House of Shadows Read Online Free

her at last. “Keiso need not be extremely beautiful, but then have you a gift for music? For dance? Have you unusual skill for charm and conversation? No?” She paused, considering. “Your eyes are interesting, however. Very like smoked glass. They seem to me to have an uncommon quality. I do not think you will find a place at a keiso House, child, but I believe I have seen eyes such as yours once or twice.” She gave Enelle a thoughtful look, then turned her glance back to Nemienne. “If I may be so bold as to suggest… you might go to the Lane of Shadows and look there for a place.”
    “At mages’ houses?” Enelle said, startled.
    After the first surprise, however, Nemienne found the idea somehow not astonishing.
Mages
, she thought, and then with an odd questioning note to the thought,
Magic?
She had passed by the Lane of Shadows from time to time on errands; it twisted along one side of the city, nearly lost in the shadow of looming Kerre Maraddras. She had imagined she could almost see magic rolling like mist down the steep barren slopes of the mountain and piling up behind the mages’ houses.
    Nemienne asked, “Which mage would you suggest?”
    At the same time, Enelle asked, “Mages look for—” Their words tangled together and they both fell silent.
    “As you ask for my suggestion… you might go to the third house on the Lane of Shadows and inquire there for Mage Ankennes. He is a generous patron of ours, and I believe he is quite a powerful mage. I think he may be interested in finding a young person with eyes such as yours. Mages do not, I believe, find it a simple matter to locate suitable apprentices.”
    “Apprentices?” Karah and Enelle said together.
    “Your sister is a little old to begin such an apprenticeship, I believe, but then seventeen is quite old to begin as a deisa at a House. Mage Ankennes has mentioned, once or twice recently, his difficulty in finding a suitable young person. Perhaps he will make an exception as I have done. And,” she added delicately, “I believe you will find your young sister will be safe in his house. His inclinations do not lie in that direction.”
    Enelle looked quickly at Nemienne and nodded, looking at least moderately reassured. Nemienne did not say anything. She was thinking of mages, and the Lane of Shadows, and magic rolling off the flanks of the mountains like mist.
    “Well,” said Enelle, rather blankly after she and Nemienne had left Cloisonné House. She gathered the reins of the carriage into her hands, but her hands were shaking so that the horses tossed their heads and sidled away sideways.
    Nemienne took the reins away from her sister and started the horses moving toward the nearest bridge that crossed the Niarre toward the Lane of Shadows. She herself now felt a tremendous sense of relief. She had liked Cloisonné House. Or not liked, but
admired
. She’d wanted to stay with Karah rather than have either of them thrown out into the world completely alone. And yet… and yet… “Karah will do well there,” Nemienne ventured, giving Enelle a sideways glance to see whether her sister was of any mind to hear an optimistic prediction. “That Narienneh is clever, don’t you think? She’ll want Karah to be happy.”
    Enelle gave a stricken little nod. “I hope so. I can’t believe…” She fell silent.
    How big a hole Karah left in their lives, and how immediately. And poor Enelle would have to leave Nemienne also and drive home all by herself. They should have let Ananda come. But none of them had thought ahead to Enelle’s painful, solitary drive. “None of this is your fault,” Nemienne told Enelle, as they had all been at pains to tell her over the past days.
    “No,” Enelle whispered. “Do you think… do you think she will be happy?”
    “Yes,” said Nemienne. And when her sister gave her a shocked look, added, “Why not? Everyone will love her. She’ll be famous and wealthy. Girls all over Lonne will fix their hair