The Assassins of Tamurin by S. D. Tower Read Free Book Online Page B

She’s never done something like that.”
    “Maybe she was just tired of staying home.” Sulen leaned toward me and lowered her voice confidentially. “You see. Mother’s a widow. Once she lived in Kuijain. She had a son there but he—”
    “Shut up, Sulen,” Dilara interrupted. “Nobody wants to hear about that. Look, here’s Sertaj.”
    The soldier came up to me and said, “Girl, you must speak with the Despotana now. When you come to her, show respect. You may call her either ‘honored mistress’ or ‘honored lady’ or ‘ma’am.’ ”
    Sulen, Dilara, and I followed him to the largest tent, which was of a fine, close-woven fabric dyed deep crimson. The Despotana sat in front of it on a small collapsible stool. The beautiful young woman, who must be Tossi, sat cross-legged on a cushion next to her. The sun, low in the west, sent copper bars of light through the trees.
    I bowed to the Despotana, touching the fingertips of both hands to my throat. Then I stood quietly, kept my gaze on the ground, and waited for her to speak.
    After what seemed a long silence she said to me, “The men who killed Master Lim will be found. Not soon, perhaps, but I will find them.”
    “I’m glad, honored mistress.”
    She tilted her head a little to one side. “Do you want to go back to Riversong, Lale?”
    “No, honored mistress.” I looked up at her, hoping for the best.
    “Hm. You’re not a stupid girl, are you?”
    “I’m not sure, ma’am. I don’t think so.”
    “Do you know how to read?”
    I shook my head, wishing with all my heart that I did. She said, “I have a school for girls like you, Lale. For girls who have no ancestors. Do you know what I say to such girls?”
    A small crack opened in the darkness of my heart and admitted a tiny ray of light. “No, honored mistress,” I whispered, “I'm afraid I don’t.”
    “I say to them, ‘You shouldn’t worry that you have no ancestors, because you are an ancestor.’ Do you like the sound of that?”
    The crack widened and more light poured through. “Very much, honored mistress.”
    “For now, please dispense with ‘honored mistress’ and such. It wastes time. Do you want to learn to read?”
    Not even in my most bizarre fantasies had I ever imagined I might possess that secret. “Yes. Oh, yes!”
    “Then you may come to my school, Lale, if you wish. Your belly will never be empty under my roof; and as for your mind, it also will have as much as it can hold. You will know as much as a learned magistrate of Kurjain, if you can contrive it. Would you like that?”
    The darkness in me was bumt up in a flame of rapture. I managed to squeak, “Yes!”
    “You’ll travel with us, then,” she said. “This is Tossi, my first and best student. If she tells you to do something, you will do it. And these are Dilara and Sulen, who I see have already introduced themselves. They’re girls at my school, just as you will be. They can’t give you orders, but pay attention to what they tell you. Go with them now and eat your supper. Then we must all sleep, for we’re heading for Tamurin in the moming.”
    Sulen and Dilara grinned at me. They had no ancestors, no more than did I, but somehow it didn’t matter. I was in the middle of a forest, among strangers I had known for less than half a day, and for the very first time in my life, I was home.
    But what I did not know was that our meeting, which looked so much like chance, was not chance at all. Many years would pass before I discovered what lay behind that encounter on the Riversong road: that the Despotana had been searching for me, without pause and in perfect secrecy, from the time I was six years old.

Five
    My education began the next morning, as we set out for Tamurin. I felt very grown-up in the clothes Dilara had lent me, for this was the first time Fd discarded a child’s smock for adult garments. I had a tunic of pale linen with blue dragonflies around the hem and a garment I'd never seen