Songmaster Read Online Free

level of urinating on a Groan so he had to shower again, or spilling his soup day after day so that he got in trouble with the cooks—the hazing somehow bypassed Ansset.
    And he entered the mythology of the Groans very quickly. There were other legendary figures—Jaffa, who in anger at her teacher burst one day into a Chamber and sang a solo, and then, instead of being punished, was advanced to be a Breeze without ever having to be a Belch at all; Moom, who stayed a Groan until he was nine years old, and then suddenly got the hang of things and passed through Bells and Breezes in a week, entered Stalls and Chambers and was out as a singer before he turned ten; and Dway, who was gifted and ought to have become a Songbird, but who could not stop rebelling and finally escaped the Songhouse so often that she was thrust out and put with a normal boarding school and never sang another note. Ansset was not so colorful. But his name passed from class to class and from year to year so that after he had been a Groan for only a month, even singers in Stalls and Chambers knew of him, and admired him, and secretly resented him.
    He will be a Songbird, said the growing myth. And this was not resented by the children his own age, because while all of them could hope to be a singer, Songbirds only came every few years, and some children passed from Common Rooms into Stalls and Chambers without ever having known someone who became a Songbird. Indeed, there was no Songbird at all in the Songhouse now—the most recent one, Wymmyss, had been placed out only a few weeks before Ansset came, so that none of his class had ever heard a Songbird sing.
    Of course, there were former Songbirds among the teachers and masters, but that was no help, because their voices had changed. How do you become a Songbird? Groans would ask Belches, and Belches would ask Breezes, and none of them knew the answer, and few dared hope that they would achieve that status.
    “How do you become a Songbird?” Ansset sang to Esste one day, and Esste could not hide her startlement completely, not because of the question, though it was rare for a child to ask such an open question, but because of the song, which also seemed to ask, Were you a Songbird, Esste?
    “Yes, I was a Songbird,” she answered, and Ansset, who had not yet mastered Control, revealed to her that that was the question he had been asking. The boy was learning songtalk, and Esste would have to be careful to warn the teachers and masters not to use it in front of him unless they didn’t mind being understood.
    “What did you do?” Ansset asked.
    “I sang.”
    “Singers sing. Why are Songbirds different?”
    Esste looked at him narrowly. “Why do you want to be a Songbird?”
    “Because they’re the perfect ones.”
    “You’re only a Groan, Ansset. You have years ahead of you.” The statement was wasted, she knew. He could sing, he could hear song, but he was still almost an infant, and years were too long to grasp.
    “Why do you love me?” Ansset asked her, this time in front of the class.
    “I love all of you,” Esste sang, and all the children smiled at the love in her voice.
    “Why do you sing to me more than to the others, then?” Ansset demanded, and Esste heard in his song another message: The others are not my friends because you set me apart.
    “I don’t sing to anyone more than to anyone else,” Esste answered, and in songtalk she said, I will be more careful. Did he understand? At least he seemed satisfied with her answer, and did not ask again.
    Ansset became one of the great legends, however, when he was promoted from Groan to Belch earlier than the rest of his class—and instead of Esste remaining with the class, she moved with Ansset. It was then that Ansset realized that not only was it unusual for a Songmaster to be doing a teacher’s job, but also Esste was teaching, not the class, but him. Ansset. Esste was teaching Ansset.
    The other children noticed this at least