Strange Attractors Read Online Free Page B

A cranky animal, that one. Of course who wouldn’t be if they were pierced by briars and desperate for water? Poor wretch. She had the skills to handle him. That was no problem. She simply would have preferred the black—a sweet mare, through and through. Now they were both gone and her options for a quick escape with them.
    Who the strangers were—the tall witch with the spiky yellow hair and icy blue eyes, and the young man who came so close to spotting her she shivered at the thought—she didn’t know. It had felt like he’d looked right into her bones, giving her almost no time to conceal her energy. She’d done it, though, and remained hidden. It was a risk, but the proximity was worth it. She’d crept up to them, slow and steady, without rustling a leaf or snapping a twig. She’d got close enough to hear their words, strange accents and all. Most of them, anyway. Some of the conversation was meaningless to Shaea but one thing was clear. They spoke of a portal and it sounded nearby. She closed her eyes. ‘We hunt all our lives for a way out, Xane, and now that you’re dead, I find it.’
    Not everyone in Corsanon knew of the portals that linked the many-worlds. Most that had heard of them didn’t believe they were real. She and Xane did, though. She’d learned about them from Rall, a toothless woman, with lava-black skin and eyes the same, who lived in a dead-end alley near the refusedump. She survived, just, by selling news to the High Guard. Apparently Rall had been a witch of the Corsanon Temple once. She never talked about it and Shaea never asked, but Rall had taken a liking to her and Xane and that was a gift. The witch had taught them things, secret things—things that helped them survive. The magic Rall knew saved Shaea’s life more than once, especially after Xane had gone to apprentice with the Stable Master—when he was no longer there to watch her back. She stared at his grave, her lower lip trembling.
    She and Xane had believed they would someday find a portal and get out. They would escape from their life before it consumed them. When Xane was offered the apprenticeship—a miracle in itself—her hopes had risen. Though they were both gifted with animals, it was Xane the Stable Master had spotted the day of the fire and Xane who was offered the job. She closed her eyes, remembering.
    The city of Corsanon was dotted with stables and kennels, usually next to inns for the convenience of travellers. Last autumn there had been a fight in the Shek, a substantial inn next to the bakery where they begged. Fights were not uncommon but this one was wild. What caused it she never heard but a table was cleaved in two and an oil lamp with it. When the fire broke out, the men continued to brawl and the place went up like a tinderbox.
    Shaea and Xane had heard the screams—horses, mules and dogs terrified by the smoke and heat coming through the stable walls. Onlookers had released the animals. They’d opened the stall and kennel doors but by then the flames were so high the horses wouldn’t budge. They backed into the rails, their heads tossing, whites of their eyes showing. Only the mules pinnedtheir ears and charged through the flames, bucking like broncos when they emerged into the street.
    Shaea and Xane acted fast. The heat seared her skin and the thick smoke choked her lungs as she and her brother blindfolded each horse, keeping a calming hand on their necks. One by one they led them to safety. When the High Guard Stable Master arrived, he saw Xane leading out the last mare and nodded his approval. Shaea slipped into the background when they started to talk and before she knew it, he was packed off to begin a five-year apprenticeship with the most respected horse master east of the Prietas. Pride had swollen her heart.
    Xane had to pretend he didn’t know her, of course. Corsanon’s homeless were shunned, thought to be diseased, so he lied, making up a story about parents who had come for the