The Gates of Sleep by Mercedes Lackey Read Free Book Online Page B

his interview in London. “I wanted to knock
him down—”
    “But you didn’t, of course,” she’d
said, knowing from his attitude that, of course, he hadn’t.
    “No. Damn his eyes. He’s too influential; I’m
no fool, my love, I kept my insults behind my teeth and managed a cunning
imitation of sanctimonious prig without a sensual bone in my body. But I wanted
to send his damned teeth down his throat for what he hinted at.”
Sebastian’s aura had pulsed a sullen red.
    “Serve the blackguard right,” Margherita
returned. Sebastian had smiled at last, and kissed her, and she had known that,
as always, his temper had burned itself out quickly.
    But common perceptions were a boon to Marina’s
safety; Arachne would never dream that Marina Roeswood would be
posing for
paintings
like a common—well—
artist’s model.
The term was only a more polite version of something else.
    For that matter, if Alanna had any notion that Sebastian’s
lovely model was her own daughter, she would probably faint. It was just as
well that the question had never come up. The prim miniatures that Sebastian
sent every Christmas showed a proper young lady with her hair up, a
high-collared blouse, and a cameo at her throat, not the languid odalisques or
daring dancers Sebastian had been painting in that style the French were
calling Art Nouveau.
    “Once harvest’s over and winter’s begun,”
Sebastian said through a mouthful of deviled ham, “it will be easier to
keep the little baggage indoors.”
    “Unless she decides it’s time you made good on
your promise to take her to London,” Thomas pointed out.
    “So what if she does?” Sebastian countered. “London’s
as good or better a place to hide her than here!
How
many Elemental
magicians are there in London? Trying to find her would be like trying to find
one particular pigeon in Trafalgar Square! If she wants a trip to the galleries
and the British Museum, I’ll take her. I’m more concerned that she
doesn’t get the notion in her head to go to Scotland and meet up with the
Selkies.”
    Thomas winced. “Don’t even think about that, or
she might pick the idea up,” he cautioned, and sucked on his lower lip. “We’ve
got a problem, though.
We
can’t teach her any more. She needs a
real Water Master now, and I think she’s beginning to realize that. She’s
restless; she’s bored with the exercises I’ve set her. She might
not give a hang about the Roeswood name, fortune, or estate, but she’s
going to become increasingly unhappy when she realizes she needs more teaching
in her Power and we can’t give it to her.”
    Sebastian and Margherita exchanged a long look of
consternation; they hadn’t thought of
that.
Of all the
precautions they had taken, all the things they had thought they would have to
provide for, Marina’s tutoring in magic had not been factored into the
equation.
    “Is she going to be
that
powerful?”
Sebastian asked, dumbfounded.
    “What if I told you that every time she goes out to
the orchard she’s
reading poetry to Undines?”
Thomas
asked.
    That took even Margherita by surprise. Sebastian blanched.
Small wonder. When Elementals simply appeared to socialize with an Elemental
mage, it meant that the magician in question either was very, very powerful,
powerful enough that the Elementals wanted to forge friendships with her, or
that she
would be
that powerful, making it all the more important to
the Elementals that they forge those friendships
before
she realized
her power. One didn’t coerce or compel one’s friends… it just
wasn’t done.
    “Oh, there is more to it than that,” Thomas
went on. “I’ve caught Sylphs in her audiences as well. I can only thank
God that she hasn’t noticed very often, or she’d start to wonder
just what she could do with them if she asked.”
    So the Air Elementals were aware of her potential power
too. The Alliance granted her by Roderick did go both ways…
    Thomas was right; they couldn’t