Laure l Ga le
8
But according to the Story Magicians Guild, it was bad
luck for a girl to attempt magic. It angered the listeners, they
claimed. It led to disaster.
Nonsense, Hob had argued. The magicians just wanted to
keep women out of the guild. The listeners didn’t care about
gender any more than they cared about age, social class, or
wealth. Only one thing mattered to them: good stories.
Their ma, he added, had dabbled in story magic, though
only when their pa wasn’t around to witness it.
Kaya wasn’t so sure. She didn’t remember their ma
practicing magic, but that could have been because she’d only
been seven when their parents had died, perhaps too young to
be trusted with dangerous secrets.
And that was the other problem. The fact that they had
died. Their parents had died, so maybe the magicians were
right after all. It was bad luck for women and girls to work
spells.
But Hob insisted otherwise, and he’d always taken care
of her. Orphans would normally have to live—or die—on the
streets, but he used his stipend from the Story Magicians
Guild to pay for a rented room and a little food for the both of
them. When he got back fromhis work at the guild each day, he
passed on some of what he had learned, teaching Kaya how to
sense listeners and even how to summon them.
He’d be proud to come home and discover that she’dworked
her first spell. He’d be disappointed to find out that there was
no bread to go with dinner.
Kaya hated disappointing him.
