Dream Storm Sea by A.E. Marling Read Free Book Online Page B

The links in the necklace tightened into Hiresha’s skin.
    “You may now traverse the Skyway.” The arbiter waved to the road going off the cliff. “That amulet will also permit Sagai to find you.”
    The spellsword pulled a pendulum from a pouch. The silver ball bobbed side to side on its chain then leaned toward Hiresha.
    “Should you try to remove the amulet or tamper with its enchantment, Sagai will know of it. Now, Hiresha, may we proceed?”
    The arbiter offered her hand. Hiresha took hold of the green glove, if only for the added security. She had no great trust for the amulet that now felt too close to a choker. The two enchantresses stepped off the edge.

    Hiresha had no sense of falling. Rather, the world rotated around her, with the cliff now the ground. The Skyway stretched across a plane of rock, a field banded with different layers of sediment.
    “I gather you’re my escort to Nagra,” Hiresha said. “Do you approve of my expulsion?”
    “Hiresha, the other elders consulted me. I designed your sentence.”
    “I was afraid you’d say that.” Hiresha imagined dragging the arbiter by the arm and hurling her off the Skyway. “Tell me, then. A woman dedicates twenty years innovating enchantment only to have her life’s work pried from her skin. Where is the justice in that?”
    “What was done to you was cruel.” The leaf designs of the arbiter’s hem flitted over the blue tiles of the road. “It was also just.”
    Hiresha lifted her bandaged hand. “At least we agree on the cruelty.”
    “Justice is what society needs for stability. Your magical research could imbalance the empire. No enchantress should both create power and wield it by throwing gems. Such a woman might cause untold harm.”
    “Only if she were a nitwit,” Hiresha said.
    “Can you guarantee all your students would use your research responsibly? Or your students’ students? What if one mad woman chose to rain a destruction of gems on a crowd using the Hiresha Method?”
    Hiresha scowled at a flock of cranes flying ahead of them in arrowhead formation. Because of her cliff-road perspective, the birds appeared to be flapping on their sides, one black-feathered wingtip pointed to the ground, the other to the sky.
    I could devise a crushing counterargument if only I weren’t so sleepy. Hiresha could think of but one thing to say just then.
    “What if I agree never to teach impact enchantment?”
    “Having one person unopposed in her power would be worse,” the arbiter said. “Think of the vizier, a genius of organization who has guided the Oasis Empire through years of prosperity. Yet would we be comfortable if the vizier did not have to answer to Pharaoh?”
    “Yes, I would. Pharaoh is—to phrase it generously—a divine idiot.”
    The arbiter turned her head to glance behind. The dyed ostrich feathers in her headdress swayed in the cross breeze. Hiresha followed her gaze.
    Spellsword Sagai and Maid Naroh walked abreast. She leaned forward, carrying a chest of drawers on her back. A strap wrapped around her brow.
    Neither she nor the spellsword appeared shocked, so the wind must have carried the blasphemy against Pharaoh out of hearing. Hiresha did not see the two speaking, but she had to think it significant that a prince of Nagra—even the third son—would walk apace with a maid.
    The arbiter faced forward again. “Pharaoh has a child’s heart.”
    “I shouldn’t wonder if someday she decrees all the empire’s pack animals be replaced by hummingbirds.”
    “An edict the vizier would neither implement nor enforce. Thus power is divided,” the arbiter said. “Thus do we avoid tyrants.”
    “Some tyrant I would have been. I only wished to cure myself and study in peace.”
    “I am sorry for you, Hiresha.”
    “But not enough to do anything about it?” Hiresha found it increasingly difficult to hold the arbiter’s hand. “I hope you don’t expect me to forgive you.”
    “No, not that. Yet understanding may