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

throwing.”
    “Where you any good at it?”
    “I won a contest,” I said. That seemed a lifetime ago.
    She looked up from the tools. “I’m good at lock picking. I’m not so good at understanding men.”
    Lyssia seemed to want a comment from me. Was this another test? I didn’t say anything.
    She sighed in the silence that followed. “First, he flatters me, and then he ignores me. I cannot tell what he thinks.”
    “Who?” I dared to ask, because I could tell she wanted me to.
    “Dahn. My father’s visitor.”
    “I’m sorry,” I said, and stopped. Should I say something else? Offer sympathy? “I should probably get back before I get in trouble.” Surely Crakea had plotted my execution by now. I turned to leave.
    “Aemi,” Lyssia said quietly from behind me on the bed, and her tone was different from the languid one she’d been using moments before. She sounded earnest now. “I’d like us to be friends. I don’t have many—many friends.”
    I stopped at the door. My hand hovered over the knob, and then I turned around.
    She blinked and looked out the window at the sea. “Can we be friends? Even though you’re Indentured?”
    I cleared my throat. “All right.”
    Her eyes brightened. “You can always be as honest as you’d like with me,” she said, looking me straight in the eye. “I can take it. I’d rather know where you stood than have you mouthing nothings at me because you’re afraid I’m going to have you punished.”
    I nodded, although I knew there was no way I’d ever take her up on such an offer.
    “And Aemi?”
    “Yes?”
    “Don’t mention the lock picking, please.”
     
     

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
     
     
    CRAKEA WAS FURIOUS that I’d attracted the friendly interest of the master’s daughter. She punished me by making me wash the floor and dust the furniture in the master’s outer study in addition to my other duties. The study was dark and warm, almost like a cave, with a gleaming metal door and walls of cool green stone. Carved wooden furniture furnished the space, and every shelf and table was stacked high with books, bottles, and boxes. I ran the dusting rag over everything as carefully as if I were handling seagull eggs, pausing every other second to examine a new and fascinating object.
    One thing in particular drew my eye. On Merelus’s desk, a sphere-shaped object glittered as if it held an inner fire. I drew close under the guise of dusting, holding my breath as I gazed at the beautiful thing. It was as if someone had bottled up a star from the sky, the way the white light inside danced and shivered. I stretched out one finger to see if it was hot.
    As I touched the glass, it ignited with light. Images rose in the air before me—scenes of Celestrus. Words. I fell back in terror.
    The images stayed there, hovering. After a moment, I pushed myself up and crept forward again. Experimentally, I flipped my fingers. The images moved past one by one. I spun through them, my heart thumping.
    What sort of magic was this?
    Words danced across the air next. Diagrams. My heart pounded harder as I realized the treasure trove that lay before me.
    Information.
    Information I could use to make my escape.
     
    ~ ~ ~
     
    I found every excuse possible to enrage Crakea so she would assign me the master’s study to clean. The floors shone, the desk sparkled, and my knowledge of the device that held dazzling images of light grew. Three buttons at the base appeared to control it. Pressing the center button activated a flash of brilliant light, and then images flashed across the glass. Images of cities, underwater visages, fish, and other creatures. Words sometimes accompanied these images, and I could read them, although some of the letters were strange and distorted, and it was laborious going. Still, I was fascinated. After a few hours, I figured out how to access other text, stored sets of data, diaries, and histories.
    It had much to say about Celestrus. The city was the second oldest