The Spirit Gate Read Online Free Page B

hearth.
    “Where
have you been?” Blaz asked her back.
    She set the basket down and composed herself by wiping her
hands carefully on her overskirt. “At
market.”
    “I
see no goods, though I can’t
imagine you’d
have the money to buy any.”
    She turned. “I
wasn’t shopping.
I was . . . doing what I could about finding a place to live.”
    Beyla glanced up at that, his dark eyes wide. “Are we leaving, mama?
Are we going to live somewhere else?”
    Kassia smiled, falsely, and moved to sit beside her son at
the crowded table. “Your
aunt Asenka is going to have a baby. We need to find our own place to live so
there’ll be room
here for it.”
    “Where
will we live, then? Will I have my own room?”
    Kassia glanced at Blaz. “I don’t
know where we’ll
live just yet, Beyla. But I talked to Mister Trava about a little cottage by
the river.”
    “That
took you all afternoon?” asked Blaz. “Asenka
could have used your help here. You left your boy for her to watch and no fresh
bedding to set up.”
    Asenka joined in at this point, defending her younger
sister. “Bey’s no trouble, Blaz. In
fact, he’s a
great help to me; he watches Lenci so I can get things done about the house.
The bedding can be done after dinner.”
    “Shouldn’t have to be. What
sort of woman leaves her child unattended and gads off to the marketplace like
a footloose maiden?”
    “The
sort of woman,” said Kassia, “who’s just been told she
must find her own place to live. The sort of woman who must now figure out how
to pay the price of rent when she has no family business to fall back on.”
    Blaz’s
smile was not in the least conciliatory. “Did you? Figure out how to pay your rent?”
    “I
did, thank you, brother-in-law. I found a very satisfying way to pay my rent.
Using the talent Itugen gave me.” She reached into her pocket, grabbed a handful of coins and dumped them
onto the table. The children jumped at the sound of metal and stone on wood,
then stared round-eyed.
    “Oh,
Aunt Kiska!” breathed Etouard, the youngest boy. “What a lot of money! I’ve never seen a rega piece before. May I hold it?”
    She nodded curtly, her eyes still on Blaz’s, waiting for his
censure.
    He surprised her, leaving the issue of how she’d earned the money
completely alone. “You’d not have shown us
this, I’ll bet,
if I hadn’t
goaded you. You’d
have hidden it somewhere and never let us know it was.”
    She and Asenka were both scowling at him. “Why should it matter
that I show it to you,” Kassia asked, “as
long as I have it?”
    Blaz laughed unpleasantly. “You’d
let your sister believe you a poor unfortunate when you had money to contribute
to this household—”
    “Blaz
Kovar!” Asenka was on her feet. “You’ve made me toss my own
sister out of our house and now you want to attach the money she needs to start
her own home? Whatever are you thinking?”
    “I’m thinking of what
this family needs to—”
    “We
need no more than what we have. It’s
what you want that’s driving
you, husband. The blacksmith’s
house must be the grandest on the row. It must have red tiles and silk carpets
and clear glass windows. Would you have Kassia pay for those things? Well, fine
then. Let her stay here.”
    “There’s no room.”
    “Make
room. Build a new room for Kassia and Beyla.”
    “We
can’t afford—”
    “If
Kassia pays rent, we can afford—”
    Kassia could stand no more. To be talked around was bad
enough; to be talked about and around at the same time was unbearable. She held
up her hands, wanting nothing more than to verbally thrash Blaz Kovar within an
inch of his disagreeable life, willing to forego that pleasure only for her
sister’s sake.
    “Please
stop! Blaz, I know you’ve
not welcomed Beyla and me these last three years. It was only for Aska you let
us stay. Well, I’ve
not been happy either. It pains me to be the cause of discord between you.
Because of that I’m
only too happy