The Gilded Ones

The female alaki separate from their male uruni and head for training grounds at the edges of Hemaira. There’s a rumor that their trainers are okai—the emperor’s personal spies or Shadows—and women. They board a wagon with three other girls: the one who spoke out earlier, Belcalis of Hualpa, and two sisters, Asha and Adwapa from Nibari. Belcalis is still argumentative, Britta babbles away, and the Southern sisters seem more mature than the rest (because they are, the reader later learns, much older).

Warthu Bera is an isolated training ground in the hills with armored guards, unmasked middle-aged women in orange robes with red sun tattoos on their hands that identify them as temple maidens. Deka smells blood as they are taken to the baths and made to strip. Deka, who has only seen her mom naked, is surprised by the variety of female bodies. Belcalis resists when told to strip and is hit with a rungu (barbed club used by matron Nasra). Deka sees Belcalis’s scars and tries to stop the matron, an assistant intervenes, and Belcalis tells Deka to not help her again. After the showers, they shave the girls’ heads.