Ariah Read Online Free PDF Page B

documents unprotected. Dirva’s, like mine, were protectively encased in a leather sheath, but hers were impractically naked to the whims of the world. Her name was listed simply as Abira, with no patronymic or matronymic attached. It seemed fitting for her, this name that suggested she sprung fully-formed from the ether. She had listed her race as “mostly elf” and had left the ethnicity field blank. She had listed herself as a drummer for both her occupation and her primary magical ability. Her papers, like Abira herself, were flippant and bold and terribly unhelpful.
    Dirva’s papers were not what I had expected. He had always struck me as a thoroughly honest man, but his papers were full of peculiar lies. I had, by then, suspicions about the verity of his name, which would be borne out later. His address and his occupation were accurate, but very little else was. He had listed himself as half-Semadran and half-Qin and claimed he’d grown up in Mahlez, a small city in the Empire’s northwest territory. He had listed no siblings and claimed his Qin father was dead. His travel history suggested he’d served as a translator for a Qin caravan, and thus had spent some time in Vilahna and the City for professional reasons. The strangest thing, though, was that he lied about his gifts. He had listed auditory mimicry as his primary ability and listed no secondary abilities at all. His gift for shaping was conspicuously absent.
    I gingerly urged my camel to speed up. When I caught up to him, I handed back the papers. He caught the look on my face when I did it and let out a short, sharp sigh. “Yes, the things in my papers are not accurate,” he said.
    “ May I ask why?”
    “ May I ask you why yours are so truthful?”
    I blinked at him. “I…false papers are a criminal offense. I could be jailed.”
    “ You could be jailed for anything. There are things in your papers, Ariah, which are not criminal, but could lead to detainment. You will remember what’s in my papers?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ Then we should make it through the border without difficulty.” He gave his camel a sharp swat and sped up to his sister.
    I realized what he meant when we reached the border guards. We followed the wall north until we hit a gate out of the Empire. The border guards had a different character than the Qin policemen in the cities: they were rough-hewn men, dusty and unkempt. There was a rawness, a frankness, to them which made me uneasy. I couldn’t help but wonder what drew them all the way out to the edge and what about the edge kept them there. We were the only travelers there that day: it was just the three of us elves and the fifteen Qin border guards. That alone was enough to set me on edge. They separated us, five guards to one elf, and took us into separate rooms while our camels were fed and watered.
    The first thing they did was search me and my bag. They had me strip to my underclothes, and one especially large guard patted me down. I was bright red the entire time, frozen and terrified. I felt exposed and vulnerable. One of the other guards poured out my belongings on the table and sifted through them. The other three guards just watched. Two of them smoked long, hand-rolled tobacco cigarettes; the air in the room was thick and hazy. The guard searching me finally finished after what felt like an eternity. “He’s clear.”
    “ His bag is clear, too,” the other guard said. As he said it, I watched him slip all of my ink pens into his pocket. They were not even very good pens.
    One of the smokers came forward and pointed first at me and then the table. I pulled my clothes on in frantic, jerking movements and sat down. My heart beat wildly in my chest, and the pulse of blood in my ears made it hard to hear what was said to me. Panicky sweat tickled the back of my neck. The Qin border guard sat across from me. He sat with an unruffled ease, his cigarette sleepily draped in his fingers. He took a draw on it and blew