Read The Education of Brother Thaddius and other tales of DemonWars (The DemonWars Saga) for Free Online Page A

weight of his words and his involvement with them pressed in on her.
    “Worry not about my redheaded comrade,” Orrin assured her, and that alone clued Sadye into her own slack-jawed expression. She straightened and composed herself.
    “He is a blustering fool, the likes of which you will meet often in your life, I assure you,” Orrin went on, and his face brightened and he stood straight. “The world has changed so dramatically over the last years, with the coming of the demon and its minions and the advent of the plague. But the Brotherhood has survived greater trials in the past! We must hold firm to the principles that have so long guided our way, though some would seek an easier course. Fear not the fools.”
    Sadye nodded, not really knowing how to respond, not really understanding what Orrin was talking about.
    *****
    Sadye let her head roll with the bouncing of the wagon as she sat up on the bench beside Orrin. Her thoughts remained on that meeting with the red-haired man and Orrin’s explanation to her that his was a calling beyond the promises of wealth offered by smuggling.
    In her youth and inexperience, Sadye couldn’t quite grasp the depth of that argument, and honestly wasn’t sure that she could even understand why anyone would want to spend a decade or more in the sole pursuit of creating a single item, no matter how beautiful or powerful that item might be. Still, something about Orrin’s oration — perhaps it was the sheer intensity in his old gray eyes, an uncharacteristic flash of true life — had caught Sadye’s attention and had held it through all the days since the meeting.
    For his part, Orrin had said no more about it, nor about the red-haired man. “Do not fret about it,” he had answered Sadye’s every question, and usually with a dismissive wave of his hand and a denigrating chuckle.
    What he had done to mitigate Sadye’s curiosity, however, was to allow her open and continual access to the hematite-lined lute. She even had it now, on the open road, safely tucked under the bench seat, instead of in the crate settled in the back of the wagon. And most amazing of all, Orrin had told her that he would not sell it unless the purchase price included another lute of master craftsmanship, if not magical enhancement.
    As she thought about the lute now, Sadye’s eyes drifted down to the hollow below the bench seat.
    “Do take it out and play,” Orrin bade her, and when she looked at him, he was smiling widely. “I so enjoy your music, girl. You bring the exuberance of youth and the passion of life’s love to every string you pluck.”
    “When I can decide which string I should strike next,” Sadye replied.
    “Ah yes,” Orrin said with a laugh, “and the indecision of so many wondrous possibilities! You are not tied to the designs of those who came before you, nor the adult’s fears of humiliation.”
    “So you believe that my playing humiliates me?”
    That brought another laugh, this one straight from Orrin’s belly. “If I did, would I beg you now to play for me?”
    Sadye reached under the bench and produced the lute, bringing it reverently to her lap. Despite her little jibe with Orrin, the young woman knew that she had talent. Orrin called it “an ear for the strands of natural music playing all about her,” and Sadye considered that an apt description. It was almost as if she heard music in her head and had a natural ability to filter that music through her fingers and onto the strings of the lute. She wasn’t a great player — she knew that! — for she had only begun to realize all the possibilities of sound the lute presented to her. Nor could she yet manipulate her fingers to quickly and in rhythm take advantage of the possibilities she did understand.
    Sadye quieted then and sat up straighter in her seat. She closed her eyes and found those songs flitting all about her, the rhythms of the world, and then she began to play.
    She found melody quickly and settled