The Black Swan Read Free

another traitor to bring to just punishment. But why was he hunting again, so soon? How could he be bored with a new captive when as yet he’d paid scarcely any attention to her?
    She gave voice to none of her questions; women should remain silent until spoken to, even the daughter of a sorcerer who was a magician in her own right. She was as impeccably trained in proper manners as in all else.
    â€œYou have been practicing.” It was a statement, not a question. His eyes narrowed, although there was not as yet any accusation in his tone. “And what of the new one?”
    Not quite a rebuke, but a reminder that one waited in the wings, if she had neglected her duty out of boredom. “She sleeps, sir,” she reported confidently. “And I gave the Silent Ones orders to warn me if she showed any signs of waking. Had they done so, I would have abandoned whatever I was doing to follow your orders that she not be left alone while aware.”
    â€œGood.” No more than that, but the threat of rebuke passed, and she felt it. “Her progress?”
    â€œShe has accepted her fate, if not her fault,” Odile told him. “She shows resignation, but no sign of repentance. I believe that she will join the flock in the morning, and acknowledge the fact that there will be no rescue from the punishment her own folly has brought to her.”
    â€œAs I would expect from a woman.” The scorn in his voice was as habitual as the pleasant expression of his face. “And what is your progress, since I find you at your proper studies?”
    Rather than answering him directly, she turned, and carefully lifted the little silver cage from her workbench, handing it to him. He held it up, peering at its occupant from beneath a pair of heavy, fox-colored eyebrows.
    â€œA sparrow?” he said, for the moment looking puzzled, since he had no idea what she had been attempting to master. “I see nothing remarkable about it.”
    â€œHold it in that beam of moonlight coming through the window behind you, Father,” she urged, her excitement building despite her effort to control it. She knew what the result would be, having made the trial herself already. When he saw for himself what she had mastered, surely a word of praise would come from his lips, surely for once his eyes would warm with approval!
    He held the ring at the top of the cage between his thumb and forefinger, and moved the cage until it was squarely in the path of the moonbeam. The tiny bird inside fluttered its wings in helpless alarm, but the moonlight fell squarely on it, and it could not evade what was coming.
    The moment the light touched it, the bird froze in place. It shivered violently, then the shivering increased, until for a moment it was a vibrating blur in the thin, blue light. It uttered a terrified chirp, and dropped to the floor of the cage, still vibrating in every feather.
    Then it wasn’t a bird at all, but the mouse that the Silent One had brought her earlier that evening, a mouse that picked itself up from the bottom of the cage and squeaked with profound unhappiness.
    Odile looked up at her father, glowing with pride and expectation. She had mastered the transformation spell that enabled her father to control his captives, keeping them in the form of swans by day, and maidens only as long as the moon was in the sky. Granted, it was only a mouse—but it was a small step to go from mouse to maid, smaller by far than to master it in the first place.
    So she waited, holding her breath, hoping for a word, a sign, the least hint of praise.
    But von Rothbart stared woodenly at the tiny mouse, saying nothing at all—then turned his hard gaze back to his daughter. “Can you remove the magic?” he asked, as she had known he would.
    â€œYes, Father,” she affirmed, but her heart was beginning to sink although she gave no sign of her disappointment. He isn’t impressed. I had been so certain he