Gratuitous Epilogue : Touchstone Extras Read Online Free PDF Page A

the children they liked most among those they'd been
working with at the talent school. And once again I was just so
utterly glad I didn't have to do any picking. They were talking
about whether it was better to adopt children who you simply liked
the most, or if it was kinder to take those who needed you more.
One of the medics working with the Setari and the talent school had
already adopted, and she'd chosen a very traumatised and isolated
girl around Sen's age who had lost everyone she knew, and who
wasn't coping at all well with the 'boarding school' living
arrangements. She wasn't a very appealing kid, inclined to snivel,
but it really helped her to 'belong' to someone. And yet, as Jeh
pointed out, holding stoic resilience against children who were
coping better didn't seem fair.
    Moving to their new
houses had been the decision point they'd set, and three days after
the housewarming party five children came home for the first
time.
    Which kids were chosen
mattered a lot to me – Mara and Lohn are so important to me that I
stress about things coming between us. I made sure not to offer
opinions on any of the residents of the talent school, though Lira
hasn't been shy about sharing her thoughts on them with me, so I've
more of an idea of the major personalities. I would have found it
awkward if any of those chosen were ones who didn't seem able to
see Ys and Rye as anything but servants. I didn't even talk about
this to Kaoren, but he could tell as usual when I'm stressing,
effortlessly worked out why, and pointed out that Lohn and Mara
care about Ys and Rye too, and were likely to have taken them into
account.
    Lohn didn't succeed in
talking Mara into taking four, so they stuck with their original
plan of two. Both of them boys. Feinaren's eleven, and a real imp –
spends all his time swarming up trees. Sharalentelasker (Shar) is
thirteen and it's a bit hard to tell what he's like since he likes
to watch more than talk, at least when I'm about. A strong Sight
talent, with everything except Combat and Gate Sight, and inclined
to behave with the typical slight distance that a Place Sight
talent cultivates. Sen – who is my early-warning system for suspect
people – doesn't object to him, so I know he can't be too bad, but
I had to ask Mara what had drawn her to him. Fein I can understand
– he and Lohn are a lot alike – but Shar seems very self-contained
and able to handle himself and not someone I would have expected
them to feel parental about.
    "We wanted to get him
away from Nuran politics," Mara told me, looking wry. "He's one of
two who could arguably be Nuri's heir if they were going by their
rules of succession." She laughed at my expression. "Not that
that's any reason for me to want to play parent. He's far from
incapable, and has been involved in quashing a few disputes within
the school. If he was Kalrani he'd be on the captain track. Which
is a good thing, but we also noticed that he was terribly tired
every morning. That's the impact of the politics – he has a lively
night life thanks to being drawn into the Nuran power struggles.
They bring disputes to him to settle, just as they do with
Inisar."
    "And you got all
protective." I understood it then. "A bit like me and Ys – Ys is so
much better at looking after Sen than I am, and I keep having to
find ways to ensure she no longer automatically puts Sen above
herself. Because I want Ys to have time to be Ys."
    Mara nodded. "It's a
very odd feeling. We had been planning on taking two younger
children, because someone as old as Shar will never truly regard us
as parents. And he doesn't need us. But I wanted him to have
a quiet night."
    Ketzaren, Jeh and Grif
ended up doing something similar. One of the children they chose,
Zaranar, is sixteen. She has a five year-old brother, Dealanar, who
is very traumatized and withdrawn – they lost their parents and
several other siblings, including Deal's twin – and Ketzaren says
they wanted to both give Deal