The Tenth Power Read Online Free PDF

abruptly cut off. ‘Tamen, no !’ cried Lia.
    Calwyn whirled around. Trout’s face was frosted with a mask of ice. He clawed frantically at his nose and mouth, sealed by the thickening ice. Instinctively, Calwyn opened her mouth to counter the chantment. Then she remembered. She was helpless.
    Quick as a heartbeat, Mica pulled out the Clarion.There was no time to be careful, to measure her breath, and Mica was angry. She blew a ringing call, and flames roared through the kitchens.The long table and benches blazed, and the fire in the hearth flared up over the mantel. Lia screamed, and so did Tamen as flames licked her long robes. Calwyn sprang forward, tore off her own heavy cloak, and threw it around Lia. ‘Go! Go!’ Lia cried, batting at her burning robes. The room was choked with heat and smoke, andTrout’s face was wet with melted ice.
    As Tamen sang a rapid chantment to damp the flames, Calwyn dragged Trout and Mica outside. Their clothes and packs were smouldering too, though thick wool and leather and rabbit-skins burned less readily than Tamen and Lia’s robes. Calwyn pulled her friends down beside her into the deep snow of the courtyard. As soon as the sparks were quenched, she stared about wildly for a place to run. The western tower? It was the most inhospitable corner of the Dwellings, and her favourite bolt-hole when she was a novice. Black smoke rolled from the kitchens; soon Tamen would call for help.
    ‘This way!’ Calwyn cried, but before they’d stumbled twenty paces, a dumpy figure darted out in front of them.
    ‘Dear child! Praise the Goddess!’
    Calwyn almost groaned aloud. The very last thing she needed now was to be detained by Ursca. But the infirmarian had seized her arm. ‘Come. Hurry now!’ When it was necessary, Ursca could move as briskly as anyone, and she propelled Calwyn and Mica across the courtyard, through a narrow doorway into a dark corridor. ‘You’ll be safe with me. Come along!’ This last remark was addressed to Trout, who stumbled along behind them. ‘Oh, dear,’ Ursca sighed under her breath. ‘A young man!’
    Calwyn’s sharp hearing caught the sound of voices and close by. The searchers Tamen had sent to find the intruders were returning to the Dwellings. Ursca halted at the end of the corridor, and put her finger to her lips until the voices had passed.
    ‘We can’t stay here!’ Calwyn whispered. This passage led from the House of Elders to the Middle House and served as a storage space for spare linen, broken looms, and boxes of candles. It was seldom used, but hardly a safe hiding-place. Trout brushed a cobweb from his shoulder and peered about nervously.
    Ursca shook her head to silence Calwyn, then eased open the door. ‘The way’s clear. Calwyn dear, you know the old barn beyond the duck ponds?’
    ‘The one that was struck by lightning? But the roof ’s gone!’
    ‘Only half gone, dear, only half gone, and it’s been searched already. Quickly now! Sing a chantment to fill our footsteps.’
    ‘But I – ’
    Ursca was already hurrying over the snow, beckoning them to follow.
    ‘I’ll do it, Cal,’ whispered Mica. At once she sang a high, eerie chantment of the winds that blew soft snow into the gashes of shadow that marked their tracks. Calwyn tried to feel grateful to Mica, but a pebble of resentment lodged in her throat.
    Past the apple-shed and the New Barn, the little group darted from shadow to shadow. Behind them, one window after another lit up, golden dots in the darkness of the Dwellings.
    The Lightning Barn stood on the far side of the ponds. The blackened scar on its roof was clearly visible, and one wall was gone, exposing the raw beams and the hayloft. There was a sudden whirr of feathers and a rush of wind above their heads. Trout yelped, and Ursca gave him an exasperated look. ‘It’s only a white owl, young man – it won’t hurt you!’
    ‘Ursca, we can’t – ’ began Calwyn. Trying to shelter inside the empty shell of