her staff leans against the wall beside it.
As she dries herself, the sheer fabric shows me her silhouette. I can almost imagine the warmth of her skin, steam from the bath rising off it.
“I-I-I’m sorry to interrupt,” I manage, my throat dry. “I didn’t realize this was a private room.”
“This is my ritual bathing chamber,” Nimh replies, seeming far less flustered than I am. “After the public portion of the feast’s rituals, I come here to cleanse and be cleansed by the temple waters.”
The rustle of fabric behind the screen is dizzying. My body feels almost as if it belongs to someone else, and I have to fight the urge to stare. She was graceful and lithe from the moment I met her, but somehow, here, away from prying eyes, she’s even more so.
For skyfall’s sake, North, get your shit together!
“And you did not interrupt,” Nimh goes on, making me realize that I’d been standing there in utter silence. “I was planning on sending for you when I was finished. How did you find me here?”
“The cat,” I rasp. That, at least, I can respond to safely. I look around for the beast, though now he’s made his mischief, there’s no sign of His Furriness anywhere. Figures.
Nimh laughs, the sound quiet against the revelry beyond the carved wall overlooking the party. “I should have known he would anticipate me. My robe is there, by the steps into the pool—would you mind handing it to me?”
The pool of crimson fabric is obvious when I turn. She must not have been in the water long, because when I pick up her robe, it’s still warm from her body. The cloth is fine and sheer, so delicate it’s hard to believe it wasn’t spun by machine. I can’t help but notice the way it slides across my palms, smoother than any soy-silk I’ve ever felt.
A tingle across the back of my neck makes me look up—and I meet Nimh’s eyes where she’s peeking around the edge of the screen.
“Sorry. Here.” I drape the swath of red cloth across her outstretched arm, careful not to touch her.
Her eyes linger on me a moment, lips parting as though she’s about to speak—but just as the silence threatens to draw out too long, she vanishes back behind the screen again. I start talking to distract myself from the silken whisper of fabric on skin.
“The ritual was beautiful,” I say, turning my back against the silhouette moving on the other side of the screen.
A thought, unbidden—You were beautiful.
“I’m glad I got to see it.”
“It is as ancient as the temple itself,” Nimh replies, voice briefly muffled as she pulls her robe back on. “I love the Feast of the Dying—I love all the rituals I perform. It is a heavy burden, to be the living divine, but performing the rituals … I feel connected to those who came before me. I am only the latest in a long line to bless these waters.”
The silhouette straightens and begins to move, giving me just enough warning to jerk my eyes away before Nimh emerges, clothed again. She crosses behind me to the more ornate door opposite the one I arrived by and calls for a servant. I instinctively step back out of sight as she murmurs a few words to the girl. Then the door closes, and we’re alone again.
Nimh turns back toward me with another of those little smiles, a curious, lopsided thing—different from the way she smiles upon her people. Though her eyelashes are still darkened with kohl and her lips are still dusted with gold, she hasn’t put the jewelry back on yet, and her hair falls loose around her shoulders.
“I asked for some food to be brought—I imagine you must be hungry.” Her eyebrows lift a little, turning the observation into a question.
“Did you read my mind?” I ask, looking away from a statue to study her now that she’s safely clothed. I’m only mostly joking. I’m less and less sure about what Nimh actually believes she can do.
“I am tempted to say yes, to see your face.” She flashes me another wry smile, then gestures at an intricately carved wooden screen along the far wall. “I can see the celebration taking place from here. I saw you weren’t eating and thought perhaps you could not tell which dishes contained meat.”
“You’re right. I couldn’t figure out what was what,” I admitted. “How is it that you notice everything?”
“Magic.” Her smile widens, true amusement peeking through.
I like being able to make this serious girl smile.