The Will of the Empress Read Free

dedicates, the old smith whose home she had bought, her new servants—she had pretended that setting up her own household was just what she had in mind.
    She was tired of pretending. “Tell you that I was being cast out of Winding Circle because I no longer fit?” she asked quietly. “Tell you so you might offer me charity, or so His Grace might offer me charity? How long until that charity ran out, and I was left on my own again, Sandry? First I lose my family, then the Traders, then Winding Circle. I need my own place. A home no one can take from me.”
    Sandry’s lips trembled. “So you cast me out. You said I was your saati. ” A saati was a true friend of the heart, someone who was trusted without reserve. “I thought the friendship of saatis lasted forever.”
    “But first I need to heal. I can’t have you picking and prying and worrying inside my mind,” Daja said, her face and voice still under control. “I need to tend to myself.” Hervoice rose slightly. “You didn’t even warn me. You’ve been to Discipline. Did anyone ever say, well, you’re sixteen, you can’t move back here even if you wish?”
    Sandry’s chin trembled. “I thought you’d want to live with Uncle and me. I thought we’d all be happy to live at Duke’s Citadel.”
    “He’s not getting any younger,” Daja said cruelly. “One day he’ll die and then his heir will kick us out. No, thanks. Now I have it. As long as I have it, Briar and Tris and even you will have a home nobody can make us leave.”
    Sandry sniffed, then defiantly blew her nose on a handkerchief. “Couldn’t you throw us out?” she demanded angrily.
    “No more than I could break that precious thread circle you made when you spun the four of us into one,” Daja said. “You know, sometimes I wish that earthquake had never happened. That you’d never had to spin us together to make us stronger. Maybe I wouldn’t hurt so much now if I hadn’t expected you to know me as well as I know me. If I hadn’t expected you to know how awful it would feel to lose Discipline cottage!”
    “So you punish me by not letting me into your mind. Fine,” Sandry retorted. “Sulk. Never mind that you three all left me here—”
    “You said we should travel!” Daja reminded her. “You said we ought to go!”
    “You never once stopped to ask if I didn’t just say it because you all wanted to go so badly!” Sandry balled herhands into fists. “Not one of you even suggested it wasn’t fair that you all go. You just said, oh, good, thanks, Sandry old girl, we’ll bring you presents from abroad, and off you went. Well, fine! Welcome home, keep your presents, and if you want to talk, you can do it by letter, or in person. You’re not the only one who can shut people out, you know!” She turned on her heel to make a grand exit, then hesitated, and turned around again. “And Uncle invites you to supper tomorrow night at six.”
    Daja blinked, startled at the abrupt turn in the conversation, then nodded.
    “Fine!” Sandry cried, and walked out.
    Daja rubbed her temples. Welcome home, she thought wearily. Everything’s changed, you just upset your sister- saati , nothing feels right, welcome home.
    The 1st day of Rose Moon, 1042 K. F.
    Number 6 Cheeseman Street
    Summersea, Emelan
    Trisana Chandler’s head still ached as she followed the cart that held her luggage down Cheeseman Street. She had spent a hard few days since her return home. Turning her very young student, Glaki, over to Tris’s foster-mother Lark for a proper rearing at Winding Circle had been hard. Tris would never admit it, but she was deeply touched by Glaki’stears when she learned that Tris could only visit, not live with, her. It had also hurt to leave her dog, Little Bear, with Glaki and Lark. Tris and Little Bear had been Glaki’s family since the child’s mother died—it would have been cruel to take away both, and Tris knew it. At least Glaki had adjusted to the loss of Tris’s