Scholar's Plot Read Online Free PDF

under normal circumstances, but Gifts, which pass only through the female line, are much prized. All who are Gifted have the ability to sense magic, in plants or animals that have it. This enables them to avoid the catastrophes that occur when such plants or animals are harvested without proper sacrifice. But the ability to sense magic is often accompanied by a host of lesser talents and quirks. I’d once met a man who could instantly tell if something he touched was a forgery, and I wondered what he’d make of the dissertation that had brought 
my brother down so neatly. Still…
    “What does the Liege Heir falling for some Giftless girl have to do with Benton? ’Tis tragic for them, since the High Liege will never let them wed. A simple baron would object to such a wife for his heir. But that’s nothing to do with us.”
    Kathy looked glum. “You’re not one of the sacrificial maidens the High Liege has hauled into court to induce Rupert to pick someone else. But as for this… Rupert’s trying to find a way out of the trap. He’s offered funding, and a huge reward for success, to anyone who can find a way to make a Giftless person Gifted. Or to have Gifted children, since that’s the part that matters.”
    I sank down on one of Benton’s comfortably padded chairs, though the statement wasn’t so very shocking. People had been speculating about doing that for ages — from the time of Benton’s ancients, probably — and no one had even come close.
    Except for one terrible woman, and she hadn’t been trying to Gift the Giftless, but to turn Gifts to full-out magic. The memory of her attempts, of rope chaffing my wrists as I fought, and potions cramping my stomach, and that terrible thrumming in my blood…
    “Then the gods had best make an exception and look out for that poor woman, because… Wait a moment. If he loves her, surely the Heir won’t allow anyone to experiment upon her.”
    “Of course not.” Kathy gave me an odd look. “He’s funding universities to do the experiments, to figure out what might work and test it. ’Tis only if they come up with something safe … and if they did, it’s not just Rupert and Meg who’d benefit. Think of it, Michael — anyone might have Gifts! Gifted healers would be common, instead of rare. With so many herb talkers making it, magica medicine would become cheap. No hunter losing limbs because he happens to bring down some beast with magic, or house burning down because ’twas made with a magica wood.”
    “No lords or barons,” said Benton, “since it was the ability to sense magic and avoid it that enabled our ancestors to rise to power. Though I think they started as tribal chieftains, which was a much more fluid position than—”
    “Yes, Benton,” Kathy said. “But the important part now is how you got caught up in the project.”
    “Oh, that.” Sometimes my brilliant brother could be rather dim. “They wanted to know if the ancients had ever tried such a thing. And some of them had — there are songs and such that hint at the formulas they used. I compiled them.”
    I readied myself to interrupt a spate of information about ancient songs, but Benton said nothing more.
    “And…?” Kathy demanded.
    “Hang it, Kathy, it was nothing! I don’t have a Gift for reading people, not that that would tell you much. It seemed like they were beginning to get results off some of the formulas I gave them, but that’s all I really saw.”
    “And…?”
    Benton rolled his eyes in a brotherly way, and turned to me. “I mentioned, once, that something felt a bit off about the project.”
    “What do you mean, ‘off?’”
    “Just… I don’t know. It felt…” His hands wav-ed vaguely, trying to shape something he couldn’t 
describe. “I didn’t see anyone do anything, or say anything wrong. I was mostly helping them with the rabbits, so even if there was something off I wouldn’t know about it.”
    “Rabbits?” I asked. “Wait,