Arrow's Fall Read Online Free PDF Page B

thoughts to yourself if you don’t want to frighten him off the way Nessa has,” Keren admonished with a wry grin. “As for you, little centaur, he seems to have cured your man-shyness rather handily. I guess I owe Kyril and Elcarth an apology. I thought assigning him to you was insanity. Well, now that our prurience has been satisfied, how did the work go?”
    “It’s a very long story, and before I go into it, have you three eaten?”
    Three affirmatives caused her to nod. “Well I haven’t yet. You have a choice; you can either wait until I’m done with dinner for the rest of the gossip—”
    They groaned hi mock-anguish.
    “Or you can check me in and bring me something from the kitchen. If Selenay or Elspeth need me, they’ll send a page for me.”
    “I’ll check her in.” Jeri shot out the door and down the spiral staircase.
    “I’ll go fetch you a young feast. You look like you’ve lost pounds, and when Mere finds out it’s for you, he’ll probably ransack the entire pantry.” Sherrill vanished after Jeri.
    Keren stood away from the wall she’d been leaning against. “Give me a proper greeting, you maddening child.” She smiled, holding out her arms.
    “Oh, Keren—” Talia embraced the woman who had been friend, surrogate-mother and sister to her—and more—with heartfelt fervor. “Gods, how I’ve missed you!”
    “And I, you. You’ve changed, and for the better.” Keren held her closely, then put her at arm’s length, surveying her with intense scrutiny. “It isn’t often I get to see my hopes fulfilled with such exactitude.”
    “Don’t be so silly.” Talia blushed. “You’re seeing what isn’t there.”
    “Oh, I think not.” Keren smiled. “The gods know you are the world’s worst judge when it comes to evaluating yourself. Dearling, you’ve become all I hoped you’d be. But—you didn’t have the easy time we thought you would, did you?”
    “I—no, I didn’t.” Talia sighed. “I—Keren, my Gift went rogue on me. At full power.”
    “Great good gods!” She examined Talia even more carefully, gray eyes boring into Talia’s. “How the hell did that happen? I thought we’d trained—”
    “So did everyone.”
    “Wait a moment; let me put this together for myself. You finished Ylsa’s class; now let me remember . . .” Keren’s brow creased hi thought. “It does seem to me that she mentioned something about wanting to send you to the Healers for some special training, that she didn’t feel altogether happy about handling an Empath when her own expertise was Thought-sensing.”
    Keren turned away from Talia and began pacing, a habit the younger woman was long familiar with, for Keren claimed she couldn’t think unless she was moving.
    “Now— I’d assumed she’d taken care of that because you spent so much time with the Healers. But she hadn’t, had she? And then she was murdered—”
    “As far as Kris and I could figure, the Heralds assumed that the Healers were giving me Empath training, and the Healers assumed the Heralds had already done so because I seemed to be in full control. But I wasn’t; it was all instinct and guess. And when control went—”
    “Gods!” Keren stopped pacing and put both of her hands on Talia’s shoulders. “Little one, are you sure you’re all right now?”
    Talia remembered only too vividly the hours of practice Kris had put her through; the painful sessions with the two Companions literally attacking her mentally. “I’m sure. Kris is a Gift-teacher, after all. He took me all the way through the basics, and Rolan and Tantris helped.”
    “Oh, really? Well, well— that’s an interesting twist!” Keren raised an eloquent eyebrow. “Companions don’t intervene that directly as a rule.”
    “I don’t think they saw any other choice. The first month we were all snowed in at that Waystation—then we found out that those damned rumors had made it up to our Sector and we didn’t dare look for outside help.