Free Desert Rising by Kelley Grant Page B

that showed even when she frowned. Her face brightened.
    â€œMy friend’s wife works in the kitchens of Ivanha.” At his frown of confusion, she sighed, and continued, “The newly paired women are living in Ivanha’s house this season. They’ve been talking about Sulis since she came. They might have some idea of when she goes where. Raella wanted me to go to the Temple midweek to deliver the saffron its kitchens ordered. I could convince her to let me go tomorrow instead.”
    â€œYou’re brilliant!” Kadar said, wrapping his arms around her in a hug.
    A hug she leaned into, only breaking away when they heard footsteps in the courtyard.
    â€œFarrah!” Ava, Farrah’s sister burst into the stables, her face flushed. “Miz Raella gave me an errand to run, and she’s paying me and she said you could come and, oh, hi Kadar,” She stopped and eyed the two of them dubiously. “Were you two kissing?”
    â€œOf course not,” Farrah said, her voice admonishing. “Ava, you need to slow down. You’ll hurt someone stampeding about like a mule.”
    â€œSorry,” Ava said, wrinkling her nose at Kadar.
    Kadar grinned at Ava and mussed her hair. She ducked away and swatted his hand. Farrah gave him a shy smile before she walked out of the stables, her sister chattering beside her.
    T HE NEXT MORNING, Kadar listened as his aunt gave Farrah last-­minute instructions. He paced most of the day, his mind only half on his uncle’s daily lecture, listening for Farrah’s voice. Finally, shortly before last meal, she appeared. He had to wait until the dishes were cleared before he could slip out to the stables, where he hoped she would be waiting for him.
    Farrah arrived shortly after he did, and he followed her up a ladder to the hayloft.
    He sat beside her and waited impatiently for her to begin.
    â€œWell?” he asked.
    â€œWell, I think I found out quite a bit although not all of it is reliable,” she admitted.
    Kadar nodded and gestured for her to continue.
    â€œIt sounds as though all the new class has some sort of thing at the Temple of the One when they first awaken because breakfast is an hour after dawn for them.”
    Kadar grinned. Sulis would hate that. They had a tough time rousing her in the mornings when they were traveling with the caravan, and she more often took night watches, preferring the darkness to dawn.
    â€œThe servants like your sister because she treats them like equals, but the other students seem to be on their guard because she isn’t allowed to take meals with them until she passes her deportment training, and she doesn’t have many friends just yet. The mothers are horrified that she can’t sew and want the wardrobe mistress to give her lessons.”
    â€œGood luck with that,” Kadar muttered. “I was there when my mother and my grandmother tried. It isn’t worth the fight.”
    Farrah’s eyes danced with amusement. “Sulis tested out of math, and reading, which is unusual enough for a girl that the teachers were gossiping about it—­but they’re giving her remedial classes in scriptures and prayers and she has a personal teacher in deportment. She’s also in a geography class with the rest of her pledge mates. But the servants haven’t cleaned any breeches yet, which she would wear if she’d been riding.”
    â€œWhich means what in terms of my ability to meet with her?” Kadar asked.
    â€œShe hasn’t been assigned a riding or weapons time. But all of her classes meet in the afternoon, so . . .”
    â€œSo when she does travel the west road, it will be in the morning, but after breakfast.” Kadar laughed in relief and hugged Farrah to him. “Farrah, that’s wonderful!”
    She laughed up at him from the circle of his arms, and without thinking, he bent down and kissed her. Rather than its being the passive,