Cold Fire by Tamora Pierce Read Free Book Online Page A

graduates of those schools do to repay their masters for their own training. You want graduates. They have broader learning than someone who only has a Mages’ Society license.”
    Matazi nodded. “I’ll draw up a list,” she said. “Those I don’t know, Anyussa or the housekeeper will.” She looked at her daughters. “Well, you two are always full of surprises. Off to bed with you.”
    The twins kissed their parents and raced toward the stairs. Jory wondered aloud if she really could make and sell a charm to take the lumps from sauces and gravies, as Daja had jokingly suggested earlier. Daja shook her head, thinking, Merchants’ daughters to the bone.
    Kol, Matazi, Frostpine, and Daja sat once more. Daja ran her finger around the mirror’s rim. She was trying to decide if it could be used for other things than magic-seeing when Matazi said, “This isn’t from my side of the family.” Daja looked up to see Matazi shake her head, her smile half-amused, half-rueful.
    “No, it’s mine,” Kol said tiredly as he poured himself a fresh glass of tea. “That’s why we called in magic-sniffers twice,” he explained to Frostpine and Daja. “We have cousins at Lightsbridge now, and one who graduated from there. There’s an uncle in Dancruan who’s a cook-mage. My great-grandfather was a carpentry-mage. So they come by it honestly.” He and Matazi exchanged a troubled glance.
    “Most parents would be happy, with such an opportunity for their girls,” Frostpine remarked softly.
    Kol said, “It complicates things.”
    “Two families who expressed an interest in the girls will turn mages down flat,” added Matazi. “Many people think that mage-wives are far too independent and unpredictable. Yes, we’ll replace Nia’s candidates with ship-builder clans, but we’ll have to start talks all over again. Namornese marriages take years to arrange.”
    “We have time,” Kol said. “We’re not remotely ready to let them go. And I know that Nia has an eye on that Moykep boy. We’ll need to see how she feels in a couple of years before we finalize anything. The Moykeps will reduce what they want as her dowry since she does have carpentry magic.”
    “All of this is nothing you have to worry about, though,” Matazi told Daja with a smile. “I feel like we’re imposing on you, asking you to choose their teachers, but I’d feel better leaving that to a mage.”
    Daja covered a yawn. She was exhausted. “I have a responsibility to them,” she told Matazi. “To them, I suppose, and to my own teachers. If you could make up a list of possible instructors?”
    “We’ll have it for you by breakfast,” Kol promised.
    “If you’ll excuse me, then.” Daja got to her feet and tucked the mirror into her belt purse.
    “Good night, Daja.” Frostpine reached out and gripped her wrist. Through their shared magic he told her silently, You did good work here tonight, with the girls and with Kol and Matazi.
    She smiled at him shyly. A compliment of that kind from him was worth cherishing. “Good night,” she said, and kissed his bald crown.

Chapter 3
    The next day was Watersday: people traditionally spent it in worship and relaxation. Daja knew she would find no teachers doing business that day. She wouldn’t be teaching, either, with the Bancanors visiting first the temple where they worshipped, then family members scattered all over the city. Daja reminded Kol that the twins had to begin to meditate, only to see him shake his head. “It’s Mother’s sixtieth birthday,” he explained with regret. “If we aren’t there all afternoon and well into the night, she will be quite unhappy.”
    Daja winced. Once she’d overheard one of Kol’s mother’s scolds. She didn’t want to witness the results of another, or subject anyone else to it. The older women of Namorn were famous for their power over their families, and for their tempers.
    With the Bancanors gone the big house was quiet. All but a very few of the