The Hidden Icon Read Online Free PDF

able to do what I could do, but his cool temper, his surety, made me suspect that he was not alone. He was too little like me to be alone.
    “Not like you have been,” he replied, his expression shrouded by the mask he wore. “But the others aren’t like me. Their gifts are not the same as mine.”
    But they had gifts. They knew things, or could do things, which meant I wouldn’t seem so strange. Not as different among my enemies, as I had been among my kin.
    The thought soured in me, but I wasn’t given time to sulk. Gannet stopped and parted a light curtain that divided a compartment near the steady center of the barge. It was little more than a cupboard, furnished only with a bare cot and lidded basin.
    “You want me to stay here,” I assumed, and Gannet nodded. But he didn’t leave, stepping closer when behind him came two servants bearing a wicker trunk. I stiffened. He had no smell even as near as he was. I could have lifted a finger to brush the sleeve of his shirt, but I did not think I would feel human warmth. This was madness. No matter what they had offered, I feared what was ahead of me more than what was behind.
    When the servants departed, Gannet looked at me again, retreating the few steps he had drawn closer.
    “You have many questions. I will have answers when you begin asking the right ones.”
    “Will you?” I asked, skeptical. I would have known if my brother were telling the truth, or if my mother were lying to protect me. But with him, nothing. I swept past, seating myself with as much composure as I could manage on the lip of the cot. “You will not find me so agreeable if I am not soon given cause to be. Not to you, and not to your sister.”
    Though I could not see his brow behind the mask, I hoped that I had surprised Gannet, that he would not underestimate me. I knew I should’ve waited to show that I knew something about him he hadn’t shared, but I was irritable and scared. And I just didn’t like him much.
    “Keep your voice down.” His was low and sharp, like a knife hidden under a cloak. I thought he might grab me, but I didn’t flinch, and neither did he move. His eyes were on the floor. “You must never refer to Dresha Morainn… in that way.”
    “Why?”
    “You can ask her.”
    “I’m asking you.”
    “Do as he says.”
    I started. The last had come from Morainn, appearing behind her brother like a shadow. How long had she been in the narrow corridor?
    “I thought I was,” I said, waving my arm to encompass the tiny, curtained chamber. I’d come, as they had wanted. Did I have to be quiet, too?
    Morainn’s features darkened, her thoughts complicated. Fear, regret, anger. But not with me.
    “You possess one of our secrets. No doubt you’ll collect more. But believe me when I say that sharing them is not worth the price you will pay for it.”
    She could make promises, and she could break them. My family would be safe only if I cooperated.
    I turned away from the pair, face hot with feeling. I heard Morainn go, but Gannet lingered. I felt the wheels beneath the barge groan and begin to turn, and I wished there were a window so I could see what I left behind. Already in the barge the smells were unfamiliar, the murmured words accented differently than I was used.
    I was not alone, but I felt terribly lonely.
    “Why me?” I asked softly. I knew he wouldn’t answer, but I couldn’t stop myself asking.
    “I’m surprised you don’t know.”
    “How can anything about me be a surprise to you?” I snorted, not caring if he felt the depth of my contempt. “I must seem so simple.”
    “You are not simple. You are ignorant,” Gannet said, though this was no compliment, either. “And a liar, I think.”
    He crossed to me then, the sway of the barge seeming to still as his weight joined mine. I tensed as he drew near. Though he was not a particularly tall man, I was small even for a woman, and for me he was as formidable as a mountain. He opened his mouth as