Shadow's Son by Shirley Meier, S.M. Stirling and Karen Wehrstein ...

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Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html her thoughts, sometimes making sense, sometimes not, punctuated like all arguments with irritating stupidities, and every now and then held by the one voice that no others would interrupt, no matter how quietly it spoke. Chiravesa. A Yeoli word; it meant playing something out, in your head, or with others; imagining, intensely, making it feel real.Shkai'ra's wounded, at best. If I want to save Lixand, I'll have to kill him . She turned to watch his face, its sharp lines smoothed by firelight, the dark eyes one moment sincere and forceful, the next creased with laughter, flamelight catching on a gold tooth.When he laughs, his eyes dance with all the joy he was torn from before . Other people at camp-fires wore some armor often, weapons usually; she did herself. Chevenga never wore so much as an eating-knife—he didn't need one, eating only odd-looking vegetable concoctions his Haian prepared, apparently, out of little bowls always brought by a younger brother or sister—or wristlets, usually going bare-chested. To show he trusted his warriors to protect him, she guessed, or let people see Arko's marks on him; he was too calculating a person to be doing it just because of the heat. She watched his good hand, bearing the white signet, gesturing ceaselessly in the Yeoli way, shaping this or that meaning with the grace of life-long practice.I will kill him. I will touch him with a claw full of traceless poison, and he will die, as if from summer fever. One touch, and that will be the end of him, his name scattered to the wind, and my son back with me. His name scattered to the wind, so what? A year ago I'd never heard it … "In an autocracy there's no balance!" Some Yeoli woman declaimed. "No check, no give and take! So all its institutions are subject to corruption, to losing sight of their ostensible purpose of keeping order, and being abused for base urges against which there's no recourse. I mean—please, everyone, understand I'm comparing no one's customs totheirs , but I can't think of a better example. Look at the Arkans, and what they do to captives, lower castes, women, children, dogs, trees, everything else that can't either run faster or hit them with something sharp…" I will kill him. They'll have to figure out how to do without him. "All to keep the social order, they say… but, well, come on! It would be ridiculous, for instance, to look at our Chevenga here with a straight face and say, "What they did to you while you were helpless, shit, they never did forpleasure , did they? I mean, you could feel it was all for sacred duty, couldn't you?' " A sudden silence fell; everyone was looking at him for an answer, even though, by the sudden swallowed-a-peach-pit look on the Yeoli's face, she'd meant the question rhetorically. But the semanakraseye spread the fingers of his good hand, and answered."They seemed to find their duty and their pleasure," the soft voice said, "by some lucky coincidence, happily allied." Laughter broke out all around the fire; one man fell off the log, he laughed so hard—though he managed to keep the horn-cup in his hand upright—making Megan wonder what he'd seen or suffered to make this so funny. "I'm putting it facetiously," Chevenga said, when the mirth quieted, "but it's true. By saying it is duty, they can excuse the pleasure, and so make it purer; by feeling the pleasure they can give themselves credit for enjoying duty. Virtue, either way; a very nice arrangement." I will kill him, and have Lixand back. Myrokatzkwould be a fool to renege. And we will still win the war; it has enough momentum . "Cheng." A drunken man. "When you learned that, when you got to feel that attheir expense, it was a
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html damned fine sight to see. A damned fine sight." He raised his cup; several others did likewise. The Arkan general: Shkai'ra had told her. "Teik Sun-Shines-Out-Of-His-Ass isn't so driven-snow pure." Abatzas Kallen—she'd been struck by the similarity, to Sarngeld's true-name. "Neither he, nor his kind, sweet, gentle people, who voted for him to do it… several have told me, how he milked every bit of ecstasy out of pronging that fat fuck-head. About time, I'd say; they had it coming, and no one deserved to give it to them more than him." I'm going to kill you, she thought.If you could do that to anyone, Arkan or not, for any reason … Chevenga ran a hand through his dark hair, and said, "Semana kra," like an incantation.The people wills. You mean it was duty. Just following orders. Your duty and your pleasure were happily allied ? Megan wanted to be elsewhere, to continue; if it got intense enough, her face would show it. She yawned elaborately, stretched and got up, surrendering her place to the steadily contracting circle. Chevenga got up too, catching her eye. Wanting to talk, it seemed; fine. Away from the fire, the darkness was full but for faint starlight, even in the open ground. She couldn't see more than his shape, naZak-tall ! side her. "I thought I'd walk you to your tent at least," he said pleasantly, "it's been all business lately, somehow, we haven't just talked… Unless you're tired, of course; don't let me impose." In the dark, she knew, he couldn't see her face. "You're not imposing… ah, perhaps I should rephrase that."A teacher's voice: "Smite, it can be heard even if not seen ." "Actually, you're very imposing." He chuckled politely. "How go things with you?" Fine, thanks, she answered inwardly.Someone's using my son to blackmail me into killing you, how about you "Well enough. Except for some chosen problems… like my adopted daughter." He read people too well not to see her preoccupation with something, and it was true enough. "Any of my business?" She had a sudden thought, of the Arkans he'd had drawn and quartered, how joyfully he had announced it.Velvet smooth voice out of the dark , she thought.Habiku was equally charming : "If I choose to tell. I told you we adopted Sova a year ago and never mentioned why, or how. She and her brother… well, Shkai'ra took them away from their father as a prize when we won a challenge when she was twelve, and I didn't stop her. Her brother was killed in my house war." She found herself worrying at the skin around her claws again and made herself stop. "So she's more than a little confused about who she is. I look at her, try to help, but find myself looking at an angry stranger, in part through my own action—or rather inaction—then." "Shkai'ra took her as aprize ?" The soft voice took on just the trace of an edge. "Yet you call it adoption.Tzen kel …" He cut himself off. "I can see why she's confused about who she is. Whatever possessed Shkai'ra to take children as prizes?" Tzen kellin ripalin, he'd half-said: the Arkan ethic, "Who kills becomes." Meaning who kills a lord takes
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people around for camouflage, and t
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Und now I vind dose two—Celestial
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wounded only in the carts on march,
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