Read Online Glasswrights' Progress by Mindy L Klasky - Free Book Online Page A

Rani only shrugged. The motion was easier than speaking. There was a long pause, and then the Touched girl said, “I thought it would be cooler up here. It’s so close in that cabin, I thought I’d faint.”
    Rani turned to look at her friend sharply. The cabin had been warm, but the deck was actually chilly. Immediately after being sick, Rani had settled a cloak over her shoulders, and she was alarmed to see that Mair bore no protection against the stiff breeze. “You’ll catch cold.”
    â€œNot I.” Mair grimaced.
    Rani brushed the back of her hand across the other girl’s brow, ignoring her own angry scab from Maradalian’s talon. “You’re burning up!”
    â€œI’m better than I was.” Mair shrugged off the attention like a restless child. “It’s just a bit of fever. Nothing important.”
    â€œNothing important!”
    â€œIt’s just because of my arm, you know.” Mair shrugged with one shoulder, only to make a face against the obvious pain that the movement caused her.
    â€œIt’s still hurts, then.”
    â€œA little,” Mair conceded.
    â€œI knew that cursed soldier didn’t know what he was doing! How could you let him set your arm?”
    â€œWhat else was I supposed to do? You don’t have the strength to have done it, especially when your own palm was still bleeding. ‘That cursed soldier’ may not have known the first thing about medicine, but at least he did what I told him to do.”
    Rani’s belly flipped again as she remembered their rest stop at the edge of the River Yman. At least Bashi had been true to his word – he had let them stop and set Mair’s arm. But even he had not been prepared for the pain the injury caused her. The prince had blanched almost as white as Mair when the girl cried out, and he had nervously scooped up water from the river to bathe her face. Rani had pushed him aside, though, before he could provide that service. She did not want him anywhere near her friend, anywhere where he could work more harm. She did not want to hear that he had not meant to hurt them. He had not meant for everything to spin out of control.
    â€œBut will it heal properly?” Rani asked, forcing her voice to a calmness that she did not feel.
    â€œHow can I know?” Mair let her voice shrug and spared her shoulders. “I’ve done all I can. After all, I’m just a Touched brat from the City streets, not a chirurgeon. Maybe Bashi will let us see a healer in Amanthia.”
    â€œSomething to look forward to.” Rani spat into the water. “That and getting off this miserable boat.”
    â€œWe might be wishing for this boat, before all this is over.” Mair looked back at the coastline, at the shore that unrolled beside them. It was odd, Rani thought. They were close enough to see the land, close enough to see the distinct line where earth met sea. But they might as well be leagues and leagues away for all the good it did them. They could not make out any settlements along the water’s edge, and they were too far away to see any people. They were as lost as if they wandered in a forest.
    As if to underscore their isolation, the seamen took that opportunity to sluice down the deck of their creaking craft. Bashi had explained to Rani the first night that they had boarded the boat – the ocean water made the wood swell, tightening the joints and keeping the craft seaworthy. Rani understood the logic, but she deplored the need. The tang of the ocean water, fish and salt, was enough to raise acid again at the back of her throat. The water seemed to leach out the stench of the tar that sealed ropes and joints about the craft. Resignedly, Rani clambered onto a coil of rough hemp, trying unsuccessfully to keep her leather soles dry. After she had helped to steady Mair against the sea bath, Rani turned back to the deck and the railing.
    The breeze of their