“Thank you, Lady Shadi.” The beautiful asha still made me nervous, even after all these months. We never had the opportunity to talk to each other before, and it felt strange to realize there were two kinds of worlds in the asha-ka. In one of those worlds, asha ruled with their odd secrets and curious customs. The other was the more mundane, everyday world occupied by everyone else, where maids cleaned and cooked and scrubbed and ran errands but still thought and functioned in the same way most people in the city did. And I was leaving this second world that I was more comfortable with in order to join the first, which I still knew very little about.
“A word of warning about Mother: she can be a miser when it comes to money, and she has a lot of bad habits, as I’m sure you know. But she will always work for the best of the Valerian, which means she will work to make you popular. And after what happened at the Falling Leaf, we all have very high hopes for you. Don’t let her intimidate you, and be confident. We will be visiting many people today for your first lessons. Bow when we do—as low as you can, for you are the junior of everyone we will meet—and stay quiet unless you are spoken to. Do you understand?”
I nodded. Mistress Parmina bustled in, looking hideously regal in red and gold. “What are you two dawdling for? Come! We are wasting time, and Lady Yasmin is expecting us.”
Fox, as usual, brought up the rear, and once again, Mistress Parmina neither forbade nor acknowledged his presence. Unless they had a pressing engagement, few asha were out at this time of day, so we only encountered servants rushing out on errands and other apprentices hurrying for their lessons. Just as before, many stopped to pay their respects first to Mistress Parmina and then to Lady Shadi and then rushed ahead.
It took us several minutes of walking to reach the studio of my first instructor, a smaller bungalow carefully hidden behind a large tower of trees growing at the entrance of the lane. With Fox resuming guard outside, we were ushered into a small, cozy-looking room. I was surprised by the age of the instructor who rose to her feet to greet us; Lady Yasmin was as tall, as slim, and as pretty as my sister Daisy, but the similarities ended there. Instructor Yasmin’s green eyes were fringed by long, dark lashes, with freckles scattered across the bridge of her nose. She was dressed in long, flowing robes dyed a soft lavender, and her reddish-gold hair was tied back in a loose ponytail that reached her thighs.
This was the first time I had ever seen Mistress Parmina bow to anyone. “Lady Yasmin,” the old asha said formally. “I am pleased to introduce a new jewel from House Valerian. Please instruct her to the best of her abilities, and we ask that you take extraordinary care of her, that she may flourish under your tutelage.”
Lady Yasmin returned her bow. “I am honored, Mistress Parmina. Shall we retire to the inner chamber, Miss Tea?”
I was glad that Mistress Parmina wouldn’t be on hand to witness my first lesson. The last thing I wanted was her scrutinizing every mistake I made.
“Let us begin, Tea.” Mistress Yasmin raised her hand above her head and extended her right leg out so that only the tips of her toes touched the floor. “Do as I do. Good. Keeping your leg straight and without lifting it off the ground, move it in a half circle away from you, and end by touching it to your left heel. Extend your left leg this time, and do the same, brushing your toe against your right heel. Now for your arms. Raise both over your head and keep them steady. Every time you move your leg, bring the arm on the same side down and extend it as far away as you can until it runs a straight line from your shoulder. Now left heel and left arm. Right heel and right arm. Repeat.”
And just like that, my dancing lessons began.
“She has potential,” Lady Yasmin said an hour later, after we returned from the inner chamber. Lady Shadi and Mistress Parmina had been waiting for us the whole time I had my first lesson, enjoying tea and scones served to them by Lady Yasmin’s assistants. “She takes to instructions well and has an ear for music. With time, she can be more than adequate.”
This seemed to be what Mistress Parmina wanted to hear. She rose, and we bowed again. “We are delighted,” the old asha said, “that you have accepted her as your student.”
The next studio we visited was similar in size, with different musical instruments framed against the walls, some weathered with age. My instructor was a dark-skinned woman named Teti, but Mistress Parmina gave the same speech, I bowed just as I was told to, and Lady Teti brought me to another inner chamber as Lady Yasmin had. Once we were settled in, she handed me a wooden setar, and my face burned. It was a reminder of the trouble Zoya had put me in.
“First, I will teach you how to position your fingers over the struts and the different techniques you can use to strum at the strings. Hold the neck of the setar loosely in the palm of your right hand, letting your fingers hover above the strings. Settle the base of the setar on your lap, with your other hand cradling its underside, like this. That is good. But why is your hand trembling? Don’t be nervous, Tea.”
I couldn’t help it. I tried to stop my tremors, but although I managed to place my fingers the way she had instructed, the setar in my hands quivered.
We practiced for close to an hour, and she gave me more instruments to practice on: a pair of drums with treated sheepskin stretched over their surfaces; a thin, reedlike cylinder with seven holes carved into its body and a mouthpiece on one end; and an unusually shaped bow made of wood that produced a range of powerful sounds when scratched. I found my rhythm easily on the first, could produce no sound at all on the second, and could only manage scraping noises on the third. Finally, I managed one long note on the setar, the closest thing that sounded like music that I could manage. “It will get easier with a little more time and practice, of course.” Lady Teti promised me. “But you already learn quickly. That is good.”
She said as much to Mistress Parmina when we returned. “She is doing well on the setar. I believe she will have a similar aptitude for the sahrud, though I do not think she will fare well with the mey. I will help her find her footing and see which shall appeal to her most.”
Mistress Parmina looked pleased again.
We visited four more small studios that day: one for singing; one for general instruction, mostly about history and politics; one for meditation; and one for flower arrangement and etiquette. The fifth place I was brought to was bigger than the others; it consisted only of a large hall as big as three or four cha-khana put together and loosely sectioned off by thin dividers to shield some areas from view. Yells and shouts of pain came through some of these partitions, alongside heavy thumps, as if something had hit a hard object at great speed. Asha and asha apprentices milled about, but they were all dressed in long, plain white robes and breeches.