Gravity's Revenge Read Online Free PDF Page A

her the resolve to stand up for Alyla and Minna.
    “Princesses of less skill are admitted every season.”
    “Exactly. Room must be reserved for the nobility.”
    “Alyla is intelligent and imaginative. Testing merely makes her nervous.”
    The chancellor might as well not have heard her. “And you insist on bringing a new girl of the same social strata? Who will you enter into the novice registry next to offend the goddess? That animal?”
    She sniffed at the fennec scuffling in Hiresha’s arms. The fox buried himself in her layers.
    The chancellor asked, “Or perhaps open the Academy to men?”
    “In point of fact,” Hiresha said, her breath misting out from between her clenched teeth, “I believe the Academy would benefit if we considered admitting male novices of great potential skill.”
    The noise of distaste made by the chancellor reminded Hiresha very much of a fox’s sneeze. “What would one even call male enchantresses? Enchanting men? Enchantmen? ”
    “Enchanters,” Hiresha said.
    “‘En-chan-teers.’” After saying the word, the chancellor’s yellowish tongue curled toward the back of her mouth.
    Hiresha glanced to Fos. She said, “And some women might make exceptional spellswords. In some ways, a female guard would be more—”
    “Enough. Being Provost of Applied Enchantment in no manner gives you the right to question rules enacted by the Opal Mind.”
    “You mean the goddess of imaginative thought? She would want us to honor her by looking for new methods and practices to enrich the Academy.”
    The chancellor swiveled in a snap of blue lace to face Alyla and her brother. “Spellsword Fosapam, inform Spellsword Trakis that you will be serving as the Academy’s night watchman. For the entirety of this month.”
    To have Fos stand each watch was a punishment that enraged Hiresha. Spellswords alternated shifts so no one man would suffer exposure in the freezing night air. The injustice of it caused heat to smolder under Hiresha’s gown, and she felt hot and sick.
    Fos was blinking wide-eyed at the chancellor. Hiresha imagined him thinking of all those nights, so inclement that his lips froze to his teeth. She took some comfort in knowing she could cure any frostbite. Even so, she had to wonder if Fos would yell at the chancellor in outrage, or complain.
    The spellsword grinned. “Then I’ll have all the time to practice my long jump. And the stars won’t judge me if I get it wrong. Well, they may smirk a twinkle.”
    His brows furled in focus as he lowered himself. A pinging noise sounded in Hiresha’s inner ear as he Lightened his greaves and himself. Weighing no more than a fox but with the muscles of a grown man, he launched himself into the air.
    The wind swatted him to his knees.
    The chancellor nodded at his failure and stalked off, her train of gowns leaving a path in the snow.
    Hiresha winced for Fos. “You’re brave to even attempt the long jump. Most spellswords delay learning the technique years for fear of embarrassment.”
    “It’s the timing.” He brushed the white from the scale vest beneath his coat. “Have to Lighten myself then drop the spell before my feet leave the ground. Too soon and I only hop. Too late and I’m an overlarge leaf in the wind.”
    Hiresha refolded his right lapel. “It is my fault, about the night duty. The chancellor knows she cannot reprimand me directly. The Ceiling of Elders wouldn’t have it.”
    Fos shrugged it off.
    Maid Janny sauntered up, her arm around her daughter. The maid’s rather shapeless body jiggled with happiness. Minna gazed at Spellsword Fos then adjusted her veil and squirmed out of her mother’s grasp.
    Hiresha pinched the bridge of her nose and glared after the chancellor. “Janny, was I ever so disagreeable as that?”
    “You’re only a headache away from being so again.” Janny winked at the enchantress. Next she knuckled Fos’s shoulder. “Don’t you worry. I’ll bring you some mulled ale so you