The Tenth Power Read Online Free PDF Page A

of the sisters had fallen from the gallery. ‘It was you who fell!’ Calwyn cried. ‘I’m …I’m sorry…’ ‘Don’t waste your pity on me,’ said Lia crisply. ‘Save it for Rina, and Athala, and Damyr, and the others Tamen put into theWall.’
    ‘Damyr?’ Calwyn had been apprenticed to Damyr, the old beekeeper. It was she who had taught Calwyn the songs of the bees, never knowing that they were the long-lost chantments of the Power of Beasts. Calwyn would have liked to tell Damyr that.
    A sudden noise made them all turn. From the shadowed doorway, a tall figure glided into the kitchen. A deep, grating voice said, ‘Calwyn. I might have known it was you.’ Tamen’s dark eyes glittered, and her hair was coiled on top of her head, as Marna’s had been.
    Calwyn swallowed, but she stood her ground. ‘Tamen,’ she said, her voice matching in harshness. There was no love between the two women, and Calwyn knew that she could never bring herself to call Tamen Lady Mother .
    Tamen stared atTrout and Mica with icy contempt. ‘I see you have not learned your lesson. How dare you bring Outlanders here a second time? Haven’t you caused enough harm already?’
    ‘These are my friends!’ Calwyn’s temper flared, as it had always flared at Tamen’s rebukes. ‘And how can you blame me for what’s been happening here? You are – abominable ! Shutting our sisters inside theWall!’
    ‘Our sisters sacrificed themselves willingly,’ saidTamen in a low voice.
    ‘You liar! Athala was drugged with bitterthorn, I tasted it on her lips! She was still alive when you put her into the ice!’
    Tamen stared at her. ‘You touched Athala’s body?’
    ‘It’s not forbidden to touch the dead.’
    Tamen gave a short, bitter laugh. ‘Not forbidden, no. Nor is it forbidden to dive down the well, nor to leap from the western tower. But it will kill you all the same.’
    ‘What’s she sayin, what’s she mean?’ cried Mica, turning pale.
    Lia said, in her dry voice, ‘The snow-sickness is spread from skin to skin, chanter to chanter. If Calwyn has touched her – ’ ‘If Calwyn has touched her, she will reap a fitting punishment for what she’s done,’ said Tamen. ‘It was she who helped the Outlander Darrow, when she should have left him to die by the Wall, as the Goddess intended. And Darrow brought the Merithuran sorcerer after him, who has cursed Antaris with the plague, and this endless winter.’
    ‘Samis was a powerful sorcerer, and he has done great damage here,’ said Calwyn, with a glance at Lia. ‘But the plague, the winter? I can’t believe even he could do all that.’
    ‘I know what I know! How dare you question me!’Tamen’s voice trembled with passion. ‘How dare you show your face here? Get out of my sight, get back to the Outlands where you belong, and take them with you!’
    Calwyn tried not to quail before Tamen’s fury. Something flashed into her mind that Marna had told her long ago: Tamen is afraid of you. She knows that your gift is stronger than her own. Calwyn was no longer a chanter. But Tamen did not know that.
    Calwyn drew herself up tall. But when she spoke, though she tried to sound calm and steely, her voice shook like that of a frightened little girl’s. ‘I won’t leave.This is my home, and these are my friends.’
    ‘For shame, Tamen,’ said Lia, and Calwyn caught a glimpse of her quiet authority. ‘This is our sworn sister. She and her friends have journeyed far. They need food, and rest, and shelter.’
    Tamen turned on her. ‘I will give them nothing!’ she hissed. She swung back to Calwyn. ‘This is not your home.You are no Daughter of Taris. You are an Outlander, by birth and by blood.We should have cast you out years ago. But no matter – what was left undone then may be done now!’ Tamen raised her hand, and her sleeve fell back. Despite herself, Calwyn shuddered with fear.
    Tamen’s lips parted, and she began to sing. Trout gave a strangled cry, which was