A Student's Dream (Twisted Cogs Book 1) by Malcolm Hemmings Read Free Book Online

had hurt much more when Elena was a child of five of six years old, and had to learn to prepare herself food or go hungry.
    Of course, given the emotionally draining day she had already had, it would be effective enough. At least her mother hadn’t decided that something more inventive was in order. When they reached the room, Elena didn’t even bother glancing at the bed, instead casting her gaze around to find a suitable spot to lay out her cloak on the ground to sleep. It took an hour for the sun to set, plunging the sky outside of the window into darkness.
    “ If she’s ignoring you, maybe you can leave to find Arturo and Arta again,” Ele suggested as Joanna moved around the room, lighting the lantern and the candles on the bedside table. “She won’t forbid you from leaving.” Elena glanced through the window at the street below. The sun had set, but the streets were still almost as busy, with people moving by the light of lanterns that hung along the sides of every street.
    “ I’m going out, Mother,” she said quietly, “I have to find something to eat. I have a little money.” Technically, since she had made the products the Luccianos had sold, she could make the case that all of her mother’s money was hers, but she had no desire to make Joanna even angrier. Her mother had settled into the bed with a book of poems, one she had read a thousand times but was evidently engrossing enough to keep her full attention.
    “ Wish me well? Bid me be safe?” Elena asked quietly. Her mother turned a page.
    “ You should take the key so she doesn’t lock you out,” Ele advised, but Elena left quietly without it. Sleeping in the hallway would be a small price to pay for the knowledge that her mother would stay in her room while Elena explored the city on her own.

Chapter VI
The Soul of the Soulless
    The streets of Milia had cooled from a scorching heat to a pleasant warmth by the time Elena and Ele emerged from the inn. Lanterns on tall poles lit the town in a soft glow, and the insects that buzzed around them filled the air with a steady drone. The crowds were much less overwhelming now that they had thinned, although there were still men and women passing to and fro.
    “ Should we go back to the Street of Yellow Artisans and see if we can find Arturo and Arta right away?” Ele asked, putting his hands in his pockets and glancing around him, “or do you want to wander the city beforehand?” Elena realized with a start that she could do just that. As long as her mother was upstairs sulking in the inn’s room, she was free to do anything she wanted.
    “ Why are you standing there, smiling like a fool?” Ele asked, but his half-smile told her he was teasing.
    “ I’m not sure, really,” Elena admitted, “Milia seemed so hostile on the way back but now it seems...safer. Inviting, almost.”
    “ Beg pardon miss?” Nearby where the two of them stood, a tall man with a long black beard looked up from the bag he was tying.
    “ Oh, I’m sorry, I wasn’t talking to...I was just...” Elena stammered.
    “ Ah, no worry miss. My sister’s a Stormtouched, an’ she talks to herself almost constantly,” the man said with a wink. “New to the city are you?”
    “ Is it that obvious?”
    “ You can always tell the new ones, they’re the only ones worried about outin’ themselves as Stormtouched. After a while you’ll realize, Milia doesn’t mind your lot.” He swung the bag onto his back and smiled genially, “you’ve nothing to be worried about.”
    Elena’s eyes felt puffy from the tears that had fallen earlier in the evening, but she smiled as she watched the man walk down the street, whistling to himself. “I think I like this city.”
    “ Emotionally unstable,” Ele proclaimed. “That’s what you are. One minute you’re crying, the next you’re grinning. A body doesn’t know what to expect next.”
    Elena smiled wider and punched towards him, and he stuck out his tongue as her fist