Shadow Gate Read Free Page A

brought tears to her eyes. He was still alive.
    â€œJoss, you have the makings of a good reeve—of an excellent reeve, perhaps—but you are
out of control.
” The words were emphasized in a firm voice, entirely calm and utterly sincere. She knew that voice very well. It went on speaking, each word crisp as if with frustration hooded. “Still, with things the way they are, and the problems inHerelia, I can do nothing but send you to Clan Hall to get you out of my jesses. I will let the commander deal with you, thank the gods, so that I do not have to. I have enough to deal with here. If I could keep you belled I would, but I cannot. In the old days, so they say, a rogue and errant reeve was subject to execution for the kind of insubordination we have seen from you, the repeated breaking of the law, going time and again to Guardian altars despite knowing that it is absolutely out of bounds, despite knowing what happened the first time you did it. But we do not have the luxury now of punishing you in that way. The gods know we need you, and especially we need Scar. So I am sending you to Clan Hall and that is final. You leave
today.
”
    The last word rang. Afterward, there came a pause. Marit braced herself for the storm.
    Instead of an answer, one of the doors was slammed open and Joss—as handsome as ever!—charged with all his loose-limbed passionate grace out of the chamber and past Marit without giving her a glance.
    â€œJoss,” she said. “Sweetheart.”
    He was already gone.
    Ladiya turned around as a reeve whose short hair was laced with silver walked onto the porch in Joss’s wake.
    â€œDid you overhear all that?” he asked without a sliver of amusement, but he wasn’t angry either. Masar was the most upright, bland, and humorless person Marit had ever known, and she had known him pretty well, having taken him as a lover for half a year when she was a lot younger. He’d been as humorless in bed as out of it, and he’d accepted her departure from the affair with a straight face and never in the years after showed the slightest sign that he resented her or, for that matter, pined after her. He was absolutely rock solid, a person who would back you up and risk his life to save yours and never ever cross the line past which proper behavior became improper.
    Except that he was holding the marshal’s staff withits jessed and hooded cap, the mark of authority in Copper Hall.
    Ladiya said, “It’s hard to resist a lad with good looks and the charm to back them up, but even I can see how he’s gone wild since her death. Three years now, it’s been. You would think he’d have devoured or drunk it off by now. You’re going easy on him, Marshal.”
    Marshal?
    Masar said, “I keep hoping he will settle down. I do not know what else to do. Nor do I need to. He is Clan Hall’s problem now.”
    â€œMasar,” Marit said. “Ladiya. What happened to Joss? Where is Marshal Alard?” She extended a hand, touched Masar’s elbow. “How long have I been gone—?” Faltering, she gingerly patted Ladiya on the upper arm to get her attention.
    They neither of them looked at her or appeared to hear her voice or feel her hand. She might as well not have been standing there, for all the notice they took.
    At last it all made sense. As the thoughts lined up in their neat ranks, a weight—more of terror than pain—settled in her chest. All that long way she had walked from the Guardian’s altar across the plain, for days and days she had walked and only now did it occur to her that she had not eaten or drunk or even truly slept. No one had spoken to her or acknowledged her.
    No one had seen her.
    And for that matter, her feet weren’t dirty.
    â€œGreat Lady,” she whispered, as Masar beckoned to Ladiya and they walked past her back into the marshal’s cote and slid the door shut in her face.