Jane Carver of Waar by Nathan Long

Author:Nathan Long
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781597803960
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Published: 2012-03-20T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TwENTY-NINE

HERETICS!

Half a crossing later—i’d say about an hour and a half earth time—Lhan lead me up the creaky stairs of an old three-story tenement on the edge of the academy District. it had a lot of fancy tile work around the doors and windows, and mighta been a swanky address back in the day, but it was a bit shabby at the edges now.

on the third floor Lhan stopped outside an apartment, and i could hear voices arguing behind the door. Lhan took off his mask, then took a breath— and another. finally he pulled himself together and knocked. The voices cut off, and a few seconds later the door swung open and the ugly Buddha guy stood there in slippers and a green silk robe, smiling like a happy grandpa.

“Lhan-Lar, you live!” Lhan bowed and crossed his wrists. “only by greatest good fortune and the efforts of my companion, Mistress Jae-en.” he turned to me. “Mistress Jae-en, may i present my tutor and friend, Master shal-hau of ormolu.”

shal-hau bowed. “Thank you, Mistress, for returning to me so dear a student. Please, welcome to my home.”

i waved, embarrassed, and ducked through the door, which was a little low. “Uh, thanks. hi.”

170 he took our cloaks and masks and weapons and put them on hooks, then turned back and stared at Lhan’s belly wound, which still looked pretty raw. “By the one, pupil, do you live? it seems impossible.” Lhan shrugged, embarrassed. “’tis due almost entirely to my own foolishness. a tale for another time.”

“of course, of course. Come in. The others are waiting.”

Knowing he was a professor, i’d kinda expected shal-hau’s place to be like rian-gi’s study—all stacks of scrolls and piles of papers and dirty cups and saucers everywhere, but it was more like something out of the Waar edition of house Beautiful. There were wide, low couches all around, piled with tasseled pillows and bookended with little tables with vases on them. greenish bronze lamps with patterns punched in their sides shined patterns of light on weird old masks and musical instruments that were hung on the walls as art. it was as spotless and neat as a model home, but at the same time felt as warm and welcoming as shal-hau’s smile.

i couldn’t say the same for the dudes that were filling the couches.

There were seven of them, all dressed in dark students’ robes like the guys in the back room at the Dusty tome, but these guys weren’t laughing. as shal-hau stepped out to fetch drinks and snacks, they all stared at me and Lhan like we’d run over their cat, and i heard some whispering in the ranks.

“By the one, she is a demon.”

“The Church’s broadsheets did not exaggerate after all.”

i was kinda feeling like something Lhan had brought in for show and tell, and it was making me a little hot under the collar. Lhan wasn’t doing anything about it, either. he was just standing there, as stiff as a kid meeting his girlfriend’s parents for the first time.

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