Techromancy Scrolls: Adept by Erik Schubach Read Free Book Online Page A

best friend.”
    She turned to the woman who appeared to have as much muscle as the blacksmiths but still somehow looked very feminine despite the ragged scar that cut diagonally across her face from the temple down her neck to the opposite shoulder. It made her look dangerous and oddly alluring. Celeste told her, “Ver, this is Laney Herder.”
    The woman grinned at me and offered a hand and said in a soft alto, “Laney.”
    I shook her hand, it was like grasping iron and I lowered my eyes in respect. “Lady Verna.”
    She chuckled, “None of that Laney. If you are a friend of our Celeste here then you can call me Verna. She hasn't shut up about you all day.”
    She had been speaking of me? I bobbed my head, chanced a look up, and acknowledged the request, “Lady.” She rolled her eyes and chuckled and turned toward the water and dropped her towel just before she stepped in. I blinked, even her back muscles had muscles.
    Celeste chuckled and I glanced up to see her watching me then said knowingly, like she knew what I was thinking, “Yeah, she's always working out and sparring in her free time. I think it is an obsession with her. She has to compete with the men. Maybe it is to make sure her husband, Sir Kristof doesn't surpass her in the ranks.”
    We stepped up to the the carved stone steps that led down into the water and Celeste let her towel drop to the ground, and I stopped breathing as she walked slowly down the steps into the water. She... her body... those curves. I believed I had just witnessed an angel. I was feeling so warm and flush. Dear lord, I was aroused!
    Verna moved through the water to me and brought her hand up to close my mouth. She had a look of mischief on her face as she said through a chuckle, “Yeah I know, not fair to the rest of us. I feel like a horse next to her.” Then she added, “She'll make some...” She paused looking for the words then settled on, “...person, a fine catch.”
    They both moved to a row of submerged stone benches and I held my towel tight. I was extremely self conscious of my body suddenly. Compared to the two knights, I felt like I had the body of a child. I turned my back to them and let my towel drop. I crossed my arms over my breasts, holding my shoulders and turned to descend the steps.
    Celeste's eyes were narrowed and she looked angry for some reason. Had I made her mad in some way? I sat beside them on the bench and Celeste brought her hands up and grabbed my shoulders, turning my back toward them.
    I shivered when her fingers gently traced the scars on my back in the water. She growled out, “These are scars from lashing.” It was a statement not a question. I saw Lady Verna wince. I just nodded and turned myself out of the knight's grasp and placed my back against the stone bench's backrest.
    She just stared at me expectantly. I shrugged. “I don't like to speak about it.” She just kept staring at me with that expectant look and I exhaled and caved. “A chamber maid snuck me into the library of the Techromancy Scrolls to show me the wonders it held when I was younger.”
    Her anger seemed to double, was she displeased I had broken the rules? I shrugged again and said more to myself, “The punishment for trespassing into the library is...”
    She finished for me, “Public flogging, twenty lashes. It's barbaric.” She turned me again and looked at my back. I blinked, she was mad about the scars, not about my transgression?
    I relaxed a little and put her mind at ease. “The magistrate took pity and gave only ten, he stayed his hand and was gentle.”
    She growled out, “To punish a child for being curious? That is what children do.” Her finger was running along the worst of the scars. “Wait, was that when little Resme was sent away?” Before I nodded she said, “I remember that day. I snuck out to the flogging. Father forbade me to watch. He thought it a travesty that anyone should be punished for seeking knowledge.”
    Then she got a