The Gantean (Tales of Blood & Light Book 1) by Emily June Street Read Free Book Online Page B

away!” Unaccustomed to displays of high emotion, I hesitated. Then, gently, I pushed in the door.
    Ghilene lay flat on her stomach, her skirts ballooning around lace-covered legs. She lifted her head, wiping shameless tears from her cheeks. “What are you doing here?”
    “Y—your mother sent me.”
    “Damn her! I hate her. I hate that Tiercel, too. Who does he think he is, telling me what to do?”
    I inched into the room, and Ghilene watched me with wide green eyes, cocking her head as she came to a seated position. “But you don’t really look Gantean at all. You haven’t any freckles, and your hair’s not so thick and bushy.”
    My unlikely looks had not gone unremarked in Gante, either. I’d forever been the “bird-girl,” smaller and less robust than the other women. Ghilene rose and circled me. “You’re not as bad as I thought.” One fine-boned hand snaked out and grabbed my wrist. “Listen,” she whispered, yanking me close and searching my eyes. “Promise you won’t tell anyone you’re Gantean. I couldn’t bear it if people at the Brokering knew. Promise. Especially that Ricknagel girl. Stesichore would never stop mocking me. You know why they left so suddenly? Lady Ricknagel insulted Mother at her own table! She said some things—about—well, never mind. I just don’t want to give them any other reasons to scorn me.”
    I nodded. “I promise.” I wanted to win her over, though I wondered about the “other reasons” Ghilene mentioned. I could see that her happiness would be my happiness, her upsets my own, for the foreseeable future.
    I packed Ghilene’s trunk while she sat in her vanity chair and criticized. I attempted to distract her by asking, “What is this event that brings you to Galantia?”
    Ghilene flicked her green-eyed gaze in my direction. “Be gentle with that lace! It’s Lysandrene! The Brokering is a long-standing tradition. When the heir of House Galatien wishes to be wed, the High City hosts three days of festivities. Everyone who isn’t yet married in the Ten Houses takes it as an opportunity to make a match.” She snatched at the clothing I carried past her. “Not that blue cape! I want the white one, with the fur.”
    It took me another quarter hour to get her things arranged as she liked, leaving me only a short time to say goodbye to Tiercel. I found him with the birds in the mews.
    “I’m leaving for Galantia first thing in the morning.”
    Tiercel beamed. “Yes, yes I know! You did it, Lili. Galantia! Look how far you’ve come. Why, I remember the first day I saw you. You were nothing more than a frightened bundle of bones. Now look at you, handmaiden to a scion of the Ten Houses.”
    Sayantaq , whispered the Gantean who still lived beneath my skin. So cooked you can never go back.
    Yet I could not be angry at Tiercel for changing me. He wanted only to help, to better my circumstances. “Why?” I asked. “Why did you do it?”
    “Do what?”
    “All this, for me. Why did you train me and help me? Why did you care?”
    His face paled and he shut his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, I almost thought they had changed color from grey to dark blue. I blinked.
    “I did it because I hope someone, somewhere, has done as much for my daughter. Now, go on, Lili. You need your rest before your travels. Be safe, my girl.”

Four
    A breathtaking bridge built from a glistening, glassy material spanned the fast waters of the River Rift that ran north of the High City. On the eve of the Brokering festivities, it bustled with carriages and wagons. I stared over my shoulder at the bridge even after we’d safely crossed. A row of spires anchored shimmering cables that supported the bridge’s weight. It looked like something out of a dream, impossible, cast from starlight or leaded glass in a spectrum of colors: silvery blue, pale green, subdued violet.
    We proceeded through a busy district at the river’s edge. “The Bottom City,” Ghilene said, turning