Sword and Verse Read Online Free PDF

platforms after years of experience. So I went on. “Actually, I remember wanting to slap you, for showing off.”
    â€œA fine bit of gratitude,” he said in mock indignation.
    I gave a little shrug. “I didn’t slap you, did I? I was grateful. I . . . still am.” The humor drained from his face, replaced by something tentative that made the day seem suddenly warmer. For some reason, I couldn’t stop talking. “I wouldn’t even have been in the Selection if not for you. If you hadn’t come along just then—”
    â€œI’d been down in the dungeons.” His voice was so low that I had to lean forward to catch his next words. “Visiting Tyasha.”
    I started—speaking her name out loud was forbidden, but ofcourse that didn’t apply to the prince. Abruptly he straightened. “I wanted to ask her why she did it. She was always opinionated, and Laiyonea let her get away with a great deal. It was no surprise she got herself into trouble. She forced my father to punish her.” He glanced at my face, as if trying to determine whether I believed him.
    I didn’t say anything, and he turned away. He scribbled another symbol, then pushed it toward me almost defiantly. “Here, this one means traitor .”
    I registered his words, but did not grasp their meaning. Instead I stared at the symbol, a symbol I knew—the only symbol, in fact, that I’d really known before I had come to the Adytum. The symbol that began my name in the Arnath writing, the one I’d seen branded on Sotia’s cheek on the statue on the Library. The symbol that stood for the first sound in my name: rai .
    At last I found my voice. “What . . . what did you say it means?”
    â€œTraitor,” said the prince. “What’s the matter?”
    To him it stood for a concept, not a sound. The idea of a symbol representing the sound rai would be preposterous to him. I curled my fingers around my quill in sudden dread—what if this writing was too different from my father’s, and I never learned to read my heart-verse?
    â€œRaisa?” said the prince. “What is it?”
    I shook my head. “Nothing.” I bent over my paper, and for the first time since I’d begun my training, I got it exactly right on the first try.

Gyotia, well-pleased with his own handling of his wives, nearly missed seeing Suna emerge from the mountains of fire, and Sotia got there first. Sotia diluted the poison of the lantana plant with her own tears and fed the mixture to her new sister. By the time Gyotia arrived, the lantana had scarred Suna’s face so that Gyotia, repelled, would not touch her, and she remains the virgin goddess. So it shall be until the gods read out the scrolls.
    That was the first time Sotia defied the king of the gods, but it was not to be the last.
FOUR
    ON THE DAY of the pantomime, we performed on a stage outside the Temple of Aqil, with a raised portion at one end where all the scenes featuring the gods took place. Whenever the gods visited the earth, we rode across the stage to the lower end on a wheeled platform pushed by temple slaves—among them, my old friend Kiti, who had recently come to serve at the temple, having grown too heavy for palace cleaning work. I’d been delighted to see Kiti, but hadn’t dared to speak to him. Laiyonea had warned me to be quiet and careful, especially around Penta Rale, the High Priest of Aqil and chief of all the priests. After the things Tyasha had done, every move I made outside the palace would be scrutinized, and Rale especially disliked the Tutors.
    In rehearsals, I had surprised everyone with my ease on the rolling contraption; having spent most of my childhood atop cleaning platforms, I barely had to lift my arms to keep my balance. Still, when I stepped onto it at the performance and saw the crowd for the first time, I almost fell over. Everyone in the City of Kings must have