Free Heroes' Reward by Moira J. Moore Page B

to do
anything,” I blurted out.
    This brought on
a slight smile. See? I wasn’t completely awful with people.
    “I do,” he said.
“I’m happy to assist, if you wish.”
    “I do. Very
much.”
    The group had
gathered around us by then, everyone having ceased their casting.
    So, time to
begin. “Fair day, everyone.” My voice was nice and steady. “I’m Shield Dunleavy
Mallorough.”
    “We know who you
are,” one woman interrupted sharply. “Does your acclaim mean you’re an
excellent instructor, too?”
    “Not at all,” I
responded mildly. “Which is why I’ll be relying on Shield Murdoch’s
assistance.”
    “Then why
doesn’t he keep teaching us? He’s been doing a great job so far.”
    “Because
Professor Saint-Gerard believes she has something to add to our lessons,” said
Murdoch. “If you disagree with him, I suggest you see him. I, for one, trust
his judgment.”
    He waited for
further objections, but he didn’t get any. I didn’t think the woman was
convinced, but she seemed unwilling to press further. No one else spoke up
either, though not all of them seemed pleased to see me.
    Time to move on
and pretend I had some confidence. “Now that we have that out of the way, how
about we start with names?” These were the names I would have to remember.

 
    Chapter Eight
    The next day I
found myself standing in the largest library I’d ever seen. Even the Imperial
library at Erstwhile wasn’t as grand. Certainly the Shield Academy didn’t have
anything like it. I’d never even seen most of the books. I asked Murdoch,“Where
did these come from?”
    “They were
stored in the Shield Academy. After the Council House was built, they were
moved here.”
    “But why have I
never seen them?”
    “There are books
we don’t necessarily want students to see,” Murdoch answered. “Especially
these.” He laid his hand against a stack of shelves that had been set a little
apart from the others in the tall, long room. “These are the volumes of spells
we’ve accumulated over the past few centuries or so.”
    “Centuries? The
Triple S has known about spells that long and didn’t tell any of us?”
    “You know
pretending to cast is illegal. We couldn’t have anyone suspecting we were
teaching the students criminal behaviour. That would alienate just about every
kind of regular there is.”
    I supposed that
could be true. “How did you get the books?”
    “For the most
part, they were sent by Pairs whenever they came across them.” He raised an
eyebrow at me. “Something you chose not to do, from what I’ve been told.”
    Why would I? No
one had ever instructed me to do such a thing, or had even told me that magic
existed. It had never occurred to me to send books to the Triple S, and if it
had, I still wouldn’t have done so, given all of Taro’s warnings concerning the
dangers of letting the council know I could do anything unusual.
    Under the advice
of Risa, I had destroyed the first batch of casting books I’d accumulated. The
second batch had belonged to Fiona and her tenants, which of course meant I
didn’t have the right to take them without their permission. Besides, I’d
wanted to study them myself.
    And, seriously,
the Triple S should have told me about casting before I’d left the Academy. Why
hadn’t they? “Does anyone read them now?”
    “Only those we
can trust to act with sufficient maturity and caution. We don’t want anyone
reading them and attempting casts they’ve not yet received instruction for.”
    The books were
huge in their variety. Some were thick tomes, others were little more than
pamphlets. Some were old, some newly printed. And then there were the hard
black volumes with covers of a material I had seen only once before, with paper
that bent without creasing, in a language I couldn’t really understand.
    “Zaire,” I
breathed, lightly touching the spine of one of those strange books. “These are
from the First Landed.”
    Those
adventurers who