The Balborite Curse (Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

for disobedience.
    The punishment for theft was severe, and since the acolyte had discovered the theft, by rights, he was allowed to mete her punishment. The boy dragged Skera-Kina into the middle of the courtyard. She remembered squinting in the bright sunlight, and then looking up at the boy’s face. He was smiling.
    He laughed and kicked her down. He beat her savagely, raining down blows with his fists on every inch of her body. When she raised her arm to defend against the blows, he beat her even harder.
    When his hands grew tired, the acolyte fetched a wire whip and struck her so viciously that she collapsed, her back flayed open like a tattered curtain. He stopped only when the dinner bell rang, flinging down the whip to wash his bloodied hands in a nearby fountain. Then he ran off to eat his supper in the dining commons.
    Skera-Kina was left in the courtyard, broken and bloodied. A temple servant finally took pity on her and wrapped her body in a sheet. She was carried back to her master’s home to die… but Skera-Kina’s master was a practical man, and he valued his slaves at least as much as he valued his livestock.
    The master ordered a healer, paying for the service from his own purse. The healer saved Skera-Kina’s life. She was even permitted to recover from her injuries inside the house, rather than in the barn with the other animals.
    The master’s private servants changed her bandages, and gave her strained fruit and watered wine while her jaw healed, for even with the healing spell, she was unable to chew solid food for a month. The master had been a dispassionate man, but he was pleased that Skera-Kina was saved, for he felt that she was a clever and useful slave, if somewhat mischievous.
    The priests did not allow her to return to her old position at the temple, so her master put her to work in his fields. To his credit, the master did not punish her any further for the theft.
    Years later, Skera-Kina ’s magical powers were discovered by a traveling Seeker-Priest, those sent out to find mageborns.
    The priests restored her to temple service once her mageborn gifts were measured and found to be promising. As the seasons passed, the priests saw Skera-Kina’s powers grow, and they negotiated a price for her freedom with her master. She was released from his ownership and placed into permanent service at the temple, where she swore fealty before the holy altar, consecrating the oath in her own blood.
    Many years later, after she had finished her apprenticeship, she went to visit her old master. He told her, half-smiling, that he had negotiated an extravagant price for her, on account of the whipping she had endured. After all, he had been forced to pay a healer, a fact that he had never forgotten.
    Skera-Kina was an exceptional student, learning all her spells at an accelerated rate. She memorized the Five Points of a Blood Master’s core training: Spellcasting, Semantics, Resistance, Combat, and Stealth. As the priests realized the extent of her powers, they became enthusiastic about her progress and granted her many privileges.
    All the while, she felt nothing but emptiness, saved for a single tiny spark. She never forgot that battered slave girl, never forgot the face of her aggressor, nor the vicious beating that left her fighting for her life. The childhood memory of that public humiliation seethed inside her, like a slow ember, whispering for retribution. She waited for her chance at revenge.
    The time passed quickly, and as she advanced, the acolyte eventually studied in the same classes with her. She observed him daily while he trained, catching glimpses of his face, now with a sparse beard on his chin, but still chubby and round like a melon. On many occasions, she looked directly into his eyes, and there was never a shadow of recognition; for in his mind, she had been nothing more than a nameless slave.
    Who could fathom that Skera-Kina would ever rise above slavery, much less study beside