Read Online Natural Ordermage by L. E. Modesitt - Free Book Online Page B

washstones to clean up. By the time he had finished and walked back into the house, his father and mother were seated at the table. Supper was simple— bread, cheese, and a leftover soup/stew that had been reheated more times than it should have been.
    Still, it was after sunset before he left the house. In the dimness he passed the orchard. Someone was there, waiting. Jienela?
    “Rahl…” The whisper came from the trees beyond the orchard wall.
    He walked to the wall and leaned against it, as if waiting. Even if Quelerya saw him, what could she say to his mother? That he was leaning against the wall? “What is it?”
    “I… I needed to talk to you, but you never came.”
    “I didn’t know you were back.” He’d suspected that she might be… but he hadn’t actually known, and he really hadn’t wanted to go looking for Jienela, not with his parents’ disapproval and constant comments. Besides, Fahla made Jienela look… well, dull. Sweet and pretty, but dull. Even Shahyla had more spark than Jienela.
    “I’ve been back since twoday.” There was a pause. “I’ve missed you.”
    He could sense her sadness… and longing. “I’ve missed you.” What else could he say? “Jienela… my father’s gotten really strict.”
    “He’s always been strict. That’s why you’ve had to sneak out to see .me. That’s what you told me. Can’t you come back later, when it’s darker?”
    “I can’t. He and Mother found out about us. Quelerya’s been watching, and she told Mother.”
    “You knew they wouldn’t like it” but…“
    He could sense a swallowed sob.
    “Father’s forbidden me to see you. If he gets really angry, he could throw me out.”
    “He …he wouldn’t do that…”
    “Why do you think Kacet is in the Council Guards? He started out as an apprentice scrivener, too, but he crossed Father too often, and Father told him that he wouldn’t put up with it any longer.” That much was true, but Kacet had been the one to make the decision. He’d left on his own. Still…
    In the silence broken only by the whisper of the breeze through the leaves of the apple and pearapple trees, Rahl could sense dismay and sadness… and something else. What that other feeling was, he couldn’t determine.
    “For a while, at least, I don’t dare try to sneak in to see you,” he finally said. “I’ll have to see how things go.”
    “Please try… you have to try, Rahl. You have to…” Then the sobs became louder.
    “I’ll see…”
    “Please…”
    Rahl looked around. There was someone on the porch at Alamat’s. “I need to go. Someone at Alamat’s is looking this way.”
    He straightened up and began to walk toward the weaver’s. He waved to Alamat as he passed the porch, but the elderly weaver did not look up. Rahl didn’t see anyone else for the rest of the walk to Sevien’s.
    Sevien opened the door even before Rahl reached it. “Come on in.”
    Rahl stepped inside. Except for Sevien and himself, no one was there. “Where is everyone?”
    “Oh… Mother and Delthea are over at Selstak’s. They’re all working on a consorting quilt for Coerlyne. She deserves it, even if Jaired doesn’t. Father went down to the tavern to play plaques with some of his friends.” After a moment, Sevien went on. “You know Jienela’s back?”
    “I just found out.” Rahl offered a sour smile, one that mirrored his own mixed feelings. “My parents are pushing me to ask for Shahyla’s hand.”
    “They want you to become a… herder?”
    “They haven’t said that. Not in so many words, but Mother keeps talking about the machines the engineers are building that will make books by the; score and how no one will need scriveners anymore.”
    “The Council won’t let them, will they?”
    ‘’They can stop the machines from being used outside of Nylan, but how would they stop the books? Are they going to inspect every book coming out of Nylan—or on every ship porting in Land’s End? And if people get