Free Of Sea and Stone (Secrets of Itlantis) by Kate Avery Ellison

Primus do, either.”
    “Tob sees little value in discussing politics,” Mella said to me.
    “I’m capable of a discussion,” Tob protested. “I just have no desire for one. Besides, that’s what you’re here for.” To me, he whispered, “She wants to be a scholar just like the master.”
    Mella elbowed him. He yelped and shot me a grin.
    “Tell me more about the war,” I said. Information was always useful.
    “The war is a complicated topic,” Mella said. “There are rumors of peace treaties lately, but I think that’s just Celestrus’s scholars wishing to be able to get past the Dron patrols to see the surface.”
    “The surface?” My heart thudded, and sweat broke out across my palms.
    “Don’t tell me you don’t know what that is,” Tob said.
    “I once heard that people lived up there.”
    “Ha,” Tob said. “You’ve been listening to followers of that cult, New Dawn. They’re all crazy. No one lives above the surface since it was burned in the Cataclysm.”
    “Cataclysm?”
    “Yes,” Mella said. “The great disaster that burned the world.”
    “You really don’t know anything, do you?”
    “Tob,” Mella said.
    Amazement flickered through me. I’d never heard such a myth. My people had no such stories. Was it true? Why else would such a vast civilization be hidden away beneath the sea?
    Mella continued speaking, eager at last to talk it seemed now that we’d begun a topic more interesting to her. “Right now only military excursions dare to venture that far.”
    A memory of men yanking me away from Kit flashed through my mind, and a shudder shook me. The room faded away, and all I felt or knew was the cold bite of the wind as I remembered being dragged across the rocks and thrown to the ground. I gasped in a breath and then I was back in the servants’ hall, with people talking and eating around me.
    Mella and Tob bickered cheerfully in front of me. They hadn’t noticed my moment of panic.
    “Listen to you,” Tob said, smiling at her. “Talking about the future. It’s downright hopeful.”
    Mella nudged him with her shoulder. “One day I will pay off my crimes, and then I will sit in the forum and vote with the rest of the citizens again.”
    Under the table, my legs trembled.
    “And I shall become a shock cook,” Tob said, grinning. “And make such tantalizing dishes that you shall beg me to marry you.”
    Mella rolled her eyes and glanced at me. She paused. “Aemi, are you all right? You’re pale.”
    My throat tightened, and I swallowed to moisten it. Before I could speak, a brass bell over the door jangled, and the other servants stood and began picking up their bowls.
    “What is your station here?” Tob asked as we picked up our utensils.
    “Maid,” I said. “I’m assisting the doumeu.”
    “Ah,” he said. “Old Crabby. Don’t let her get to you. She has a special hatred for whoever is unlucky enough to be her assistant maid, but it isn’t personal.”
    My stomach twisted with apprehension. Special hatred certainly didn’t sound promising.
    “Just keep your head down and do as she says,” Mella advised in a low voice. “Most of Crakea’s maids have a tendency to be reassigned. She sees them as a challenge to her position. Don’t cause trouble with her or give her any reason to think you’re a threat to her. In time, she should lessen her bullying.”
    I hoped she was right.
     
    ~ ~ ~
     
    When I reached the main level again, Crakea was waiting.
    “Perhaps if you walked on your hands and knees, you could have managed to come slower,” she snapped. “Do you not realize we have a schedule to keep?”
    “I am sorry,” I said, grinding my teeth. I’d run the entire way, and surely she could tell. She was looking for things to dislike, whether they made any sense or not. I remembered Mella’s warning.
    “Come,” Crakea said. “We must attend the master’s daughter.”
    My heart sank. I had a bad history with master’s daughters. I hurried