Bloodkin (Jaseth of Jaelshead) Read Online Free PDF

The audience made noises of confusion, “Our cities. Underground.” Then there were nods of understanding. “Then, if we qualify, and most everyone does, we become Journeymen and we live Outside for ten years, learning about life and thinkingabout what we want to do.” There was some shaking of heads and nervous laughter as the audience were slightly awed by the Nea’thi timeline. Ten years spent wandering around? Just
living
? Unbelievable!
    “
Then
we get to choose our profession and we go back to the Enclaves to study.” He coughed. “Well, you can go back to study whenever you like, but ten years is the
minimum
before they’ll let you into most professions. So anyway, I decided I wanted to be a Mentor, so I went back to Ұiờ, studied for ten years and now here I am, with my very first Bloodkin.” He raised his glass “Jaseth of Jaelshead!” and he downed it to cheers and calls to Rudi for more wine.
    First! Hell, this night was full of surprises. I had no idea I was Charlie’s first Mentoring job, no wonder he seemed so young! I realised the crowd was looking at me expectantly so I stood and held up my glass to Charlie, clearing my throat and feeling like a bloody superstar.
    “Well, here’s to Charlie, thanks for letting me take your Mentoring cherry!” The room exploded with laughter and cheering and Charlie stood to clink his glass against mine. He punched gently me in the arm.
    “Cheers Jas, you’re a good kid.” He hooted with mirth, “Man, we are going to have the
best
time!”
     
    Much later in the evening, when the crowd had dispersed to their rooms and their homes, Charlie and I had moved to one of the booths closest to the fire, that was now little more than glowing embers. Only a small party of drunken merchants remained, and Myr Rudi was wiping down the bar with his usual energy.
    Charlie had delighted the crowd with stories from his years as a Journeyman, and answered the barrage of questions about life in the Enclaves, the royal court and inevitably Hầұeӣ, which the locals insisted on calling magic.
    “Of course it’s real,” he answered more genially than I thought the impudent question, from one of the merchants who had pulled up a chair, deserved. “What, you thought we made it up?”
    He had demurred though, when asked for a demonstration. “We are taught that we mustn’t use our, er, magic for frivolous purposes. It’s special, and we only use it when we really need to,” he admonished the crowd, but then grinned, to lighten the mood. “And it takes rather a lot of concentration, and with all this fine Jaelshead red our Myr Rudi has been plying me with, I’m too far gone to even
think
about it!” There had been much laughter at this and Granth was dispensed to the bar to gather more bottles for the happy group.
    Charlie had even gone over to the girl on the podium and whispered something in her ear, something that elicited a smile which lit her pinched face. As he strolled back to the couch she straightened and tucked her lank hair behind her ears and launched into a stomping tune that soon had almost the entire inn singing along. When I asked him what on earth he had said to her, he just grinned and shrugged his shoulders.
    “I just told her how much we were enjoying her wonderful musicianship, and I suggested a couple of my favourites that I could just tell would sound great if she sung them.” I had laughed at his ridiculous flattery. “What? You just have to know how to appeal to Humans. And if you tell someone enough that they are great, then they will
be
great. And look at her now!”
    If he was being a bit heavy-handed with the life lessons, I figured it was his job – his new job, no less – and to be fair, I couldn’t argue with his logic. The girl was standing now, one foot resting on the crossbars of the stool, her guitar balanced on her upraised knee, belting out a tune that everyone except me seemed to know the words to.
     
    Gina!
    I love my