Timegods' World Read Online Free PDF

announced, just before old quiet-ass brought you guys in.”
    I grabbed my own cloak. I’d tried to take the lightweight one that morning, but Shaera and my mother had forced the heavier one on me, and it was hard to argue against both of them successfully. Since I’d wanted to catch the steamer ride with Dad—it did save me nearly a kay in walking—I’d taken the heavy black one.
    Once I had the cloak, I took the pack, but I left all the books.
    “You aren’t taking your studies?” asked Loiren in surprise as he closed his locker.
    “Why bother? It should be a few days before we get power back, and they’ll have to review anyway.”
    “It’s your head, Sammis.”
    I ignored Loiren. He meant well, but there were too many coincidences, and I wanted to get to the Davniadses.
    Outside, it was still cold and sunny, and the wind coming up the hill from the west chilled my ears immediately. A good forty others were already marching down toward the road where most, I suspected, would find steamers to take them home. The bells in the Academy’s temple were ringing to announce dismissal.
    From the east, I could hear the lighter tones from Tyrnelle House, occasionally disappearing in the whistle of the wind. Clutching my cloak around me tighter, I was glad that I had not been successful in arguing for the lighter-weight overwear. Trudging down the paving stones toward the highway, I hunched up inside the heavy wool.
    Clouds were piling up on the horizon, and it looked like another
storm was pelting Inequital. While the capital wasn’t visible from the low hills of Bremarlyn, I’d been there enough to imagine what it must be like, with sheets of heavy rain pouring through kay after kay of three, four, and even five story buildings—and the Grand Tower. Some of the anarchists claimed that the emperor and, before her death, his mother the Grand Empress, had used their power to keep other towers from being built.
    Hoping my mother had left before the storm had hit, I whistled one or two notes of the Marching Song, but the wind was too bitter to keep whistling. So I put my head down and lengthened my steps. Despite my size, I could walk, or run, faster than anyone at the Academy. Not that I was about to in the cold.
    By the time I started along the walking trail by the highway, uphill most of the way, my nose was running from the cold. The clouds from the west had begun to shut off the sunlight, and the wind was building up into a gale, bringing with it an acrid odor.
    Half a kay further, and I was looking for the occasional steamer that might be headed my way, but most people lived on the eastern side of Bremarlyn. We lived on the more isolated side, closer to Inequital and to the Revenue Court where my father practiced.
    Another half a kay, and I had reached the side road that wound gently toward our land. My ears were numb, and my breath made me look like a malfunctioning steamer myself. The ground crackled underfoot, and whatever the storm brought it wouldn’t be rain, but snow or ice. Overhead, the clouds were thickening into an ugly gray.
    Wheeep! Wheeep!
    Waving from the window of the Davniadses’ slate gray steamer was Allyson. I stumbled over the half-frozen turf and into the rear seat. Allyson and her mother were in the front.
    “You look frozen, Sammis. What on earth are you doing out in this?”
    “Mother’s in Inequital, and Father is at work. At least he was. It was sunny when I left the Academy.”
    “I do hope your mother is all right, Sammis. All the communications links with the capital are out, just like the power.” Germania Davniads was a big woman with a tiny voice. Allyson had her father’s booming voice and both parents’ build, but she wasn’t overweight like her mother. She had a nice figure and a nice smile. She was a good head taller than me, not to mention a year or so older.
    As the steamer hummed up the road, I readjusted my cloak. There was no heat, though, and while I could feel the