Shadow's Son by Shirley Meier, S.M. Stirling and Karen Wehrstein ...
Shadow's Son by Shirley Meier, S.M. Stirling and Karen Wehrstein ...
Shadow's Son by Shirley Meier, S.M. Stirling and Karen Wehrstein ...
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Flogging to falling was what I had planned for you after that last piece of ignorance, <strong>and</strong> it's<br />
what you're going to get, she thought, as she filled Zoltanova's canteen with the mixture of pure white<br />
wadiki <strong>and</strong> water from her own. It was pleasant not to have to do this to an undeserving soldier… drunk<br />
<strong>and</strong> asleep, while the comm<strong>and</strong>er went into the woods to take a dump <strong>and</strong> never came back. Notquite<br />
enough for execution… maybe. Now the plan: off into the woods a little, put her armor down a well,<br />
quick-change into the Imperial set she had packed on one of the mounts;they were both of the Arkan<br />
breed as well, runners, not destriers. Cut her arm a little, blood on Hotblood's saddle along with the point<br />
<strong>and</strong> broken-off shaft of a barbed Arkan javelin…<br />
NO, Hotblood thought. Shkai'ra groaned mentally.<br />
YES<br />
NO<br />
YES!<br />
NONONONONONONONONONOIsmallsharpsnippy-disagreeable—the Ri's thought-concept for<br />
Megan, colored with a mixture of dislike, respect <strong>and</strong> apprehension—<br />
golook/search/smellcoltredmaneherdmarestaywithMEME MEMEMEMEMEl<br />
YES! Shkai'ra threw her greatest overtone of dominance into the thought, along with images of<br />
dismembered bleeding Arkans in Megan's company.<br />
Sulk.<br />
She hesitated for a moment, looking at the banner. "Sheepshit," she muttered to herself. The biggest war<br />
she'd ever been involved in, a brigade comm<strong>and</strong> coming up, <strong>and</strong> she had toleave , on a cl<strong>and</strong>estine<br />
mission. That was irony for you, sneaking around was Megan's special skill… totally useless now, simply<br />
because of her size <strong>and</strong> the color of her hair <strong>and</strong> eyes.<br />
"Only for you, my love," she muttered, turning Hot-blood's head into the woods. "Only for you." The<br />
Slaughterers would search energetically, of course, but evading a search <strong>and</strong> running mounted ahead of a<br />
cavalry screen were skills she had learned as soon as she could walk. And the Alliance army had moved<br />
into the Empire like a spear into flesh, a long narrow thrust down its eastern highway; she would not have<br />
far to go to reach territory more or less under Arkan control.<br />
XV<br />
Generated <strong>by</strong> ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html<br />
The sunlight deepened from golden to orange, the slanting shadow of each rider growing longer; soon<br />
they'd halt <strong>and</strong> camp. Not soon enough; despite the leather riding-sling giving it support, Megan's leg hurt<br />
like Halya.<br />
"Zhymata?" Sova had been deep in thought all day as she rode, the hazel eyes seeming full to bursting,<br />
but the lips tightly closed. Buckled to her saddle, in the place of honor, was Shkai'ra's saber. "I had a talk<br />
withkhyd-hird . She said… she wants me to decide whether I wanted to train to be a great warrior <strong>and</strong> a