(eng) Martha Wells - Ile-Rien and Cineth SSC by Between Worlds

Author:Between Worlds [Worlds, Between]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Rites of Passage

Ilias, Giliead, and their older sister Irissa walked down the waterfront of Cineth’s harbor. It was a busy place, with men hauling casks of water and big dusty red amphorae of olive oil and wine, and traders hawking their wares. The sun was bright and the breeze cool, and Ilias was enjoying the day, despite the fact that Giliead was trying very hard to start a fight with Irissa.

“When are you going to buy a husband?” Giliead asked her, apparently determined to be as obnoxious as possible. “After this harvest, you could have anybody in town.”

Irissa snorted derisively. “I don’t want anybody in town.”

Ilias had heard her say this before, and was just as glad to hear it again. He said, “You should wait to marry somebody for love, like Karima did.” Karima was Giliead and Irissa’s mother. She was younger than their father Ranior, and had been wealthy enough to take her pick of husbands, but it was obvious she had chosen with her heart.

Giliead kicked at a piling, determined not to be deterred from the argument. “Irissa never talks to anybody, how will she know if she’s in love or not?”

Ilias gave him a sour look, but he knew why Giliead was in such a bad mood. They had just heard in the market plaza that Menander, the Chosen Vessel for the Uplands, had left on a hunt, heading up into the eastern hills to follow a rumor of a curseling seen near one of the isolated villages. Again, Giliead had been left behind.

Giliead was the Chosen Vessel for Cineth, gifted at birth by the god that watched over the city; the gift gave him the ability to smell curses and see the traces they left in air, earth, and water. But he was nearly seventeen seasons old now, and he had never yet been on a wizard hunt. Menander, much older and far more experienced than Giliead, should have been letting him help protect both Cineth’s territory and the Uplands. The god of each area guarded its territory as well as it could, but wizards and their curselings were adept at slipping through the boundaries to do as much damage as possible, and it was the Vessels who had to stop them. But so far, all Menander’s teaching had been theoretical. Now that Giliead was older, it was beginning to chafe.

“I’d rather buy a galley than a husband,” Irissa said, eyeing the row of ships. Most of those docked along here were fishermen or merchants with one or two sails, the canvas every shade of purple, red, blue, and other lucky colors, with the stylized eyes painted on their bows so the ships could find their way home. “Maybe we could try trading with the Chaens.”

Ilias grinned at her. “You just want an excuse to travel.” He hadn’t been around the farm during the past winter season much himself; he had been working at hauling cargo, staying overnight in the city with Andrien relatives. This

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