Tessili Academy Read Online Free Page B

and took a
few quick steps to stay ahead of the orderlies as they moved
towards the door.

 
     
◈
    Professor Straph lunged at Jey, whirling his
staff towards her head in a long, smooth arc. Jey rolled to the
side, executed a graceful tumble, and popped up again beside him.
But Professor Straph had anticipated her. He reversed the direction
of his swing. The edge of his staff caught her in the shoulder. He
pulled the blow and her shirt was padded, but the impact threw her
off balance. She stumbled, losing the fluidity of her movement. On
the holdstone at the edge of the sparring area, Phril hissed.
    Jey scrambled to reset herself. She took a
few steps backwards and settled into a ready stance, her weight
balanced evenly between her two feet, her muscles relaxed but
ready. She drew in a long, slow breath and waited for Professor
Straph to come at her again.
    Except, he didn’t. While she had moved away,
the lean man had set the end of his staff on the ground. Now he
stood looking at her with his dark eyes. “You’re distracted, J114.”
His voice was low and smooth, difficult to hear if you weren’t
paying enough attention. “And your tessila is restless.”
    Phril, Jey thought. His name is
Phril.
    It had been an hour since she’d left
Professor Liam’s classroom. She’d taken a walk around the quad,
hoping to settle herself and her tessila both. She’d stood beneath
a flashnode and waited for it to fill and go off. It hadn’t helped. I can remember. The time between her lesson with Professor
Liam and this moment was whole – a complete, unbroken block of
memory.
    Jey felt as if she’d found herself on a
road. Although her shoes were worn with walking, though she carried
a pack and clothing, when she looked back there was only a sheer
cliff face with a thousand foot drop into empty, fog filled sky.
The road continued ahead of her, but it did not go back.
    She bowed her head. “My apologies, master.
Professor Liam has asked me to see how long I could hold a spell.
It’s distracting for me, and uncomfortable for Ph … for my
tessila.” She tried to take deep breaths, to keep her eyes soft.
She knew things, things Straph himself had taught her, about how to
make her body suggest to others it was harmless. That she was
harmless. She called upon that knowledge now.
    Professor Straph’s eyes sharpened. He took a
step towards her and looked into her face. Although her mind was
racing, Jey forced her gaze to relax. He was near enough she could
smell the sandalwood scent of his soap. “When was your class with
Liam?”
    She pretended it took her some time to find
the answer. She let her eyes slide partway shut. “Just before
yours.” This had the benefit of being true, even if it was
misleading. Liam had used only a few minutes of their lecture hour,
but if Straph checked her schedule, he would see her period with
Liam had ended five minutes before she’d arrived here.
    Straph spent another moment looking at her
through his narrowed eyes. Then he turned and moved away, walking
like a cat on his quick feet.
    Cat. The word had appeared in her
mind, unbidden. And now, like the path, she couldn’t seem to attach
it to anything. What is a cat?
    She had only a moment to wonder. Straph
reset his grip on the staff and whirled it towards her head.

 
     
◈
    Jey left the washroom and joined the ranks
of girls drifting towards the dining hall. She watched the other
students. They all seemed to wander rather than walk, moving with a
strange, dreamy lack of purpose Jey tried to emulate.
    Phril rode on the ledge of her collarbone,
looking around with his bright, dewdrop eyes. She could feel he was
excited. She could also feel the weaving of her spell on him. It
was still in place. Over the course of the day, it had grown easier
to leave it there, easier not to think about it. It occupied a
corner of her mind, but it grew more comfortable as the time
passed.
    And time did pass. Time passed, and Jey
could remember. Classes