A Secret Atlas Read Online Free Page A

be with us, and you can learn much from him. Think of the new plants you will see, the new places! We will walk where men have not been before.
    We will taste exotic fruits. We will see animals and vistas no man has ever laid eyes on.
    You will be a great help for me and to me. We will even have a cabin to ourselves. I won’t command the ship; Anaeda Gryst will do that, but she is a brilliant captain who has sailed
    to Aefret and back again faster than anyone else. She’s willing to take you with us . . .
    What’s wrong?”
    His voice petered out as she withdrew her hands from his.
    “ With you?” She looked at him with shock and pain in her eyes. “Do you love me so little as to even suggest that?”
    Keles blinked in amazement. “W-what do you mean? I love you so much I want you with
    me.”
    “But you don’t think of me at all, do you? You think only of yourself.” She opened her arms
    wide. “You would take me from family and friends?”
    “I will be your family.”
    “And if you die on the trip?” She turned away from him. “You describe all the wonders, but
    you forget the horrors. The diseases. The lack of water. Stale food. Storms. Storms
    sufficient to snap a ship in half. You’ll sail south, maybe to find these fabled Mountains of
    Ice, but what if you do? You’ll spend months with your teeth chattering, losing fingers and
    toes to frostbite. Do you want me to lose fingers and toes, Keles?”
    “No, you don’t understand . . .”
    “And freezing is the least of our worries. Don’t you see that? Don’t you know why I want
    you here, in Moriande, learning from your grandfather?” Her voice became glacial. “Have
    you forgotten what happened to your father? What Qiro did to your father?”
    “M-Majiata, you know better than to believe old wives’ tales.”
    “And you denigrate the truth by labeling it fable.” Her eyes slitted. “You were all of seven
    when it happened and I was barely beyond suckling at my nurse’s breast. Your
    grandfather sent your father off on such a journey. Qiro was jealous of him and your father
    defiant, so your grandfather had him killed. Your father, the Wavewolf, everyone on
    it, dead !”
    “No, that is not true. Not true at all.” Keles scrubbed a hand over his face, then looked
    imploringly at her. “Don’t you see, Majiata? I have to go on the Stormwolf . It is my duty to my family, to ensure the future. Our future. Can’t you understand that?”
    “I understand completely, Keles. I understand how selfish your love is—that you put the
    Anturasi before your love of me. I want you here not only so he cannot kill you, but so I
    can help you.”
    She clasped her hands together, looked down, and spoke calmly in a small voice, a
    helpless voice. “You know that growing flowers is not my true talent. That lies at court,
    using my influence with my family to help shape the court’s thinking. I can do that for you. I
    want to be a help to you, but if you are going to abandon me, I am powerless to promote
    you. And perhaps you think ill of me, but I do think of the Anturasi fortunes. There are
    ships that go out without Anturasi charts. But with my help, laws can be passed so that will
    never happen again. Don’t you want that?”
    “Of course I do, Mai.”
    “But I think you want adventure more. You want to be sent away from here. Away from
    me. Why is it you want to be sent away from me, Keles?”
    The sob that choked her last word raised a lump in his throat that prevented him from
    speaking. He lifted his hands and settled them on her shoulders, but she shrugged her
    way free, dipping her head as she began to weep. Keles froze, uncertain what to do. His
    guts knotted and his empty hands flexed.
    With all the time in the world I could not think of the right thing to say.
    “The answer to your question, Mai Phoesel, should be obvious.”
    Keles turned as his twin sister entered the garden. As tall as he was, with lighter brown
    hair and green eyes, she