Sword and Verse by Kathy MacMillan Read Free Book Online Page B

servant to clean.
SEVEN
    I ESCAPED TO the Adytum as soon as I could. Though Laiyonea had canceled lessons because of the Festival of Aqil, I still had to tend to the asotis, and afterward I relished the time alone.
    I pulled out my heart-verse and forced myself to examine each character, but other thoughts kept creeping in. Jonis in the basement room, Mati touching my arm . . . his warm breath on my cheek . . .
    Stop it, I told myself for the hundredth time. It was insane to think about it. Kissing the prince was a sure way to lose my post, maybe my life. And even if, somehow, that didn’t happen, I didn’t need any distractions from my work. Being a good Tutor would keep me alive; if I failed, there would be no going back to my old life of cleaning, not with the things I knew. And I had to keep learning, to figure out my heart-verse. That wasmore important than anything else.
    It was best, really, to forget about the prince’s touch. It had been nothing—a slip resulting from the small space and the dark, and the energy of the pantomime.
    And what about Jonis? I couldn’t report him, and didn’t really want to. But I didn’t want him to approach me again either. If only I could go back to blissful ignorance of the Resistance and its doings . . .
    Unbidden, his words came back to me: “You don’t mind if Arnath children are worked to death or Arnath women are raped by their masters or Arnath men die in the quarries, as long as you’re comfortable in the palace.”
    My fingers curled angrily around the edges of my heart-verse. What did he know? I’d been taking risks my whole life, just being alive as the daughter of a Learned One. And what could I possibly do to change all those horrible things? He was mad to think that learning to write would help the Resistance defeat anyone.
    I returned my heart-verse to its hiding place and rearranged the flowers over the gap. A playful shout from the beach made me peer over the wall; a knot of young people lounged down by the water. Soraya Gamo stood in the shallows, smoothing her hair with one hand, watching Patic splash her giggling sisters. The others sat under the palms farther up the beach. I tried not to search for anyone in particular, but I soon found Mati, laughing at Patic.
    I swallowed hard. And then there was Patic. I couldn’t believe that Patic would harm Mati, or would help anyone who wanted to do so. Besides, the words he’d said at the luncheon weren’t quiteright—the more I thought about it, the more I was certain that I’d been imagining things. After all, he’d simply shrugged and gone back to talking to the others after I had answered him.
    Fourth bell rang, and I hurried through the palace, intent on reaching the front corridor while the Qilarite servants were busy in the kitchens preparing for the night’s banquet. As I passed the guards outside the Library, I kept my hand at my side, concealing the bread protruding from my pocket. Stung by Jonis’s accusations, I had stolen a larger piece at the luncheon than I’d ever dared before. I smiled, imagining Linti’s delight when she found it.
    I slipped into the cavity under the stairs. As I didn’t have a cloth to wrap the bread in, I started to leave it on the dusty stone floor. But then I noticed a white bundle in the corner. I crept closer to peek inside, and found three muffins, two teacakes, and a mound of dates. My hand hovered over the food as I realized that I’d told only one other person, besides Linti, about this spot.
    I exhaled. It was all over. The easy days in the Adytum, talking to him like an equal. It had to be over, because the emotion that raced through me now was too dangerous, too close.
    I closed my eyes. Just forget it happened, I told myself.
    If only I could.
    When I entered the banquet room beside Laiyonea that night, I couldn’t help darting a look at the prince, sitting with his father at the