Untalented Read Online Free PDF Page B

light of dawn brightened the sky as Saroya waited in the hallway outside Doyenne Ganarra’s chambers. Bridles jingled in the courtyard below the window, and stable hands shouted as they saddled recalcitrant mounts. Nalini had run off to grab a quick breakfast before the travelers left. Without me , Saroya thought.
    The doyenne’s assistant poked her head out into the hallway. “You may enter now.”
    Saroya slipped past the heavy wooden doors. All of last night’s jokes about punishments aside, Saroya was quite sure the doyenne could make the rest of her stay uncomfortable, if not unbearable, if she felt a transgression was large enough. Worse, what if she kicked Saroya out right now?
    The assistant held open the door to the doyenne’s inner chamber. Saroya kept her expression neutral as she curtsied before the large desk in the center of the room. The watery dawn light silhouetted Doyenne Ganarra against the windows, the candle sconces not bright enough to illuminate her countenance.
    The doyenne steepled her fingers underneath her chin. The silence lengthened. Saroya shifted her feet. Finally, the doyenne sighed.
    “I summoned you here, child, to chide you. It was unforgivably rude to leave the dining hall in front of our guests. Disappointments are many in life and you need to learn how to handle them.” Doyenne Ganarra paused, pursing her lips. Saroya steeled herself for the expected lecture. “Instead I find myself having to reward you.”
    Saroya blinked.
    “The edict is clear,” came a voice from behind her. Startled, Saroya turned—Eiden Callor stood in the far corner in front of a bookshelf. “All students completing their studies in the spring are to journey to U’Veyle.”
    “To pursue their Talents with their guilds. This one has no Talent. I interpreted—”
    “I don’t have the luxury of interpretation. Talented, Untalented, rich, poor, fair, ugly—none of these words appear on the parchment I gave you. ‘All students.’ Those are the only words I care about.”
    No one spoke. The words whirled around inside Saroya’s head, gibberish consonants and vowels, until their meaning coalesced. She gaped at the doyenne. “You mean—?”
    “Yes, child. You are going to the capital. Eiden Callor is pressed to leave. Go and get your things together.” The doyenne shook her head.
    Saroya hurried from the room. She dipped a curtsy to Callor, who nodded as she passed. U’Veyle! She was going to U’Veyle. Entering the hall, she found herself grinning for what felt like the first time in days, despite Doyenne Ganarra’s parting words.
    “Such a waste.”

    Saroya and her mount had come to an uneasy truce. After riding with the convoy for a week, the long hours in the saddle bothered her less. The stables contained slim pickings for mounts when she rushed in the morning they started out. Her only options: an old, tired mare who would as soon bite you as let you saddle her, or a young gelding notorious for shying without warning.
    She still wondered if the mare wasn’t the better bargain. The gelding spent the first day balking at every noise in the bush, or every shout of the king’s men. “Control your horse, or move him to the back of the group,” Eiden Callor ordered. She hung back from then on.
    Nalini kept her company. She chattered away while bumping along in her saddle, gripping the pommel in one hand while her other sawed the reins from side to side. Saroya felt sorry for Nalini’s horse.
    At twilight, they would make camp in a meadow, or a hostelry if they happened to arrive at a village by sunset. Eiden Callor, with his men seasoned travelers, would not stop at any town for convenience. It didn’t matter if they passed a comfortable-looking inn in late afternoon. He would press on until darkness. Then he chivvied them up again at dawn to continue the journey.
    Tonight, they stopped in a small clearing at the side of the road, after traveling all day through wooded countryside. Some