Bhotta's Tears: Book Two of the Black Bead Chronicles Read Online Free Page A

being shoved out the kitchen door, through the vestibule, and out onto the landing. She turned to yell at Brigit but the door had already slammed closed.
    Elders. A kid never got a straight answer and then they yelled at you for trying to find things out on your own. Cheobawn snorted in disgust and left, taking the stairs down to the dome floor two at a time. If Brigit did not want to talk to her, she knew someone who would.
    Cheobawn went hunting for her Pack. They were not hard to find. Tam had gotten permission to use the main practice room before classes. Most mornings she could count on them being there, working up a sweat, practicing the newest forms, and working through the movements of the old forms to keep them fresh. She poked her head in the main door but the sparring floor was empty. She went around the side and opened the door into the locker rooms. A cloud of steam and the chatter of happy children greeted her. She grinned and dived into the haze.
    “Ch’che!” crowed Megan, spotting her from under the spray of the shower head. “You should have seen it. I put Tam down hard.”
    “Yeah,” Alain added, laughing as he dried himself off, “laid him flat. You should have seen his face.”
    “She surprised him,” Connor growled from under a large fluffy towel, trying valiantly to defend his truebrother’s bruised honor.
    “Can’t blame me. Girls have a lower center of gravity. Hard to get under all that weight and tip them over,” Tam said, grinning at Megan as he ran his fingers through his dark, soapy hair.  
    Megan squealed and threw a sodden wash cloth at his head. Tam dodged it. Unfortunately that put his head under the stinging spray of his own shower head. Megan used the opportunity to launch herself at him and get him in a head lock.
    “Did you just call me fat?” she growled, a look of mock outrage on her face. Tam pretended to struggle.
    Cheobawn laughed. Tam was right. Megan wasn’t fat exactly. It was just that, being almost eleven, whatever baby fat she might have had was rearranging itself. In the past year Megan’s long thin body had grown more sleek, yet somehow more curvy. Cheobawn was fascinated by the change and so, it seemed, were the boys. She had caught Tam and Alain staring at the golden haired girl as she walked away on more than a few occasions. Add all that to the fact that she hadn’t been cursed with an affliction of freckles or hair that turned colorless under the onslaught of the sun, like Cheobawn’s, and the result was beautiful to look at. Only Connor was unfazed by Megan’s change. Maybe eleven-year-old boys knew something ten-year-old boys did not. She would have to ask Da about that.
    Seeing Alain reminded her that they needed to talk. She crossed to the bench in front of his locker and sat down.
    “My night table said oops this morning,” she said softly. Alain paused as he pulled on his underwear. A calculating gleam filled his eyes.
    “Did you get a security notice?”
    “No. I was using Brigit’s passcode but I didn’t wait around long enough to see if the table got pinged.”
    “What were you doing? You didn’t try to hack Phillius’s duty roster again, did you? He’s starting to get suspicious.”
    “Nah,” Cheobawn said, “I was in the general data base. Did you know the Coven has entire chunks of information locked down behind another set of passcodes?”
    “Huh? Like what? Personal files and medical records? Sure. The general population doesn’t get privilege to a lot of stuff,” Alain said, sliding into his shorts.
    “The data link thought I was Brigit, remember? She sits on the High Council. Why would Brigit need extra privileges just to see stuff? What does gender inappropriate mean?”  
    Alain grunted. A funny looked crossed his face. He looked over at Tam and caught his leader’s eye. The Alpha, experienced with answering her more uncomfortable questions, knew that look. He untangled himself from Megan and snagged a towel off a