The Alabaster Staff Read Online Free

she held a bouquet of flowers, which she brought to her nose and smelled daintily.
    She paused, savoring the scent, then glanced up beneath her eyebrows and saw that she indeed had thefull attention of the soldiers, two of whom had their mouths wide open in surprise.
    The little girl with the darting tongue toddled over to her, unsteady on the rain-slicked cobbles.
    “How do do it?” she asked, her tongue still bobbing.
    Kehrsyn smiled and kneeled down, her cloak crumpling against the ground, and she asked, “Would you like to smell them?”
    The girl put her face into the parchment flowers and sniffed at the perfume fragrance.
    “ ’Mell good,” the girl proclaimed.
    “Hey,” said Kehrsyn, “you have a jewel in your ear. Did you know that?”
    The girl furrowed her brows and tugged uncertainly at one ear as her tongue once more wiped her upper lip clean.
    “Not that one,” teased Kehrsyn. “This one.”
    So saying, she reached out with her hand, gently caressed the curve of the girl’s ear, and produced a small, polished stone with the hue and grain of well-varnished wood.
    The girl squealed, “Momma! Momma, lookit my ear! Lookit she saw my ear!”
    She ran back over to her mother, holding her “jewel” aloft, stumbling on the cobbles in her glee but never quite falling. The mother turned on the child with a look of weary frustration but softened as the child’s exuberance overflowed. The child pointed back at Kehrsyn, and the woman favored Kehrsyn with a knowing look. Taking the girl by the hand, the mother put her worn purse back into her sash and strode away.
    Kehrsyn sighed and stood up again, her slender hand reaching for the hidden fold in her sash and palming another stone from the score she carried there for just that purpose. It felt good to bring some small joy to a little soul in the midst of the cold, hungry winter. She didn’t want anyone to experience the same grim childhood she’d had.Let the adults worry about the enemy that stalked the lands across the river; children needed to have their fun. So long as Kehrsyn could keep the war from stealing their innocence, she would.
    She just wished it was a little easier to get their parents to show a little charity.
    Despite her mother’s miserly demeanor, the little girl had attracted Kehrsyn some attention, just as she’d hoped. The beginnings of an audience were forming, most notable of whom were the soldiers, who walked up to her directly.
    “Olaré!” said one in greeting. “So you’re a sorceress, huh?”
    One of his mates, jealous that the other had spoken first, punched him roughly on the arm and said, “Of course not, half-wit. Where’s the aura? You ever seen a magician without a glow about her spells?”
    “Actually, yes,” said a third, a seasoned veteran and clearly the senior of the rowdy group. “It’s rare, but it’s not unknown. Why, back in Chessenta, in, uh, fifty-four I think it was, I—”
    “Come on, Sergeant,” said the first, “we hear your stories all night in the bunkhouse. I’d rather hear this maiden’s voice right now.” A murmur of general agreement settled the issue. “So, young one,” he continued, addressing Kehrsyn directly, “are you a sorceress?”
    Kehrsyn chuckled and answered, “Of course not.”
    “I think she is,” commented another soldier with a smile. “She’s already charmed me.”
    Kehrsyn flushed with embarrassment.
    “So if you’re not a sorceress,” asked the first, “how can you do all that stuff without magic?”
    “It’s easier without magic,” she said, then she leaned forward toward the soldier. “It’s easy to make jewels appear,” she said in a stage whisper, “when guys like you don’t groom yourselves properly.”
    With that, she tapped at his nose, striking it so that apolished stone appeared to fly from his nostril, knocked loose by the flick of her finger.
    The soldier stepped back, too startled to know whether or not to be affronted. His comrades