“Come in.”
AJ balanced the tray on one hip and opened the heavy wooden door. Sophia had one of the nicest rooms she’d seen so far. A wide window looked out over the walled garden at the rear of the Lyceum. Stone pathways wound through the lush greenery, and a fountain in the center bubbled and sparkled in the morning sun. Rows of vegetables flourished in raised beds, interspersed with a wide array of flowering plants. Fruit trees and grapevines lined the walkways.
Inside, the room was as colorful as the view out the window. Sophia surrounded herself with chairs and benches piled with soft cushions in vivid colors. Copper and brass vases here and there held fragrant bouquets made from the most perfect blossoms culled from her garden.
Sophia sat in front of the window at a round table draped with a cloth in one of the intricate patterns displayed in the market. AJ had seen her at mealtimes, but since she was required to keep her eyes downcast, this was her first opportunity to really look at the woman. Though no one knew her age, according to the other women she was the oldest of the Sacred Sisters.
One surreptitious glance told AJ Sophia had once been a great beauty. Lush curves, delicate features. A thick mane of dark hair streaked with silver flowed down her back, unrestrained. Now that she no longer bore the burden of pleasing the men of Petra, she’d allowed herself to indulge other appetites. Her face was pleasantly rounded, her lush curves generously padded. But her blue eyes were sharp as the jagged crystal peaks looming in the distance outside her window.
“You are the one they dragged from the market.”
AJ kept her head down. “Yes, Sister.”
“You dressed as a man and walked among them.”
She nodded but didn’t speak, setting the tray down on a small table near the bed.
“Come here.”
As she had been told to do, AJ knelt in front of the woman, eyes downcast. Sophia took AJ’s face in her hands, stared into her eyes. Something she saw there must have intrigued her.
“What was it like?” she whispered. “Strolling among them. Was it…exciting?”
AJ heard the yearning in her voice and seized the opportunity. “It was wonderful. Throngs of people packed the market, dressed in unusual garb from all over Neodyma. The tables were piled high with exotic spices, teapots and vases of silver and hammered brass, woven rugs in every color and design.”
Sophia’s eyes lit up. “It has been years since I walked freely outside these walls.”
“If we had the time, Sister, I could tell you all about it. And about my journey across Neodyma by caravan as well. Perhaps if …” Her voice died off.
Sophia pounced, as AJ knew she would. “Yes, child?”
“If I were assigned to the gardens, I could tell you stories of my travels while we work.”
AJ was taking a risk. Years in the Lyceum surrounded by females had surely taught Sophia to recognize manipulation when she heard it. But starved as the woman was for entertainment, the suggestion might suit her purposes.
“Dressed as a man, eh?” She gave AJ a once-over. “The djellaba, a hood, your hair tied back… yes, it could work.” Sophia fell silent, gazing out the window at the distant mountain range. “Willful, headstrong – you remind me of a young woman I once knew.”
Her shrewd eyes held a trace of softness when she turned back.
“I’ll tell the other Sisters I found out you have a knack for growing succulent melons,” she declared. “They all have a fondness for that fruit, and I haven’t mastered the skill to their satisfaction.
“I’ve heard you are struggling with your music lessons,” she went on. “Unfortunately, I must insist that you miss the first half of those lessons every day if you’re to be of any help to me.”
“I will work doubly hard the rest of the time to please Sister Hester,” AJ replied primly.
“I’m sure you will,” Sophia replied. The hint of a smile played at the corners of her mouth. “Join me in the garden today right after lunch.”
“As you wish, Sister.”
Over the next few weeks those hours in the garden provided the only bright spot in AJ’s days. Sophia was good-natured but demanding. AJ left the garden every afternoon with her back aching and her hands stained with dirt. But she reveled in the fresh air, the sounds and smells of life outside the walls of the Lyceum.
Living on Neodyma had awakened all her senses. She was acutely aware of the pungent odor of damp earth, the color and texture of tiny leaves as they unfurled.
And the tastes. AJ realized she’d never really tasted food before. The chemically grown fruits and vegetables on Earth bore no resemblance to those she picked on Neodyma. Sun-ripened berries plucked from the vine exploded in her mouth when she bit into them. Lemons fresh from the tree bore juice that puckered her lips. Even the colors were more vivid.
Sophia taught her which plants to nurture and which to pluck as weeds. But even the weeds were a marvel to AJ. Some had prickly stems that left a painful rash where they touched the skin. One bore fat butter-yellow flowerheads that matured into filmy wisps of white, each with a tiny seed attached. Sophia showed her how to blow on them, sending the seeds on the wings of the wind to soar far beyond the garden walls.
Every day, as they worked together, AJ told Sophia long, rambling stories, embellishing yarns collected on her trip. Her heightened senses brought life to her tales – the crackling of the nightly campfire, the shock of cold water on her skin when she bathed in a mountain stream after a week on the back of a smelly camel.