Fortune and Fate (Twelve Houses) Read Online Free PDF

matter how we sit.”
     
     
    “True enough,” Wen said, tugging the horse to a halt.
     
     
    She’d just put her foot in the stirrup when Karryn said, “Wait a minute. I keep forgetting to ask your name! You know mine.”
     
     
    Wen hesitated just a second, staring over her shoulder at the girl. Then she said, “My name is Willa.”
     

 
    Chapter 3
     

     
    THEY RODE FOR ANOTHER TWO HOURS AT A FAIRLY GEN TLE pace. At first, Karryn chattered about topics that Wen found unutterably boring—her friends, her clothes, a ball she had attended last winter. But soon enough she began yawning heavily and allowing long pauses to build up between her sentences. Eventually her arms went slack around Wen’s waist and her head rested against the back of Wen’s. Wen waited with a sort of dour impatience for the girl to fall so deeply asleep that she loosed her hold and actually fell from the saddle.
     
     
    They needed to find a place to stop, and they needed to find it soon. Fortunately, unlike Karryn, Wen actually had a moderate number of coins in her saddlebag. They’d be able to pay for food, a horse, and overnight lodgings if they needed to. If the tall, soft, wise, kind uncle didn’t catch up to them first.
     
     
    When they came to a crossroads that looked like a major route, Wen ruthlessly shook Karryn from her drowsy state. “Wake up. Does any of this look familiar? Where do you think this road leads?”
     
     
    Karryn sighed and sat up. “I thought you said we wanted to go southwest?”
     
     
    “Eventually we do. But I’m wondering if there’s a bigger town closer to us if we head northeast?”
     
     
    Karryn covered her mouth to hide another yawn. “I told you I don’t know. I don’t even know where we are.”
     
     
    “Just think about it,” Wen said. “Marlords—and marladies—are supposed to have some mystical connection to their land. If—”
     
     
    “I’m not a mystic!” Karryn exclaimed, sitting straight up. “We don’t harbor mystics in Fortunalt!”
     
     
    “I thought you despised your father and everything he stood for,” Wen shot back. “ He’s the one who hated mystics. You should welcome them.”
     
     
    “I don’t hate them,” Karryn said stiffly. “I just don’t want anyone calling me a mystic. I don’t have any magic at all. I don’t want any.”
     
     
    Wen sighed. “Well, all right. Do you think we should go left or right? Not that I’ll do what you say, but I thought I’d ask your opinion.”
     
     
    “I think you should go straight,” Karryn said crossly. “ That’s where the next town is.”
     
     
    There was a little silence between them for a moment. “Really?” Wen said at last.
     
     
    “I don’t know why I said that,” Karryn replied.
     
     
    Wen was grinning as she urged the gelding forward. “Well, let’s just see. At any rate, I’m guessing your devvaser friend went left, chasing after us, so straight is a better choice than that.”
     
     
    They had only ridden another fifteen minutes when they topped a low hill and saw a market town spread out in the shallow valley below them. It was nowhere near the size of Ghosenhall or Forten City, but there were shops, there were stables, there were inns.
     
     
    “You might not have magic in your veins,” Wen said, a smile in her voice, “but you definitely have serramarra blood. Let’s go find food and a fresh horse.”
     
     
     
 
A meal revived Karryn and she claimed she didn’t need to sleep. “I want to go home ,” she said. So Wen bargained with a stablemaster to buy an aging but well-behaved mare, and pretty soon they were on the road again. Not long after, they came to the crossroads and headed southwest.
     
     
    “Here’s where it gets tricky,” Wen said. “We want to be on the road to flag down your uncle, if he’s coming, but we don’t want to be seen if the devvaser turns back to find you. If we hear anyone coming this way, we want to get out of sight,