Threads of Desire (Spellcraft) - By Stone, Eleri Page 0,36

his arms. He must have sensed the anger that still simmered in Ily’s heart because there was a plea in his eyes that couldn’t be feigned.

As if she would take out her anger on his innocent child.

“Nira,” he said. “This is Ily. She is like you, a weaver. She’s come to consider taking you as a student.”

“And then we can live together again, Papa?”

“Perhaps,” Kal deflected. “Say hello, love.”

Nira held out her hand and, after a moment’s hesitation, Ily took it. “You can train me? I can’t see, you know. The other masters said I was an...an impossibility.”

“Oh, I don’t believe in impossibilities,” Ily said, gaze flickering briefly to meet Kal’s. “Is this what you’re working on now?”

Nira lifted a square of weave, obviously the work of a novice. Many of the threads were looped and snagged yet there was a pattern to the colors. An odd pattern, but if the girl was entirely blind then logically there should be none.

“I can’t make the thread lie flat. It always pops up like that.”

She heard the frustration in the small voice and sympathized. “It takes a great deal of practice, keeping the flow consistent. Especially when it is only one of the many things you must concentrate on when working the weave.”

“I start to think about the colors and the next thing I know...” She lifted one delicate shoulder and let it fall in a shrug.

“Nira, how do you think about the colors?” She glanced at Kal. “Were you not always blind?”

He shook his head. “She was born this way.”

“I can hear them. Each has a different sound. Like music.” Nira touched the yellow. “Bright.” Blue. “This one is cool like the water in the fountain at home.”

Pain flickered across Kal’s face, but Ily barely registered it. Her thoughts were flying. The traditional method of training required that you hold the entire image of the work in your mind as you began the weave. The training consisted in large part in building the mental stamina to concentrate, to hold that single intricately detailed image in your mind for an extended period of time. But maybe...

So long as Nira could distinguish between the different threads, did it matter if she held a picture in her mind or a symphony? It was possible, yes. At least theoretically. And what would the finished product look like? This child might be able to create weaves that no one had imagined possible.

Nira’s face scrunched up. “Rael sings about dogs hunting the moon, do you know it?”

Ily started to shake her head but then said aloud, “No, I’ve never heard it.”

“You should ask him to sing it to you. It’s my favorite one. He has a very good voice and he was never trained to use it.”

She met Kal’s gaze and smiled. “I’ll be sure to ask him.”

Nira nodded and lifted the sorry scrap of rug. “I tried to weave it, but the melody kept getting away from me.” She twisted in Kal’s arms and placed her small palm to his cheek. “Can Rael come here, Papa, and sing it to me? I think that would help.”

“The next time I come, I will bring Rael,” Kal promised.

“Soon,” Nira insisted.

“Soon.”

Kal looked Ily’s way, brows raised. She knew what he was asking but didn’t have an answer for him yet. “Does she have any musical training?”

He shook his head. “Do you think it would help?”

“Yes. If that is the way she perceives the color and the pattern, then that is what we’ll have to work with. We need to strengthen her control and understanding of how the notes work together to create song. Anything that we can do to encourage that is good.”

“We?”

She held his gaze. “We.”

Kal hugged Nira to his chest and kissed the top of her head, but his eyes were fixed on Ily. She couldn’t fault him for trying to save his child. She understood the difficulties he faced. The guild believed the girl was dead. Any master would have been honor bound to report the girl’s existence and then she would be killed. Even taking honor out of the equation, every master she’d ever worked with would have rejected a blind child as a pupil. There were some things money couldn’t buy after all.

Finally, she could say that she understood what motivated Kal.

“I’ll stay with her here, then.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“If I’m to be her master then, yes, it is.”

He looked as though he wanted to argue that point but wouldn’t do it in front of