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called me the moment she set foot in my parlor.”
    Damek accepted the mild censure with only slight irritation.
“I was only—”
    “Protecting
me from intrusion. Tell me, Damek, how much of what you’ve read in these musty old books have you
understood?”
    Damek frowned, puzzled by the sudden change of subject. “Barely half of it. The
equations seem . . . well, they seem to be full of gibberish.”
    “Barely
half of it. Well, even I can comprehend no more than two thirds of what I read
there. Those equations are full of Itugen, Damek. Only someone with Her gift
can begin to decipher them.”
    Damek nodded, his mouth a tight line. “Kassia Telek.”
    “Yes.”
    “But
she’s unschooled—completely
uninitiated. You don’t
even know if she can read.”
    “She
can read, that much I know. She has taught reading to the village children and
to her own child. Yes, she will soon be both initiated and schooled . . .
by me personally. In fact, I hope to make her my Apprentice before the year is
out.”
    “You
gamble much on this girl, Master.”
    Lukasha turned his face to the window again, hiding it from
his aide. “Yes,
Damek. I gamble much.

Chapter Four — Initiate
    “You’re what ?”
    Blaz Kovar had been unable to conceal his disbelief when
Kassia announced the new course her life was taking. He’d followed that incredulous question with a crack
of laughter. Even after she’d
recounted the entire day in detail, even as Asenka held trembling hands to her
red cheeks and the children’s
eyes grew as round as copper rezes, he disbelieved. His amusement turned to
annoyance in the face of her stubborn assertions of truthfulness, and finally
to anger.
    “Your
sister is not only a worthless, accursed shai dreamer,” he told Asenka, “but a liar as well. I
want her out of my house now—this
very night!”
    Furious, Kassia packed her things and Beyla’s and walked to Janka’s house to ask for a
place to stay. “For
only a week, no more,” she assured her eldest sister. “I’ll find us a place of
our own then. With an Initiate’s
stipend, I can surely afford one of Ursel Trava’s hovels.”
    But Janka, not surprisingly, turned her away. “I told Aska she was a
fool to take you in, but she wouldn’t
believe me. You’ve
caused nothing but strife in Blaz Kovar’s
household. It wouldn’t
surprise me to know you’ve
laid a curse on that house, as surely as you laid one on the house of our
father, as surely as you laid one on your own house. I don’t know what sort of
daydreams you’re
selling, Kassia, but you’ll
not peddle them here, not even for one week. I’ll not have a liar about my children.”
    “I’m not lying,” Kassia defended herself wearily. “I am to be initiated at Lorant. Master Lukasha
himself signed my name in the book and accepted me.”
    “Now
I know you’re
lying. No Initiate is accepted without testing to determine worthiness. Celka
Tanu’s son applied
at Lorant not three months ago. He barely made it in. There were theological
tests, history tests, a test to see if he had any magic in him. Did they give
you any tests?”
    Kassia reached the end of what little patience she had. Yes,
she needed Janka’s
help. Yes, Janka was her sister, but it had always been this way between them—the one goading, the
other reacting in blind anger. So now, Kassia summoned every shred of arrogance
she could muster.
    “They
didn’t need to
test me. Master Lukasha, himself, has been watching me. He told me my power was
being wasted in Dalibor. He was going to ask me to come up to Lorant to study
and he made me an Initiate without so much as a question.”
    Janka had laughed, showing strong, white teeth. She had a
beautiful smile, did Janka. “Ah,
Kassia, if you’re
not a liar, then you’re
a madwoman. I don’t
suppose that should surprise me, considering all the misfortune you’ve brought upon
yourself . . . and those around you.”
    Kassia’s
arrogance shattered, loosing