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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fight off all three of them . "Don't be afraid of what you see," she hissed to the boy in Arkan, quickly.<br />
"It's just to scare them." She took a quick breath, summoned hermanrauq- demon. The boy tore his<br />
h<strong>and</strong> away from her ankle, shrieked <strong>and</strong> curled into a ball.One breath, two… hold… hold … tearing<br />
pain <strong>and</strong> a green flare behind her eyes. The image steadied, giggled <strong>and</strong> pawed. They cringed back a<br />
step; the spearman threw, saw his spear go through the thing <strong>and</strong> into the grass behind, heard it hiss.<br />
They ran screaming.<br />
Megan let the image go, tested her headache, her fatigue.I have to sit down. Now .<br />
The boy was still curled up, whimpering, "Tikas, matron, Tikas, Rasas—it's Hayel, it's Hayel. Tikas."<br />
Megan knelt beside him, put a gloved h<strong>and</strong> on his shoulder.<br />
"Rasas? Lix<strong>and</strong>?"<br />
He jerked away from her, blue eyes staring—blue eyes!?<br />
"Where'd it go? Where is it?"<br />
"Gone," she said. "You aren't Rasas! I saved you because I thought you were him. Is he one of these<br />
dead ones?"<br />
"No! He's gone, he got kidnapped, ages ago! I'm his best friend, we pretended we were brothers! Who<br />
are you?"<br />
"His mother. You mean he's not in the house?" The boy shook his head. "He never came back?" He<br />
nodded.<br />
In the city. Somewhere. What will I do, run through the streets of a city of a million dying people,<br />
shouting my son's <strong>and</strong> my love's names? I haven't a hope in Halya of finding him. Or outside? I'll<br />
never know. Chevenga. You said no sack. I should have killed you. Maybe I still will.<br />
"Strip off the satin <strong>and</strong> jewels, they make you a prize. Hide. This should settle in a day or two." She<br />
rubbed her h<strong>and</strong>s across her face, looked up at the sky, darkened with smoke, as if it were evening. No;<br />
itwas getting on to evening.If Shkai'ra is alive, with Lix<strong>and</strong>, they'll come here . Sova would, too.<br />
Uncertainty; always, uncertainty.Best I stay .<br />
The boy stared, mouth wide open. "His mother!?"<br />
She looked down to where he sat on the grass. "Dah, his mother. He was taken from me <strong>by</strong> an Arkan,<br />
eight years ago." Several screams came from the main house. "Look, if you want you can hang around<br />
with me for a bit. I'll make sure nobody parts your… hair or decides to rape you to death."He may be<br />
Arkan, but he's just a boy, a little younger than my Lix<strong>and</strong>. And his best friend . Grief <strong>and</strong> fear<br />
came back roaring; she shook them away. The child needed her. "And you can tell me about my son,<br />
sometime."<br />
The boy stood up, <strong>and</strong> pressed closer, as if sheltering behind her. "He's my best friend <strong>and</strong> I'm his. He's<br />
the nicest person in the world, except maybe Tikas, but then Tikas uses the whip. He has black eyes like<br />
onyxes <strong>and</strong> a profile like a line of clear flame."Some poet's line , she thought.Poet child-raper . "He's<br />
really good at dancing, he does solos now. Master's thinking of entering him in the City Diadem boys'<br />
dance…"