The Farwalker's Quest Read Online Free PDF Page A

adding a few words and a shrug.
    A gust of wind flapped both strangers’ coats. Abruptly, Ariel recalled yesterday’s encounter with Leed Windmaster and his warning about the troubling wind.
    She pressed the door shut.
    â€œHey,” complained the girl crouched below her. But other students scattered as well.
    By the time the door opened again, everyone was seated once more. The Storian entered slowly, his hands clasped and his brow wrinkled.
    â€œIs something wrong?” Madeleine asked.
    â€œGood question,” Bellam said, mostly to himself. He fingered one hairy ear. “Perhaps. But where were we? Oh yes.” He clapped his hands. “Namingfest.”
    For the next hour, students recited lessons that Ariel had heard every year: What the word “apprentice” meant. How the trades had emerged at the end of the Blind War, and why there were more Reapers and Fishers than anything else. What happened if you failed your test and had to spend a miserable year as a Fool. While her classmates described the symbol for each trade, Ariel thought about all the other marks on her dart. She could hardly wait for lunchtime, when she and Zeke could run to her house and inspect it together at last.
    When the morning could stretch out no longer, Storian checked the weather at the door. The wind whooshed in past him.
    â€œCome back after your lunches,” he decided, dismissing the class. “We’ll get a few more lessons today.”
    Zeke, who had jittered anxiously the whole hour, jumped up. Ariel got stuck behind somebody slower.
    â€œAriel.” The Storian’s voice held a silent command.
    Her heart shivered. “Yes, sir?”
    The other kids stepped wide around her. Whatever her crime, it might be contagious.
    Storian did not go on until they had all filed out. Tortured, Ariel craned her neck, trying to see through the doorway whether Zeke awaited her outside.
    â€œDid you think I didn’t notice?”
    Ariel’s mind spun. Did the Storian somehow know what they’d found?
    He continued. “You and Zeke did not return after lunch yesterday.”
    She tried not to slump in relief. “No, sir. We were catching pollywogs, and I guess we were late.” It was true, partly.
    â€œAnd how did that result in a broken arm?”
    â€œWell, we climbed a tree, too.”
    â€œI see.” Storian tapped his fingertips on his leg. “Don’t be late today. The two of you will start our afternoon lesson by reciting the multiplication of numbers from one to fifteen.”
    A groan escaped her. “Yes, sir.”
    By the time Ariel fled outside, Zeke was racing up the hill toward the meadow, his splint hugged to his belly.
    â€œZeke!” she hollered. He had already run too far to hear her. She could guess where he was going, however, and he wouldn’t want her there while he talked to his tree. She stamped one foot in annoyance. She wasn’t sure how some silly tree—or even a smart one—could answer questions about strangers or anything else that didn’t concern it. Meanwhile, he was wasting a good chance to look at the telling dart.
    She scuffed through the mud toward home. At least she could finish her copy during lunch. Maybe Zeke would return with time to spare and come find her. She shot a last glance toward the tree line. He’d already disappeared into its shadow.
    Ariel turned the corner of her cottage an instant before hearing the voices. Horrified, she stumbled back out of sight, praying she hadn’t been spotted. The bearish stranger stood at her open front door. Since he didn’t look sick, Ariel couldn’t imagine why he had come—unless it had something to do with her dart.
    Gripping the stone wall of her house, she peeked toward the blond man. He flashed his fake smile at her mother and lumbered away. Luckily for Ariel, he turned his back, not his face, toward her staring eyes at the corner. As soon as he