Stained Glass Monsters Read Free Page B

Hostelry had been full to
overflowing the previous day, but it seemed the Sentene had turned
everyone out. Kendall followed the woman through the silent
entry-hall into the taproom to the right, eyes widening in awed
interest. All the tables had been drawn back to the walls and a
woman in a dark travelling dress was kneeling in the middle of a
complex circle of weird writing chalked on the well-swept floor.
Magic. The very idea made Kendall's nose itch.
    "Here's your stray, Captain," said the
Sentene woman, as Kendall belatedly noticed there was a third
person in the room, standing near the far door. A man this time,
lost in the gloom so that only the Phoenix was properly
visible.
    "Put her in the corner for now," the man
said, and Kendall shivered. His voice was strange, whispery and
thinned out. Definitely creepy.
    What did they mean by 'your stray'? What
had she done that Sentene wanted to talk to her about anyway? But
still, this was ten times more interesting than anything she'd read
in the newssheets, so Kendall obediently took herself to a chair in
the corner and joined the other two in watching the woman kneeling
in the circle.
    She looked totally out of place on
Micajah's floor. Her dress wasn't fancy but it was quality, and her
iron-shot black hair was braided up in a way that Kendall couldn't
imagine spending the time over. She wasn't doing anything much,
just kneeling there with her eyes closed and her hands held loosely
at her sides. But the air felt thick, and made Kendall want to
sneeze. It was a disappointment when, after a long while where
exactly nothing happened, the woman just opened her eyes and let
out her breath.
    "Any result, M'Lady?" asked the female
Sentene.
    "There's no sign of an origin point in
the near area." The older woman rose stiffly. "Nor does this show
any sign of waning."
    "Not what you expected?"
    "Far from it. The White Ladies are rare,
but a known phenomenon, occurring only once or twice a century.
They invariably vanish within a day or two of their manifestation.
Nowhere in my records is there an instance of one persisting so
long, or producing an Efera expansion. This is something new. It is
–" She paused. "It may be very serious. I will attempt another
divination shortly."
    Turning, she noticed Kendall. "What is
this?"
    "The missing resident of that shed.
Captain Faille wanted to interview her."
    "Oh?" There was tolerant amusement in
the word. "This is your great disbelief in coincidence at work
again, Faille?"
    "It is too convenient," the male Sentene
said, leaving his corner. "You were in the next town?"
    Kendall was disappointed. This was all
they wanted with her? "It was just a delivery, a note," she
explained. "The Hosteller will vouch for me."
    "I don't doubt that." He was a tall man,
and she saw that his hair was a bleached grey, though his face –
the top half of it at least – didn't look so very old. His eyes
were faded grey too, and uncomfortably direct. "Who sent you?"
    "One of the gawkers come to see the
White Lady. It was just some silly woman sending word to her
boyfriend," Kendall explained. "Father didn't approve, that kind of
thing. Nothing strange."
    "She couldn't use the post?" the female
Sentene asked, taking a sceptical interest.
    "It was urgent." Kendall tried to
picture the woman being involved in some kind of plot. "Supposed to
meet him that night, but her father was dragging her off to Sark
instead. Easiest sennith I've ever made, and she paid for the
night's lodging." Which was...convenient? That woman had saved her
life, whether or not she'd meant to.
    "Did she speak of the White Lady at
all?"
    "No. Asked me what the weather was like,
when the White Lady first arrived, but didn't seem to care much.
Called her 'this apparition', if that helps."
    "The weather?" The older woman leaned
forward, studying Kendall narrowly. "And what was the weather like,
when she arrived? You would have been close."
    "Exactly like it is today," Kendall
said. "Sunny and