Mystic and Rider (Twelve Houses) Read Online Free Page B

when you take animal form?”
    Donnal grinned. “I can change them as easily as I change my skin. What can you do?”
    “Cammon’s a sensitive,” Kirra said.
    Donnal shrugged. “Don’t know what that means.”
    Cammon laughed. “I don’t either, really.”
    “I’m guessing you’ll have to do some work to really develop your skills,” Senneth said. “Most of us have known from childhood that we had some—abilities—and we worked on them.”
    “Or we worked on hiding them from the people around us,” Kirra said. “So we wouldn’t be cast from our houses and left to die.”
    Senneth grinned faintly. “Your father never turned against you.”
    “No, but it happens often enough.”
    “It does,” Senneth agreed. She turned back to Cammon. “You may not know, if you left Gillengaria when you were young, how suspiciously most people view the mystics. Some parts of the country are very receptive to the idea of magic, and in the royal city, mystics live quite openly. And a few of the Twelve Houses tolerate them, even among their own heirs. But in many places—especially in the south—it can be worth your life to be discovered. So those of us with some power are often cautious about how we display it.”
    Cammon put his hand to his throat again. “This doesn’t surprise me. I saw a few things in Dormas—” He shook his head.
    “So, as you might guess, many of us had to train in secret—but train we did,” Senneth continued. “I’m wondering where you should go to get some experience.”
    “We could send him to Ghosenhall,” Donnal suggested.
    “The royal city,” Senneth explained. “We could, but he’d never make it there safely on his own.”
    “Too bad we’re not heading toward Kianlever,” Kirra said. “But if we’re going to Fortunalt or Rappengrass—” She shrugged.
    Senneth nodded. “Yes. There are people there I’d trust to take care of him.” She glanced at Cammon. “But those are some distance away, and we tend to travel at a hard pace. You might not enjoy the journey.”
    “I’d rather be with you than where I was,” he said instantly. “I’ll go anywhere you take me.”
    “He’ll slow us down,” Justin muttered from across the room.
    “He won’t,” Senneth said. “And even if he does, you’ll just have to get used to it.”
    Justin grunted again and turned back to his sword. Kirra leaned forward, inspecting Cammon’s face. “I want to try something,” she said. “Close your eyes. No, let me blindfold you, just to make sure.”
    He didn’t hesitate. Senneth wondered if his ability to read people made him realize that he could trust them. Kirra, at least, would never offer him harm. “All right,” he said, and closed his eyes. In a moment, she had fished out a pocket handkerchief and bound it around his head.
    “Every time someone snaps his fingers, I want you to tell me who’s standing in front of you,” she said. “Man or woman. Mystic or not. Can you do that?”
    “I’ll try,” he said.
    They all stood, and Kirra spun him around a few times, and the rest of them rearranged themselves so he wouldn’t be able to identify them by memory. Kirra motioned Justin over, and, reluctantly, he joined them.
    Tayse, of course, had not looked up once, or commented at all, or even seemed to notice that the rest of them were alive and in the same room.
    Kirra pushed Justin in front of Cammon first and snapped her fingers together. It was clear, even through his blindfold, that Cammon was struggling to read the person before him.
    “Man,” he said at last. “Not mystic. Justin, I think.”
    Justin snorted and stalked away. Donnal took his place.
    “Man. Mystic,” Cammon said, speaking with a little more confidence this time.
    Senneth stood before him next. He actually swayed backward a little after trying to sense her. “Senneth,” he said quietly.
    “Why did you do that?” Kirra demanded. “Pull away like that?”
    “I can—it’s like heat is pouring