Read Online The Sleeping Life (Eferum Book 2) by Andrea K Höst - Free Book Online

eating and asking Sebastian questions. Eavesdropping on a conversation between two Hand mages snarking about Lieutenant Meniar being a 'no more than average' mage, Kendall almost didn't notice when Rennyn finally arrived.
    She was in her sneaky bed clothes. Back when Rennyn had been stuck in the infirmary, with people constantly visiting her, Captain Faille had produced a collection of what he called Verisian lounging suits. They were knee-length fancy shirts paired with matching light trousers, comfortable enough to sleep in, but making Rennyn look like she was dressed for visits. It was the first thing that had made Kendall feel maybe Rennyn wasn't so wrong marrying Captain Faille, that he'd seen she didn't like talking to people while in a nightgown, and figured out how to fix it.
    Rennyn usually didn't wander around in the lounging things, but often wore them during days when she wasn't going outside so she could comfortably go to bed without changing clothes. She'd probably not been expecting the horde crowding the dining hall, or that they would start applauding her once they saw her, but she just smiled and shrugged, said thank you, and went back to talking to the blond-haired scut, who was following her like he'd been invited.
    "What's she thinking?" Kendall hissed to Sukata, who shook her head, eyes confused. But that was Rennyn all over—full of inexplicable whims.
    Sebastian looked up and caught sight of the boy, but he wasn't one for scenes, so he just looked down again and finished the last few sigils. Like most complicated castings, it had been chalked in a big circle to strengthen and confine the purpose. The sigils were in a language called Efanian, which mages had made up so that their spells didn't get confused over words that had more than one meaning.
    It was no surprise, since words were so important to them, that mages loved to talk about them. They could all read the spell, but by the time they'd done asking Sebastian why this word, why that word, how much power it would take to cast, what kind of range it could potentially reach, Kendall had managed to finish off two helpings of lunch, and had had to poke Rennyn awake when she started to fall asleep over her own plate. But that did give her the opportunity to point her chin to the blond boy in the crowd around the Lieutenant and say: "You know who his uncle is?"
    Rennyn, of course, found the question funny. "He told me. Said it was one of the three good reasons I'd have to not take him on as a student. The second was that he'd made himself objectionable to my other students, and couldn't guarantee he wouldn't do so again since sometimes he means to be polite but simply forgets and asks about things he wants to know."
    "A complete and total prat, in other words. What was the third reason?"
    "He likes magic too much."
    "That's a bad thing?"
    "It could be."
    "Tell me you didn't agree to teach him."
    "I told him I'd think about it, but that I'm not looking for more students. Still, we had an interesting discussion on circle-turning and how magic was re-learnt after the Elder Mages had killed themselves off and left everyone else to deal with creatures spilling out of the Eferum. How was he objectionable?"
    "He asked me if I could read."
    "Oh? And which do you think he was being? Deliberately rude, or forgetful?"
    Kendall gave her a sour look. "You like him."
    "He reminds me of Seb. I don't know if the differences are positive ones, though." She paused, then smiled at someone over Kendall's shoulder, and there was no need to turn around to know it was Captain Faille. There was only one person who made Rennyn look like that.
    He had the double-sized Sentene mage called Medan with him, and stopped to say something to Lieutenant Meniar that made Meniar's excited smile fade. Too much talking, not enough business.
    Captain Medan came on toward Rennyn, and put something into her hand with a murmur of "Mission accomplished," but Kendall didn't get to see what that