Sorceress of Faith Read Online Free Page B

her.”
    “No!
If she’s female, like the last one, she will want a woman as teacher!” Venetria
said.
    “The
new Exotique is mine,” Jaquar insisted.
    Now
Chalmon barked laughter. “All of us will want to work with someone so Powerful.
This is exactly why we need the Marshalls to Summon her. We don’t work well
together.” He shot a glance at his lady. “Sometimes not even those who are
intimate with each other.”
    Jaquar’s
heart tore. His father and mother had been an excellent team, stronger together
than apart. Perhaps that’s what had drawn the sangvile to them.
    Chalmon
and Venetria sniped at each other, then Chalmon faced him.
    “We’ll
call a Gathering for tomorrow at the Parteger Island amphitheater to discuss
all this,” Chalmon said. “I’ll move the process along.”
    Venetria
sent him a fulminating glance, then looked back to Jaquar. “What is the
Marshalls’ price for the Summoning?”
    Jaquar
said, “I promised them objects, not favors. Some books, most of which are
duplicates in all our libraries. Whatever magical weapons we have. Old battlespells.”
    “A
price easy to meet,” Chalmon said.
    Venetria
nodded. “Yes. I think I only have two weapons in my Tower—what of you?”
    “One,”
Jaquar said, but it was an incredible one, something that perhaps only an
Exotique could handle.
    “I
have four,” Chalmon said.
    “Of
course you must pretend you’re the best,” Venetria said. And then they were
arguing again.
    “I’ll
coordinate with the Marshalls as necessary in the days to come,” Jaquar said.
He wouldn’t lie to the Marshalls, but he wouldn’t welcome them unless he had a
use for them.
    With
thumb and forefinger, Jaquar tapped the crystal and Chalmon and Venetria
disappeared. An hour later he had sent the contract and books as first payment
to the Marshalls for the Summoning.
    Then
he crossed to his armchair and sat again, letting the soft, old leather settle
around his body. He wondered if the other Circlets had forgotten one very
important thing, and if they had, whether he could take advantage of it.
    The
Singer, the Oracle of Lladrana, had prophesied that the next Exotique would be
best suited for the community of the Tower. The Singer had also told them of
the time of the next Summoning—when the Dimensional Gates between Lladrana and
the Exotique land aligned. The Marshalls knew this. It was tomorrow night.
    In
all the history of the Tower, the Sorcerers and Circlets had never come to an
agreement in a day. Chalmon was too optimistic. He wouldn’t be able to forge a
plan amongst all the individual personalities of the Tower.
    Jaquar
sank back into his chair to sleep. It would be a long time before he could face
his bedroom adorned with the quilt his mother had made and the landscapes his
father had painted.
    He
would not argue with the rest of the Sorcerers and Sorceresses at Parteger
Island, had no intention of compromising. The Exotique was his. For knowledge.
For vengeance.
    Colorado
    The
next evening
    P ower hung in the
air like a fine mist ready to condense into dewdrops. It shimmered with every
ripple of chimes, every strike of the gong—the music only Marian could hear,
had heard for the past month. Now the sounds reverberated in a pattern that set
her nerves humming as she finished taping a ten-foot red pentagram on her
living room carpet.
    She
took a shaky breath as she connected the last line of the star-shaped pattern
and sank back on her heels to calm her excitement. She wiped her damp palms on
the sweats she’d put on after her bath. Biting her lip, she examined everything
again. She’d had to scramble to craft the ritual, to get the herbs and tools. There’d
been no time to practice.
    No
negativity, not now. No doubts . So she shoved them aside.
    Soon
the exact moment of the full moon would finally come and it would be time to
act. To perform a ritual that would bring great change into Andrew’s life and her
own. To ask for what she wanted most,