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

chandlery? Might it be the young
lady?” Puvort’s smile was meant to be cheerful, but it bothered Rahl.
    “I like seeing her, ser.” Rahl didn’t
dare lie, not when the magister could have told he was telling an outright
falsehood, but he could tell the truth in a less damaging way. He held up the
pouch. “But I was here to pick up the pen nibs my father ordered. He had work
to do, and he sent me.”
    “You’re very careful in what you say,
aren’t you?”
    “I try to be, ser.”
    “That wasn’t what I meant, Rahl.” The
magister’s eyes seemed to look right through the young scrivener. “You never
tell an untruth, but sometimes you don’t tell the whole truth. That’s what the
mages in Hamor do, you know?”
    “Ser?” Rahl didn’t like the reference to
Hamor.
    “You might think about applying to the
Council for mage training, Rahl. It’s clear that you have at least a little
ability with ordermagery. You know instinctively that you shouldn’t lie, and
you’re right. Lying reduces order-skills.”
    Rahl didn’t know quite what to say. “I… I
never thought about that.”
    “You should. Right now, your skills
aren’t developed enough to be that dangerous, but you’re still young. If you
become more powerful, you’ll either have to have training or leave Reduce. You
might have to, anyway, but training now would make your life easier. Much
easier.”
    “Ser… I don’t… my father
    “That kind of training is not like school
where your father has to pay. The Council would pay for it.” Puvort paused. “Of
course, you wouldn’t be earning anything, either, but you should still consider
it.” His eyes dropped to Rahl’s truncheon, and he nodded slightly.
    “Yes, ser.”
    “Do think about it, Rahl.” With another
enigmatic smile, the magister stepped away from Rahl and into the chandlery.
    Rahl stepped off the porch and headed
southward, the wind at his back, tearing at his tunic. He had the feeling that,
despite the magister’s ‘offer, Puvort hadn’t really wanted him to consider it.
Or the magister thought he wouldn’t take it.,
    Should he tell his father about what
Puvort had said?
    That didn’t seem like a good idea at all,
but he couldn’t have said why, and that bothered him as much as what the
magister had told him.
    The wind picked up, driving the fain, which
had become sleet, into his back.
    Rahl walked even faster, almost at a
trot. He just wanted to get home and out of the cold. Then, he’d think things
over.

VIII
    Rahl was still working his way through the
tedious mathematics text on fiveday afternoon when Kian came hurrying in with a
small sheet of paper and a stack of larger and heavier paper posterboards.
    “We’ve got a commission from the Council,
but it has to be finished before sunset today. Put aside the textbook. You’ll
have to help.”
    “What is it?” Rahl asked, not that it
mattered to him, except that anything would have been less tedious than the
page before him. Despite what Fahla had wagered, he hadn’t really read much of
the mathematics text, except for the obvious matters like how to calculate
areas and volumes, and simple formulae.
    More important from his point of view was
that a good commission from the Council meant his father would be in a better
mood when Rahl said he was going to Sevien’s house after supper.
    “Here. You can read the words while I
work the spacing and letter size for the posterboards.” Kian handed the
thinner, smaller sheet to his son, adding, “They must have gone to every
scrivener in Reduce to get these done.”
    Whatever the paper said, then, it had to‘
be important. Rahl read it, although he had to struggle in places because the
writing was both hurried and cramped. When he finished, his eyes went back to
the opening lines.
     
    The Council of Reduce has determined that the
frequency and severity of piracy has increased significantly and that such
piracy has been largely undertaken by Jeranyi vessels. With