Read Revelation (Rai Kirah) for Free Online Page B

standing, unblinking as she looked down at me. “You need to stop for a while, Seyonne. A few weeks. A month. You’re going to die if you don’t. Or something worse.”
    “So you heard about yesterday.”
    “Of course I heard. I am your mentor. You should have been the one to tell me.”
    I could have made excuses such as “it was the middle of the night” or “I had to confront my wife, the murderer,” but instead I confessed that I hadn’t even thought of the requirement to report such a grievous mistake to my mentor without delay. Of all the protocols surrounding demon battles, it was one I agreed with wholeheartedly. Though always tempting to overlook one’s own shortcomings, it was good to share them with someone, to lay them out piece by piece, to analyze them without emotion or blame, looking forward, even while speaking of deeds already done. It made you better. More honest. More understanding. “It was a damned wretched day, Catrin. I’m sorry.”
    “You will come to me at dawn tomorrow, and we’ll review it.”
    I bowed my head to her as was proper from a student to a mentor. A Warden was a student until he was retired or dead.
    “Now, go home.” She laid her hand briefly atop my head, then went off to drag her students from their plates and cups and set them to work again at books and pens. Throughout Ezzaria mentors were doing the same, pushing their young charges to be ready. The Searchers already bypassed half the calls they could have sent us.
    I never made it home that night. A runner caught up with me just before I crossed the wooden bridge to the house. “Master Warden! A call . . .”
    I waved to Fiona to hurry so the panting girl would not have to repeat the news. My watchdog was rarely more than ten paces behind.
     
    In the next ten days Fiona and I took on twelve combats. In the short hours between them we never left the temple. Fiona had no opportunity to nag at me for flaws in my preparation, for we would sag into our blankets as soon as we were done. Pallets were brought for us, though cold stone and bare ground were comfortable enough when one was as tired as we were. Catrin kept us supplied with food and wine. She probably guessed that when presented with the choice of using our time sleeping or going somewhere to find a meal, we would always choose sleep. Twice she came herself to make sure we were not pushing too hard.
    “You know you can refuse a call,” she said one evening as we sat on the steps of the temple, watching a flock of sparrows fluttering about the trees. “No ill judgment will come from it.”
    “This last one was a Derzhi baron who burned three villages and his own house with his wife and children still inside it. The one before was a ship captain who abandoned a sinking vessel with slaves still chained to the oars. Which ones do we refuse?”
    “What of Fiona? She’s young for this.” The aforementioned young woman scowled at us from her place by the fire. It was her own fault for eavesdropping.
    “She does well,” I said, staring at a leg of roast fowl in my hand, trying to decide if it was worth the effort to lift it to my mouth. “But you’ll have to ask her for yourself. She’s not about to admit any weakness to me.”
    “Or you to her?”
    I glanced at Catrin and grinned. “Not in this life.”
    She did not return my attempt at humor, instead repeating what she had told me at her practice arena. “You need to stop for a while, Seyonne.”
    “I’ll be careful,” I said. “But I can’t say I mind being busy. Less time to think about things I’d as soon forget.”
    Like a twittering cloud, the sparrows rose from the trees, circled, and settled back again, just where they had already been.
     
    In nine of those twelve battles the demon chose to abandon its host and return to its frozen realm to live again. In two I had to kill it. One battle I lost, the second venture in a single day. Stupid to try it, but it was another case where the