Child of a Hidden Sea Read Online Free PDF Page A

sorry. As her kinswoman, you may have to say whether Bastien should scribe her. If she worsens.”
    Kinswoman. That sense of being dishonest, an imposter, washed through her again. “Bastien can heal her?” Why were they even asking? “Would that be a problem?”
    â€œIf she can recover normally, it is better.”
    â€œWhy?” A dozen questions occurred to her, among them, OMG, seriously, magic? But she made an effort to stay on point. “Does magic have … side effects?”
    Dega nodded, as if this was obvious.
    â€œOne can only bear so much intention,” Bastien said.
    â€œThere’s a limit on how much you can take?”
    â€œYes.”
    Magic with a … would you call that a load limit? Wow. “This is why you apologized for … scribing me, was that what you called it?”
    He set the knife aside gingerly. “This is an emergency.”
    She thought that over. “It was a first for me.”
    â€œYou’ve never been scribed?”
    â€œI’m not from around here,” she said, adding the worrisome question of magical limits and side effects and how soon could she get an MRI to a growing list of things to follow up. “But you think Gale has been? Scribed? And if you heal her—”
    â€œWe can’t know unless she wakes and tells us. And there are other urgent matters,” Dega said.
    â€œMatters?”
    â€œI must assist the others.” Bastien had brewed himself a hot drink. He broke a white egg with dark brown speckles into it and gulped the whole thing down. Taking his tools and a small, leather-bound book, he wrapped himself in Dega’s sailcloth poncho and disappeared outside.
    As he closed the door, Sophie settled at his ramshackle table. “What’s the issue, Dega?”
    â€œWho stabbed Kir Feliachild?”
    â€œYou don’t think I stuck that—” she indicated the hunting knife “—in her chest?”
    The woman shook her head. “If you wanted her dead, you’d have let her drown. What happened?”
    â€œTwo guys attacked her about a block from my mom’s place—”
    â€œOn Verdanii?”
    â€œUh. San Francisco.”
    Blank expression.
    â€œNot the point, okay? There were two of them, both Caucasian. I noticed their clothes first: they were cut like medical scrubs, almost institutional, but the fabric was heavy and their pants were pressed. Good quality, you know?”
    â€œI don’t know scrubs, or Caucasian. They were wealthy, these men? That blade … it is outlander material, I think.”
    â€œIt’s just steel.”
    Dega shuddered a little, as if Sophie had said “radioactive.” “Did the ruffians say anything?”
    â€œNot in English.” Sophie shook her head. “I caught a few words. “Tempranza … Yacoura? And Gale laughed. That’s when everything got all brawly.”
    â€œYacoura is lost.” The woman looked outside. The storm had abated as suddenly as it began. “You should rest. I’ll come for you if she wakens.”
    Sophie eyed Bastien’s filthy-looking cot and then checked her watch. It was barely evening in San Francisco. “Isn’t there anything I can do to help out?”
    â€œOur fishers were caught in the storm. We’re sending boats out to assist them.”
    â€œI can sail. I can row. I’m a great swimmer.”
    â€œNo, Kir. Your aunt may want you.”
    Fat chance of that, Sophie thought. “I can gut fish, cook, tie nets, gather specimens, pound nails … um, hang-glide. Come on, you’re in a jam. You must need able bodies.”
    At length, Dega nodded. “Come with me.”
    She led Sophie down to the mud flats by the beach. The teens they’d put ashore earlier were prepping a flimsy-looking fishing boat for launch, loading up tools, rope, and buckets of steaming violet-colored goo—to patch leaks,