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."What good is a shirt without sleeves?""It might be nice in summer.""It will look silly.""Probably." She smiled.I picked up the pieces of the shirt and laid them out differently.Once again they failed to fit.I was about to try something else when Sparrow appeared in the doorway.When she saw what I was doing, she made an impatient noise and sat down next to me.She picked up the shirt pieces and tucked them around each other so cleverly that everything fit perfectly."How did you do that?" I asked her."I learned in Arnet's house.""Thank you."She had started to get up, but she stopped and knelt in front of me."Thank you too," she said."For speaking for me.""I hope it's for the best." I had my doubts about Vintel.Sparrow grinned at me."Don't worry.I can take care of myself."I nodded, but I couldn't manage a smile."Listen," she said."If Vintel accepts me, my place here will be secure.If she doesn't, and if no one else will take me, I'll have to go back home.I will still be a free woman, but I'll never be more than a servant in Arnet's house.I have every reason to try to please Vintel."I understood, but I couldn't help saying, "You deserve better."Sparrow smiled."I've had better, but now Vintel will do."By the time I finished cutting out the pieces of the shirt, the light had begun to fade.I was just putting everything away when Namet appeared in the doorway."Come with me," she said.Namet took us outside, to the kitchen yard behind the house.It was full of the debris of housekeeping -- piles of wood and peat to fuel the fires, storage sheds, a place to butcher animals.Two sheds stood close together, with only a narrow alleyway between them that appeared to dead-end against a fence of palings.When Namet slipped between the sheds, I noticed a wellworn path between them.Maara and I followed her.When we reached the fence, we squeezed through a narrow opening behind one of the sheds and emerged into an empty space enclosed by palings.The area within the fence was the size of a circle made by a dozen people joining hands.I never knew that space was there.None of the windows of the house overlooked it, and it was impossible to see into it from ground level.If I had ever noticed the tops of the palings, I had probably mistaken them for part of the palisade.Namet slipped off her shoes.She opened the front of her gown and let it fall to the ground.She wore nothing underneath.Maara followed Namet's example.She pulled her boots off, slipped her shirt off over her head, and dropped it next to her.Then she undid her belt and stepped out of her trousers.She motioned to me to do the same.The hair on my body stood up in the cold air, and the frozen leaves of grass tickled my feet.At the center of the circle was an opening in the earth.The top of a ladder protruded from it.Namet went down the ladder, and Maara and I followed her.We found ourselves in a small, round chamber that appeared to have been hollowed out of the hilltop.Above us a framework of hewn beams, covered with a lattice of poles and woven mats, supported the earthen roof.A score of people could have fit easily inside the chamber.The opening through which we'd entered it was several feet above our heads.Inside the air was warm, and although I was naked, I wasn't cold.At the center of the chamber was a hearth, where a fire was already burning.From the pile of ash around it, I guessed it had been burning for several days.The elders must have conducted their midwinter ritual here.Namet motioned to us to sit down beside the hearth.The floor of the chamber was roughly paved with large, flat stones that held the heat.Their warmth made them comfortable to sit on.Here the sounds of everyday life could not be heard at all.I was so used to the noises of the large household that I never noticed them anymore.Now I noticed their absence.We had dropped out of the living world above into a space between the worlds.I looked up at the small circle of sky.The stars were twinkling out.Soon it would be dark.A stone table stood against the wall of the chamber.Two upright stones, half-buried in the floor, supported the slab that served as its top.Namet went over to it and stood with her back to us.She appeared to be preparing something.When she finished, she didn't turn around.She stood very still.She was so quiet for so long that I was afraid to move.I felt a slight chill in the air and heard a whisper of wind above my head.I caught a whiff of lavender.Namet turned around.She was no longer the plump and smiling red-cheeked, white-haired woman who felt as comfortable to me as an apple dumpling.Her hair was the color of moonlight.It stood up all over her head and shone as bright as if she herself had become the moon.Her face shone with the same silvery light.Her features were Namet's features, but Namet's spirit no longer peered out at me from behind her eyes.Instead another being of great power beheld me.She frightened me.She approached me and handed me a bowl of some strange-smelling liquid, and I drank.Then she took the bowl from me and handed it to Maara, and Maara drank.In a minute or two, whether from the heat of the fire or the effects of the drink, I began to sweat.I looked at Maara.Sweat gleamed on her shoulders and her arms.It beaded on her forehead and trickled down her body.I felt my own sweat running down my sides.The woman who was no longer Namet brought another bowl and took from it a handful of black powder.She opened her hand and blew into it, and a cloud of dust enveloped me.I had to close my eyes.When I opened them again, the dust had settled over my body.My sweat dissolved it, so that it gleamed as red as blood.She turned to Maara and blew a handful of dust over her too, and we both looked as if we had been bathed in blood.The woman who was no longer Namet returned to the table.For several minutes she was busy preparing something.Then she approached me carrying another bowl.She knelt down in front of me, and this time she took a handful of white powder from the bowl.She opened her mouth and tilted her head back as a gesture to me to do the same.When I did, she blew the powder into my nose and mouth.At first I thought it would make me sneeze, but the powder lay on my tongue as light as rain.It had no taste, only a slight aroma that reminded me of damp places.The woman who was no longer Namet returned to the table and brought me back a bowl of tea.She made a sign to Maara not to drink any of it, and Maara nodded.She brought another bowl of tea and handed it to Maara
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