Glasswrights' Apprentice Read Online Free PDF Page B

whitewashed tables. She had trickled cornmeal into countless cauldrons, and then stirred the resulting mush until it thickened to Cook’s revolting expectations. Her arms trembled with her new strength, and she found hand-holds where none were visible, tiny gaps where she could force her fingers. Like a horsefly loose in the pantry, she made her way up the stone wall.
    Only once did she get stuck, and that was when the crow realized that his territory was being invaded. The giant bird cawed harshly and swooped upon her. His beak clashed against the flashing gold thread of Rani’s guild emblem; the thieving bird was after the apprentice’s wealth just as its brothers had tried to steal from the merchants’ boards. Rani, thrusting away the image of bloody talons and beak, fended off the crow’s attack with a stiff-fingered hand. That instinctive maneuver made her slide down the face of the wall; she only caught herself by flattening her belly against the stone and skinning both knees.
    The crow, not to be deterred, beat at her with its wings, and Rani cried out as she imagined the sharp beak ripping her flesh. The bird cawed again, flapping its huge wings in excitement over Rani’s glittering guild-patch. Rani could picture her skin being ripped as she heard the fabric tear, but then the crow stroked away on his broad wings, trailing the golden threads that had secured Rani’s multi-colored badge of office.
    Anger gave way to relief, and Rani clung to the wall for a moment, panting out a prayer to Fairn, the god of birds, who had seen fit to send away that particularly nasty minion. Without the looming crow, Rani made short work of the rest of her climb. Arms quivering, she pulled herself atop the wall, and it only took a minute to summon the nerve to leap to the apple tree.
    Once she was secure in the tree’s gnarled branches, she began to shake uncontrollably. Suddenly, she was chilled - her arm was bare where the crow had ripped the fabric, and she missed the cloak she had been forced to leave at the cathedral. A steady breeze stiffened against the tear-tracks on her face, and Rani realized that her hands were still trembling when she reached for a rosy apple.
    For just an instant, the ripe fruit melted into the blood streaking Tuvashanoran’s fine face, but she shuddered past the image, squeezing her eyes shut and bringing the fragrant fruit to her lips. She chewed mechanically, then grabbed at another and another.
    Only when the worst pangs in her belly were quelled did Rani descend from her perch. She paused at the base of the tree to gather several windfalls and stuff them into her doublet’s hidden pockets. The orchard was eerie in the late fall afternoon; autumn-bare branches straggled across a darkening sky. A breeze skirled through the trees, rattling dry leaves like prayers for the dead.
    Rani ducked into the guildhall unseen and made her way through strangely silent corridors. Usually, late afternoon was the time of greatest activity - instructors finishing their classes for the day, apprentices scurrying to complete their tasks before scrubbing up after their brothers and sisters.
    Today, though, no one roamed the halls. Rani passed by the great chamber where the whitewashed tables squatted, awaiting a glasswright’s hand to sketch complex charcoal designs. Not a glazier was in sight. Certainly, the ragged tail of a fire twitched on the grate, but even that was faded almost to embers. Rani almost stopped to bank the coals, in an effort to limit her work later in the day.
    Afterwards, Rani could never be sure what drove her to the Hall of Discipline. Maybe, it was Instructor Morada’s angry words, delivered on the scaffold, ordering Rani to report for punishment. Maybe, at the back of her mind, she heard the ghosts of voices in the guildhall’s deadly still, and she decided to seek them out. Maybe her steps were guided by one of the Thousand Gods.
    Whatever the