Shadow and Bone

Fabrikators’ workshops. Then we turned a corner and the
windows stopped. Genya quickened her pace.
“Why aren’t there any windows?” I asked.
Genya glanced nervously at the solid walls. They were the
only parts of the Little Palace I’d seen that weren’t covered in
carvings. “We’re on the other side of the Corporalki anatomy
rooms.”
“Don’t they need light to … do their work?”
“Skylights,” she said. “In the roof, like the library dome.
They prefer it that way. It keeps them and their secrets safe.”
“But what do they do in there?” I asked, not entirely sure I
wanted to hear the answer.
“Only the Corporalki know. But there are rumors that
they’ve been working with the Fabrikators on new …
experiments.”
I shivered and was relieved when we turned another corner
and the windows began again. Through them I saw bedrooms
like my own, and I realized I was seeing the downstairs
dormitories. I was grateful that I’d been given a room on the
third floor. I could have done without all those stairs to climb,
but now that I had my own room for the first time, I was glad
that people couldn’t just walk by my window.
Genya pointed to the lake I’d seen from my room. “That’s
where we’re going,” she said, pointing to the little white
structures dotting the shore. “To the Summoners’ pavilions.”
“All the way out there?”
“It’s the safest place for you sort to practice. All we need is
some overexcited Inferni to burn the whole palace down
around us.”
“Ah,” I said. “I hadn’t thought about that.”
“That’s nothing. The Fabrikators have another place all the
way outside the city where they work on blast powders. I can
arrange for you to have a tour there, too,” she said with a
wicked grin.