The Forgotten Sisters Read Online Free PDF Page A

said that word before.
Tutor
. What is a tutor?”
    Felissa giggled. “Sounds like something you do after eating too much pig grass.”
    â€œA tutor is a
teacher
,” Miri said quickly. “I can teach you Reading and Arithmetic and History, all kinds of subjects, even Poise.”
    â€œWhy would we ever need to do those things?” Astrid asked. She was still standing by the window, the sharpened stick in her hand.
    â€œBecause … because …” Miri’s head felt pressed between stones. Suddenly in that dark, strange little house, nothing that had happened in Asland made any sense at all. “Can we talk about this in the morning?”
    â€œAfter breaking into our house, you’re expecting us to let you stay?” said Astrid.
    Miri blinked and had a hard time opening her eyes again. “Please,” she whispered.
    Felissa offered her a reed mat. Miri curled up on her side, using her pack of clothing as a pillow. She was too tired and dizzy to change out of her mud-splattered clothing. She barely managed to kick off her boots.
    Imposing
, Miri thought. She closed her eyes, and sleep came up to meet her, as hard as the floor.

Chapter Four
    Mouth curved and smiling
    Head sleek and rounded
    Its bite just a bee’s sting
    Your screams are unfounded
    Head like an arrow
    Body striped or stippled
    Run from this slinker
    Or it will leave you crippled
    Morning buzzed and cawed and croaked. Miri swatted a fly from her face and sat up, groaning. The three girls were rolling up their reed mats, so Miri did the same.
    â€œI’m sorry I didn’t start with an introduction,” she said. “I’d love to learn your names properly.”
    â€œSee? I told you she’d ask eventually,” Felissa said to Astrid.
    â€œWe weren’t sure you had learned manners,” said Susanna. “Folk from Asland can be bossy rude.”
    Miri felt her face burn. “Imposing” had been a bad idea.
    At her princess academy, she’d studied the rules of Conversation, including finding common ground with others.
    â€œI’m not from Asland, though I’ve been living there recently. I’m from a place called Mount Eskel. In fact, linder—these stones of your house—they were actually cut out of Mount Eskel itself!”
    The girls stared back. Astrid, seeming to realize Miri expected a reaction to that news, said, “Oh.”
    Miri felt her shoulders slump. She cleared her throat. “So, what are your names?”
    She’d guessed correctly, the tallest was also the oldest. Astrid was very thin, her brown hair loose and matted. Her nose was sharp, but her gaze was even sharper.
    Next was Felissa. She had dark eyes like Astrid but paler hair, shiny as honey. Though she was thin like her sister, her cheeks were full, making her seem a healthy plump. She was almost always smiling, which put dimples in those cheeks.
    The youngest, Susanna, introduced herself as just Sus. She was the same height as Miri, though she appeared to be only about ten years old. Whereas Felissa rarelystopped smiling, Sus did not seem to know how to start. She had dark hair, kinky with natural curls, and a gaze that was lazy without being dull.
    â€œWhere is everyone else?” Miri asked. “Servants? Guards? Your parents?”
    Astrid stiffened. “It’s just us,” she said.
    Miri shut her eyes. The royal guards were sailing back toward Asland by now. Asland, where a king and his ministers believed the royal cousins were outfitted with guards and servants and wealth. But whatever had happened to change that, Astrid clearly did not want to talk about it.
    â€œJust so you know,” said Felissa, her smile a little timid now, “in Lesser Alva one never, ever enters someone else’s house without being invited.”
    â€œNever,” Sus said, unblinking.
    â€œNever ever,” said Felissa, nodding.
    â€œIn fact, we could have killed you