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.Shewas almost as tall as Luxlord Black, lean as a rail, with faded brown skin, bones sticking out at sharpangles, wrinkled, her kinky hair white and short with only a few wisps of something darker clinging to thetips, the natural mahogany of her eyes eclipsed by orange and red in jagged starbursts through her irises,reaching almost to the outer edge. Mistress Kerawon Varidos, I m sorry to disturb you, Luxlord Black said.He shot a look at Arien. She was just in the hall; she asked what I was doing, Arien said defensively. Nearly bowled me over.What s this challenge? the old woman asked.The tiles were lying face up theway Kip had left them. How did the supplicant order them? Silence.The mistress looked from Luxlord Black to Magister Arien. That is the way he ordered them, Arien said. So he s a freak to his gender.Are we done? The key says it should be like this, Magister Arien said.She turned the tiles over and pointed to thenumbers on the back. You come to me to differentiate the finest red chroma and you think I can t read? Mistress Varidosasked sharply.Magister Arien looked horrified.Her mouth opened and shut.The old scarecrow picked up tile fourteen in her bony claws.She turned it and looked at the edges. Strip your tester of her position, she said. This tile has been left in the sunlight.It s been bleached.It sPage 144 the wrong color.The boy s a superchromat. She turned to Kip. Congratulations, freak. Freak? Kip said. Simple, is he? Too bad. What? Kip asked.He still hadn t figured out what everyone s titles meant, much less what he wassupposed to do with all of this. Kip, you re forbidden to speak! Magister Arien said. That s an injunction against cheating, Luxlord Black said. For when hundreds of supplicants aretesting in the same room. He just came today, Magister Arien told Mistress Varidos. The Prism himself ordered that he betested immediately.He doesn t know all the rules. Continue the testing, the mistress ordered.Kip and Magister Arien glanced at Luxlord Black.Kip guessed that, technically, the luxlord was thehighest-ranking person in the room, but the man gave the tiniest shrug, as if it wasn t worth fighting over.Go on, he waved.Magister Arien sat once more, pulled out a set of tongs, and used them to lay out another dozentiles except these were all the same deep red.Kip blinked.Magister Arien handed him the tongs.Um,thanks?Kip reached a hand out for a tile, and then he understood.He could feel the heat radiating off them.Hewas supposed to see the differences in heat? He stared as if by sheer willpower he could tear the truthout of the tiles.Time crawled past.Kip started to daydream.He wondered if Liv Danavis was here.Oh, no, he d haveto tell her.Hi, Liv, great to see you.Your father s dead.Fantastic.Kip thought about the flames roaring through his town, about that drafter and his apprentice,throwing fireballs.Jumping over the waterfall, running down the waterfall path in the utter darkness,relaxing his eyes so he could actually see better than focusing directly.Oh, Orholam, Iam simple. Okay, that s long enough, Luxlord Black said. No wait! Wait! I just I just& Kip stared at the tiles again.Relax, eyes, come on! He let his focus gosoft, and abruptly it was clear.Using the tongs, he shuffled each tile into its correct place in momentsfrom the hottest to the merely warm.This was what Master Danavis had been teaching him? The olddyer had never let on that what he was showing Kip wasn t normal.Unbelievable.The thought of the dyer left a hollow in Kip s stomach.Master Danavis had been good to him.Inventingchores he probably could have done faster himself, just to give Kip a little money.And like everyone inRekton, he d been slaughtered.Page 145 Kip hoped Master Danavis had taken some of the bastards with him. Are we almost done? he asked roughly.He wanted to be alone.He was too tired, his emotionserratic, the reality of what had happened in Rekton trying to rush in and overwhelm him now that he hada second where he wasn t running from soldiers or bandits or having magic thrown at him. No, the old scarecrow said. Don t bother, girl, she told Arien, who d only flipped over half of thetiles. He got them all correct.Show him the superviolets. Magister Arien put away the hot tiles with a glance at Luxlord Black, who seemed unfazed.Then shepulled out the last tiles, which were all the same deep violet.Relax my eyes to see one side of the spectrum, so& Kip tightened his eyes as hard as he could, and thecolors leapt apart.Someone had written a letter on each tile.It read: Nicely done! Kip laughed.He slapped them into place.Magister Arien looked at Mistress Varidos. Why are you looking at me, you fool girl? the old womanasked. I can t see superviolets.I m at the other end of the spectrum. The younger woman blushed and flipped over the tiles.They were in the correct order. Congratulations, boy, Mistress Varidos said. You can be some satrap s gardener. What? Kip asked. It s one use for excellent color matchers, and a step up for you, Tyrean. The door opened and Commander Ironfist stepped in. What s this? he asked. We ve just finished testing the supplicant, Magister Arien said. He s a full-spectrum superchromat! You re wasting his time with tiles? I don t care what colors he can see, I want to know what he candraft.Where s that idiot tester I started with? I told him to put Kip through the Thresher. You re putting a raw supplicant through the Thresher? Mistress Varidos asked. Wait,this wasn t the Thresher? Kip asked
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