Book 2 - Warlock Read Free Page A

recognized place in cloister society and was
answerable principally to Moragan for her conduct. Safely knit into
the cultural fabric, Marika felt more comfortable teaching herself
by exploring and observing.
    Marika liked little of what she did learn.
    Within the cloister the least of workers lived well. Outside, in
the city, meth lived in abject want, suffering through brief lives
of hunger, disease, and backbreaking labor. Everyone and everything
in Maksche belonged to the Reugge silth Community, to the
tradermale brotherhood calling itself the Brown Paw Bond, or to the
two in concert. The Brown Paw Bond maintained its holdings by
Reugge license, under complicated and extended lease arrangements.
Residents of Maksche who were neither tradermale nor silth were
bound to their professions or land for life.
    Marika was bewildered. The Reugge possessed meth as though they
were domestic animals? She interrogated Moragan. The teacher just
looked at her strangely, evidently unable to comprehend the point
of her questions.
    “Grauel,” Marika said one evening, “have you
figured this place out? Do you understand it at all? That old
carque Moragan cannot or will not explain anything so it makes any
sense.”
    “Take care with her, Marika. She is more than she
seems.”
    “She is as All-touched as my granddam was.”
    “She may be senile and mad, but she is not harmless.
Perhaps the more dangerous for it. It is whispered that she was not
set to teach you but to study you. It is also whispered that she
was once very important in the order, and that she still has the
favor of some who are very high up. Fear her, Marika.”
    “I should fear someone I could break?”
    “As strength goes? This is not the upper Ponath, Marika.
It is not the strength of the arm that counts. It is the strength
of the alliances one forms.”
    Marika made a sound of derision. Grauel ignored her.
    “Marika, suppose that some of them hope you try your
strength. Suppose some of them want to prove something to
themselves.”
    “What?”
    “Our ears are sharp from many years of hunting the forests
of the upper Ponath. When we go among the huntresses of this
place—and sorrier huntresses you will never see—we
sometimes overhear whispers never meant for our ears. They talk
about us and they talk about you and they talk about the thinking
of those around Senior Zertan. In a way, you are on trial. They
suspect—maybe even know—about Gorry.”
    “Gorry? What about Gorry?”
    “Something happened to Gorry in the final hours of the
siege. There was much speculation, overheard by everyone.
We
said nothing to anyone about that, but we are not the
only survivors brought out of the ruins of Akard.”
    Marika’s heart fluttered as she thought of her one-time
instructress. But she felt no remorse. Gorry had deserved the
torment she had suffered, and more. All Marika felt was a
heightened apprehension about being ignored. It had not occurred to
her that it was that sort of deliberateness. She would have to be
careful. She was in no position of strength.
    Grauel watched expectantly while Marika wrapped her mind around
the implications.
    “Why are you looking at me that way?”
    “I thought you might have some regrets.”
    “Why?”
    “She was—”
    “She was a carque of an old nuisance, Grauel. She would
have done it to me if she could have. She tried often enough. She
got what she asked for. I do not want to hear her mentioned
again.”
    “As you wish, mistress.”
    “Have you found Braydic yet?”
    “She was assigned to the communications center here, as
you might expect. Students are not permitted entry there. And
technicians are not allowed out.”
    “Why not?”
    “I do not know. This is a different world. We are still
feeling our way. They never tell you what is permitted, only what
is not.”
    Marika realized that Grauel was upset with her. When Grauel was
distressed, she insisted on using the formal mode of speech. But
Marika had given up