Dead Letter Read Online Free Page A

being little time in the day
for inane conversation. “She is very busy. I study under the same
tuition as all in the Order.”
    “ You get your looks from her too, I bet you are beating away
suitors.”
    No, that
was Mother’s favourite pass-time. Kettna stifled her anger. How
could people be so shallow? “What relevance do looks
have?”
    The
adept eyed the novice with pitying humour and raised silken hands
across her pretty face, triggering finger signs of magical
retraction. Her guild ink was right hand heavy; a powerful channel
with ample mana to burn. With an mostly bare left hand, Kettna
realised why she had not seen the woman at the Library very often.
Her arcane knowledge was deplorable. How she survived the trials to
come out an adept was a miracle.
    As the
sorceress lowered her hands, the glamour of her pretty face
disappeared, revealing gruesome scars across her scalp. Pink,
puckered flesh contorted her features. Like molten wax on the side
of a used up candle, the damage tracked down her neck and judging
by the severity of the injury, it must have continued beneath the
adepts blue robes, branding her shoulder and chest. Kettna recoiled
at the sight and fumbled an apology. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what
to say. I didn’t realise.”
    The
adept waved her hands across her face again, returning the glamour
to shroud her wounds in beauty once more. She took Kettna’s hands
and turned them over, admiring the marks of knowledge, tracing the
tattooed sigils with the bare fingertips of her right hand. “Beauty
has its benefits, Novice. Knowledge, even more so. You have both,
so be glad of it.”
    Kettna
felt ashamed. “I’m just a lame owl.”
    “ And I am just a blind falcon. We are who we are, Novice. The
trials will wait another season. I wouldn’t wish them on
anyone.”
    “ But you succeeded. You wear sky blue, free to pursue your
masterworks. Would you wish that gone?”
    “ Not at all. Though a year or two with my head in the books
rather than my hand in the weave would have served me better. Don’t
lose sight of your purpose in pursuit of rank. Calim’s own words
are carved in the stone of the Tower of Arcana. Knowledge before power. Compassion before
understanding. ”
    Kettna
considered the sorceress; why was she opening up with the readiness
of a prepared lesson? How did she know Kettna was not ready for the
trials? Kettna herself had only just been given the review. The
novice examined the other two adepts, cowls over their faces,
talking quietly to each other. “I apologise for my ungracious
behaviour. I forgot to ask your name, Adept?”
    “ Adept Lanuille, at your service.”
    “ At my service? What ever do you mean by that?”
    “ The elders have assigned me to be your escort.”
    “ Not on my life!”
    “ That is exactly our task, I’m afraid.”
    “ Our task? Who do you mean? Those two?” The two whispering men
bowed an acknowledgement to Kettna.
    This was
unbelievable. There would be no way to conduct her own business in
the city with three adepts on her back about everything she did. “I
can’t believe my Mother! This is her doing, I know it.”
    “ I am sorry the decision angers you,” said Lanuille. “We won’t
impede your position with the city watch.”
    “ How so? Don’t you think three mages traipsing on my tail will
hamper my efforts?”
    “ I cannot say, though I am bound to follow my
assignment.”
    “ What exactly is your assignment?” asked Kettna.
    “ Protection.”
    “ Reconnaissance?” Kettna would get to the bottom of her
mother’s plans.
    “ Not specifically.”
    “ What specifically?”
    “ To protect you from any threat on your life or any threat to
the Order.”
    “ And which of those imperatives takes precedence?”
    “ My instructions are not specific to that detail.”
    “ Can I give you orders?”
    “ You can, but I am not bound to follow them. I remain your
guilded senior and have authority to direct you should the