She Who Waits (Low Town 3) Read Online Free

inside my throat. My ears were buzzing like I’d taken a full snort of breath. Each stroke of my pulse sounded in my ears. Wren was saying something, but it was a few seconds before I realized it was directed at me.
    ‘What?’ I broke out of my stupor.
    ‘I said that was it for the day. I’m ready when you are.’
    ‘Start without me, give the elderly a moment to themselves.’
    ‘You said you were here to walk me home.’
    ‘What I say is a long way from what I do – I’d have thought you’d have picked up on that after six years.’
    ‘Get on out of here,’ Mazzie agreed, waving her charge out the exit.
    Wren grumbled himself to the door, and I stopped thinking about him. The boy didn’t need to worry about the inhabitants of the Isthmus. Mazzie had spread clear word throughout the neighborhood that he was off limits, and even the most hardened thug felt their mouth dry up at the thought of crossing her. Besides, he could handle himself, much as it galled me to admit it.
    I took the seat he’d vacated and started on a cigarette. My hands were stiff and numb, and it took me longer than it should have. I managed it finally, though it was far from my best work. ‘How’s he doing?’
    ‘You ask after what you just saw?’
    ‘Parlor tricks. And he missed the last one.’
    ‘I didn’t know you were such an expert on the Art.’
    ‘I know everything about everything Mazzie – it’s one of my many charms.’
    She about half-laughed at that. The three years she’d been teaching Wren hadn’t made us friends, but we’d at least acclimatized to the other’s occasional presence. ‘Took me more years than I’d admit to learn that parlor trick. Took the boy six months. He’s coming along. Coming along fast. As it happens, I’ve been meaning to speak on him for a while now.’
    ‘I’m within earshot.’
    ‘When you first came to me, you said to make sure he didn’t kill himself with the gift.’
    ‘You’ve upheld your end of the bargain admirably.’
    ‘Said to teach him a few basic charms, set his feet on the path.’
    ‘That’s what I said.’
    ‘I done it – done it and more.’
    ‘So what would you say – he’s fifth rank? Fourth?’ I tried to remember where apprentice ended and initiate began. It had been a long time since my days picking up second-hand bits of magical trivia from the Blue Crane.
    Mazzie rolled back her eyes. ‘You fucking Riguns – you put a number on something, think you own it, think you know what it is.’
    ‘Yes, the acquisition of knowledge – an unfortunate hobby the Empire has bent itself towards.’
    ‘Learning’s fine. Better to remember that you don’t ever know very much. Say you go ahead and do something a hundred times – if you ain’t dumb as dog shit, you ought to make a fair guess as to what happens the hundred and first. That don’t mean you understand why it happened, don’t mean you can do anything but read a pattern once it’s been burned into your head. I spent twenty years sitting at the feet of the greatest Practitioner in Miradin. I once saw him tame a storm that would have swamped half the capital by whispering kind words over a wooden bowl.’ She spat on the ground. ‘Should have let it drown the place, but that’s not the point – he didn’t need a number written onto his forehead to know he knew how to do something.’
    ‘And that’s all they do in the Academy? Lie to themselves about what they know, what they’re teaching?’
    She shook her head. ‘All this nonsense about ranks and scales, the idea that you could master the Art like you would your times tables – that’s a lie. The learning ain’t no lie. But the learning takes different forms for everybody. My way isn’t Wren’s way – he’s stronger, and his mind goes in different directions. I’ve taken him as far as I can.’
    ‘He’s learned everything you have to show him?’
    ‘He’s learned everything I’m going to.’
    That sat just fine with me.