Read Online Treachery's Tools by L. E. Modesitt Jr. - Free Book Online Page B

a long time.”
    â€œFor over twenty years.” Alastar decided against saying Zhelan would be missed. He certainly wouldn’t miss a maitre who had resisted making changes at Westisle. “Thank you.” He paused. “Don’t send for him, but if Maitre Akoryt comes by, I’d like to see him for a moment.”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    After Dareyn left, Alastar reread the brief letter again, then set it aside.
    More than a glass later, the study door opened and Akoryt entered. “Dareyn said…”
    â€œThank you.” Alastar gestured for him to close the door and then to sit down in one of the chairs across the desk from him. “This will only take a few moments.” He waited until Akoryt settled himself. “I know that in the course of observing instructionals you have upon occasion used a concealment … as have I. What I need to know is whether you have done so recently in visiting the imager factorage.”
    Akoryt frowned, concentrating, before finally replying. “I’ve visited the factorage often, but only once under a concealment in the last month. It was on Meredi, the fourth, and I wanted to see how Belsior was presenting the materials instructional to the primes. He’d only been working with them a few weeks.”
    â€œHow did he do?”
    â€œVery well, I thought. He’ll do better, but that comes with practice.”
    â€œNo other times?”
    â€œNo … might I ask why?”
    â€œCharlina apparently can sense concealments. She certainly sensed mine. When I asked her about it, she told me that someone had been visiting the factorage under a concealment often in the last few weeks. She said that I’d never dropped the concealment before. That was true, because I hadn’t been there under a concealment.”
    Akoryt’s frown deepened.
    â€œAs you can, I’d like you to approach Charlina at the factorage under concealment to see…”
    â€œIf she really can sense a concealment?”
    â€œExactly. If she can, it would be a valuable talent.”
    â€œYou’re thinking of Desyrk?”
    Alastar nodded.
    â€œIf she can?”
    â€œThen we may have another problem. I don’t like the idea of an advanced third or even a maitre using concealments that way without letting anyone know, and especially not letting me or you or Cyran know.”
    â€œNeither do I, sir. I’ll do what I can.”
    â€œThank you. That’s all I had.”
    Although his mind was still partly on Cransyr and the factors, not to mention the puzzle of the concealment, Alastar turned his attention, or most of it, to his copy of the Collegium’s master ledger, now kept in Maitre Thelia’s precise hand and script. While Thelia was doubtless far better at the accounts than Alastar would ever be, thanks to the training received from her mother, he still wanted to follow the expenditures and the modest income of the Collegium because they gave him a feel for what was happening in areas that he could not follow otherwise on a daily basis.
    At a quint before fifth glass, Alyna eased into Alastar’s study through the side door from the senior maitres’ conference room.
    Alastar stood immediately and moved toward her. He couldn’t help but smile as she appeared. “It’s good to see you.”
    â€œThat means you’ve had a long day.” Her smile was sympathetic. “What happened?”
    â€œIt began with a very hard meeting with High Holder Cransyr…” Alastar went over the details, ending with, “I got the definite impression that he was deliberately goading me.”
    â€œThat’s possible. He’s not stupid, but he’s also known to be intransigent about things he believes in.”
    â€œIntransigent enough to make someone who could remove him in an instant really angry?”
    â€œYou’ve made a point of being slow to anger, Maitre dear. At least in