The Gantean (Tales of Blood & Light Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

and purposeful; we never forgot the hunger we served or the higher purpose of our duties. But this new southern world seduced me—the part of me that was my own and free from the strictures of clan and Elders—with its warmth and color. I relished the comfort of silk and ramie. I wanted more than felted tents and homespun goat wool. I wanted more than stoic silence and hard rules. Though I had been forced into Lethemia’s exotic splendor, I wanted more of it. Such sayantaq desires caused me shame.
    Already the taint seeped into me.
    The Iksraqtaq world had been destroyed; there was nothing left on Gante, no clan or community to which I could return even if I could escape. My only choice, as I saw it, was to learn how to live in this new world, to adapt and survive, as Nautien had directed.
    I would not look back. I would go forward blindly on this path. Had Iksraqtaq detachment and pragmatics prompted my choice, or sayantaq weakness?
    I could not say.
----
    O ne morning while cleaning Tiercel’s quarters, I succumbed to temptation, leaned my broom against the bookshelf, and pulled down a book from the shelf. I opened the leather cover and ran my finger down the page. It showed a map of Lethemia. Ten noble houses ruled ten provinces. Entila’s province covered the entire north-eastern quadrant of the Lethemian peninsula.
    “What are you doing?”
    I whirled at the unexpected voice and fumbled the book. A girl stood there—someone I did not know from the Big House, though, by her attire and her haughty demeanor I assumed she must be Lady Malvyna Entila’s only daughter. Though younger than me, already she stood taller. Green eyes blazed in her narrow face.
    “You’re Tiercel’s new girl? You don’t look Gantean.” Her gaze dropped to the book that I cradled. “And you read? I didn’t think Ganteans knew how.” She spoke derisively rather than kindly.
    I shoved the book back onto the shelf and performed the curtsey Tiercel had taken pains to show me for when I encountered a member of the Entila family.
    “I’m looking for Tiercel,” the girl said. “Have you seen him?”
    I shook my head. I’d seen him shuffling off towards the Big House the evening before, and he had not yet returned.
    “How useless. I want to fly my bird.”
    I cleared my throat and formed my words carefully. Tiercel had been coaching me to diminish my Gantean accent. “You might find him in the Big House.”
    The girl rolled her eyes. “Then he’s occupied. You can unlock the cage for me. Come.” With an imperious gesture she returned to the main room with the birds.
    I followed reluctantly. Tiercel had been clear that no one was to handle the birds without his supervision.
    “What are you waiting for? I want that one.” She pointed to a particularly temperamental goshawk, a bird that cast evil eyes at me any time I came near it.
    “I cannot open the cages. Tiercel says—”
    “He’s Mr. Tiercel to you,” the girl admonished. “Open the cage.”
    “I do not have the keys. Mr. Tiercel keeps them.”
    “Open the cage this instant!” Her voice rose, and she grabbed the front of my dress, taking advantage of her hand’s breadth of greater size.
    “Let her go, Ghilene,” Tiercel interrupted from the doorway. I exhaled.
    Ghilene Entila dropped me and brushed off her hands as though she’d touched something soiled. “You’re late, Tiercel.”
    Tiercel’s brief nod managed to convey irritation at Ghilene’s remark while still fulfilling the requirements of protocol. “Your mother detained me.”
    Ghilene frowned. “I want my hawk. Mother says I can show my bird to the Ricknagel girls when they arrive.”
    “Very well.” Tiercel turned to me. “Lili, would you mind cleaning the cages of the two birds we take out?”
    Tiercel gathered the furnishings they’d need for hawking—gauntlets and jesses and hoods—while I hurried to fetch the hand broom.
    Ghilene muttered as I departed, “ Would you mind? Really, Tiercel,