Royal Airs Read Online Free PDF Page B

falling asleep no matter where I am.”
    “We’re still imposing on you most dreadfully. You’ve been so kind to my sister. I think you must be a very good man.”
    Something about that phrase must have triggered a memory in Corene’s mind, because she looked up from her plate. “He doesn’t have any blessings,” she said. “Have you ever heard of such a thing?”
    Now Josie’s expression was speculative again. “Yes, of course. A lot of people here in the slums don’t have any,” she said. “Sometimes they let me pull coins for them. Those are always interesting experiences.”
    Ah—so that was it. This Josie was some kind of reformer, one of those maniacs and zealots who ministered to the poor. That explained her air of saintliness, though it didn’t explain how she’d managed to stay alive for whatever period of time she’d been carrying out her mission. Even do-gooders tended to fare badly in this part of town. Only the tough survived, only the people who were both smart and ruthless. Right now he wasn’t sure she could claim to have any of those traits.
    “Can you take him to a temple?” Corene asked, yawning again.
    “I think we have more pressing concerns at the moment,” Josie replied.
    “But I want to see . He says he’s been to a temple, but he only pulls ghost coins.”
    That caught Josie’s attention; she gave Rafe a quick, sharp inspection. But all she said was, “I suppose that means there’s something mysterious about him.”
    He opened his eyes wide. “ Me? I’m not concealing anything. Whereas your sister has been hiding a secret all night, beginning with her name, which clearly isn’t Cora .”
    Josie looked amused again. “I’m surprised to learn she has such discretion.”
    So she wasn’t disposed to share secrets, either. The less they wanted to tell him, the more he wanted to know. “I think I’ll piece the clues together eventually.”
    “No doubt you will.”
    “But his blessings,” Corene interjected, her voice stubborn. He thought she must be so tired and so overwhelmed that she had picked this one idea to anchor her thoughts to the present. “Can you take him to a temple later? Maybe while I’m sleeping? You pull the best blessings.”
    Josie sighed silently, as if capitulating, and then asked Rafe, “Do you have a sheet of paper? And something to write with?”
    “Um—sure. Let me poke around a little.”
    He finally unearthed paper and ink, and cleared a space on the table for Josie to go to work. He wasn’t surprised to see that she approached this odd, unimportant task with great precision, first marking off twenty-four squares on two separate pieces of paper, and then sketching a blessing sigil in each one.
    “Do you know them all by heart?” Corene asked, watching in fascination.
    “Of course. Don’t you?”
    Corene didn’t bother to answer. “But why do you need forty-eight?”
    “Forty elemental blessings. Three extraordinary blessings. Three ghost blessings. And two left over in case I make a mistake.”
    She didn’t, of course, as Rafe could have predicted. When she was done, he had to hunt for a pair of scissors so she could cut the squares apart, and then look for a container to hold them. The sisters were busy folding the scraps into smaller shapes while he searched for a bowl or basket. The best he could come up with was a mug that had held ale at a not too distant date, but any leftover liquid had dried into a stain at the bottom of the cup.
    He was heading back to the table when a knock on the door sent him that way. “Rafe,” called one of the serving boys through the wood. “Samson sent up a loaf of bread if you want it.”
    Whenever Samson had leftover food, he offered it to his boarders at a huge discount, an arrangement Rafe appreciated. “Sounds good,” he called back. Opening the door, he handed over a few quint-coppers in exchange for a slightly lumpy loaf. “Anybody want something else to eat?” he inquired as he