Free The Aware (The Isles of Glory Book 1) by Glenda Larke

prevent. The random spread of sylvmagic is just as dangerous as the occurrence of dunmagic.’
    ‘Pity people don’t always obey the breeding laws as they should, isn’t it?’ I replied, still sugary. ‘She’s skilled, this lass. Someone taught her how to handle her talent.’
    ‘ Not a Keeper,’ he said with distaste, showing the usual Keeper disapproval of anyone but a Keeper having sylvmagic. They couldn’t do anything about it, of course, but they didn’t like it. And as far as Keepers like Duthrick were concerned, it happened far too often.
    He still sounded sour as he said, ‘If she’s the Castlemaid and she has sylvmagic, she could be hiding her tattoos under an illusion.’
    I was exasperated but I swallowed the insult; Keepers hated to acknowledge that there were some things that Awarefolk could do that sylvtalents could not. ‘She couldn’t hide them from me,’ I said equably. ‘She has no tattoos. She has never had them. I saw the backs of both her hands quite clearly. And it’s just as certain that Castlemaid Lyssal was tattooed on both hands in accordance with royal Cirkasian tradition; I checked. Besides, in the unlikely event that a Castlemaid did have sylvmagic, there’s no way she could ever have become adept in its use. No one would have dreamed of teaching her, not in Cirkase. But this woman is skilled enough to cure a dunmagic sore.’
    ‘Then what happened to the Castlemaid?’
    ‘I haven’t the faintest idea—yet. It’s possible that for some reason she never got here. They couldn’t have landed her anywhere else, there was no time, so perhaps she was killed or died on board the ship for some reason, and was thrown overboard. Or maybe they transferred her to another vessel.’
    He looked even more appalled. ‘She’s got to be found. And soon. I expect results.’
    ‘It might help if you tell me what is going on in Gorthan Spit. As you lack Awareness, it might have escaped your notice that the place reeks of dunmagic, but I doubt that you’re entirely unaware of the problem.’
    ‘There’s no need for you to concern yourself with that,’ he said stiffly. ‘We are keeping an eye on the situation. It is why we are here.’
    Of course. My problem with the Castlemaid was unlikely to have brought them all the way to the Spit. When Duthrick gave me a task, he expected it to be performed without his help. I wondered why he had gone to Lem in the first place, but didn’t dwell on it: maybe he had felt the need to placate the Castlelord for some reason or another. It wasn’t my business.
    His eyes glittered at me unforgivingly. ‘Why haven’t you questioned the Cirkasian?’
    ‘Because I can’t be sure she’s not part of some Cirkasian plot to dispose of the Castlemaid.’
    He was scornful. ‘Cirkasian plot? What plot?’
    ‘You haven’t been listening, Syr-sylv. No sooner had the Castlemaid escaped the palace than she was captured and sold into slavery. In a land that purports, in theory, to have outlawed slave sales—sorry, outlawed indenturing anyone who is not a criminal, she was sold to a ship that had dealings with the Castlelord’s own agents. The whole thing stinks. My guess is that she was encouraged to escape and then betrayed. I’d like to know why.’
    He saw what I was hinting at immediately. ‘Believe me, the Castlelord is not involved in the disappearance of his own daughter.’
    ‘Perhaps not,’ I admitted. ‘But someone is. There’s a lot more to this than you’re saying.’
    ‘I am not at liberty to discuss politics with a non-Keeper. You were given enough information to deal with the situation. You have handled it badly. A full report on this will be made to the Council if you don’t find the Castlemaid soon.’ He nodded abruptly, closed down the wards and left the room. I suspected he’d use his sylvmagic to hide his departure in the same way I guessed him to have blurred his arrival.
    He left me with my anger, my frustration.
    Five more