Free Stained Glass Monsters by Andrea Höst Page B

Black
Queen threatens us?"
    "It shows a disregard for our safety,"
said Anaret, the second crony. "If you ask me, they should all be
locked away, at least until this crisis is over. I mean, you never
can be sure."
    "Truly an excellent idea," Helena
drawled, propping herself on the mound of pillows which had found
their way to her bed. "With Tyrland suddenly plagued by the worst
nightmares out of the Eferum, we should throw half the Sentene in
prison. Because they're spooky."
    "Because the Kellian were created by
Queen Solace," Lydia said sharply. "You can't escape that. It
doesn't matter what they've done in the past, how they've served
the Montjustes. They were made by Solace Montjuste-Surclere.
She's their creator, their god. Now that we know she's alive, how
can we trust them?"
    Helena shrugged. "Well, if you think
Sukata Illuma is going to attack you in your bed, feel free to go
home. Somehow, I don't think you're her type."
    "I may well do that." Lydia turned her
displeasure abruptly toward Kendall. "First the peasant, and now
cancelled lessons every day. What kind of–"
    Kendall didn't bother to stay for the
rest. She'd heard more than enough about unlettered peasants being
allowed into the Arkathan. Things had turned out much as she'd
expected. Lady Weston had handed her over to the Head of the
Arkathan, the school which was one of the three branches of the
Houses of Magic, and had not been back. Kendall didn't blame her: a
stray potential mage was totally unimportant when people were being
killed, and there was all this talk about conspiracies to bring
back the Black Queen. Besides, Kendall had made her own choice to
try magery, and didn't want the Grand Magister treating Kendall as
her business.
    The problem was that the Arkathan was
the wrong place to start. It was an advanced school, taking snotty
nobles and the very cream of other young mages just when they were
getting ready to summon their first focus, and grooming them for
the Hand, or the Sentene, or to be scholars of the Art – or just
too powerful for their own good. It didn't matter whether Kendall
had potential or not; she hadn't passed any of the stages required
to enter the Arkathan. She hadn't been learning sigils along with
her letters, and could barely sense power, let alone understand how
to use it. The Head had given her a couple of books and told
her to memorise them, found her a uniform and an empty bed, and
left her to kick about on her own.
    She didn't fit with the people either,
of course. Not all of them were as bad as Lydia, who talked with a
built-in flounce, but plenty had made it clear that they didn't
like having a village girl shoved in unasked. Not just because she
wasn't rich or titled like many of them, but because she hadn't earned the right to be there. Studying at the Arkathan was a
privilege, a prize to be won or bought, while Kendall was some girl
whose only qualification was that her home had been destroyed by
the Grand Summoning. And when Kendall had chosen to feign ignorance
of anything beyond that, she'd failed to even be a good source of
gossip.
    Like the Kellian girl, Kendall found it
simplest to avoid the other students as much as possible. She
shared a room with these five, only saw the rest at the dining
hall, and concentrated on memorising ugly, crosswise sigils. With
the dormitory no longer quiet, she took her book and headed to the
only place she'd found to get any real privacy.
    The Houses of Magic were set on a
jutting section of Aliace Hill, within the circle of the palace but
separate from it. Six buildings, three large and three lesser,
stuck out around a thick central tower where the Grand Magister and
the library were located. Each main building belonged to a
different House, and the smaller ones held shared kitchens, stables
and infirmary.
    The infirmary was between the Arkathan
and Sentene House, and outside that was a not very interesting
garden which looked north-east to where the hill fell away. A