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

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Megan looked down at the two clinging together, over at Sova leaning on her stick, at Shkai'ra's wry
smile.I keep thinking all my problems are over , she thought,and new ones just keep ripping holes in
my nets .
XXVI
Five days after the Sack—people were already speaking of it as a historical event—Assembly was
called again, in the square. None of the family went; whatever it announced would be Arkan politics,
about which they didn't care. If it announced Chevenga's death, they'd find out soon enough without
being there.
But the sound of the crowd was joy, clear even from a distance. The news came: Chevenga had not only
shown, with the Imperial robe on his shoulders, but spoken; the gist of it being that the war and all
grudges against Arko were ended that he would rebuild the City and maintain the Empire. In barely a
day, soot-darkened ruins here and there were giving way to the bright lumber of rebuilding.
"You know, love," Megan said, lying on the grass of the Temonen manor's gardens next to Shkai'ra,
watching the boys show Sova some of their dance moves, the wing-cat flitting overhead as they tumbled.
"It's amazing how sanity can rear its ugly head, when you least expect it. I thought he'd crazy himself to
death." She lay back, one hand stroking Shkai'ra's hair. "I imagine his innate heroness will carry the day
from now on, not that I mind."
"Ia, having an ass of gold keeps your balance well," Shkai'ra said. "Besides, that one's life is nailed tight
to his backbone, he'd be dead ten times and a day, else. Whoever kills him had best shoot him asleep, in
the back." She grinned. "Ah, well, he's a good general and a good lay, that's all you can ask of a man,nia
?"
The next day was as bright as it got in the lingering smoke, warm but with a first hint of fall. Sentries
stood at the Marble Palace steps: Yeolis, the circle-sword insignia of the Demarchic Guard on their
breastplates, leaning on their spears with relaxed alertness. The caravan was parked in a corner of the
square, since they would probably not be in audience for more than an hour or so. All it had taken was a
note passed into the Palace with their names on it, and they were in, same day; things were back to
normal. Shkai'ra swung down from Hotblood; the Haian had said her leg would be good as new by next
year. She grinned and looked over her shoulder at the half-dozen horse-drawn wagons waiting. "Didn't
think we'd pick up so much junk," she said, taking Megan's hand.
"Well, when in Arko, shop," the Zak replied, looking up at her with a slight smile and squeezing back.
There had been a number of very nice things left in the Temonen manor, and a quit-claim to the property
which the Yeolis stationed there had paid out oftheir share of the loot. One of the wagons below was
solidly packed with books from the library, for example, that no one else had been interested in;
Shkai'ra's long gold-buttoned scarlet silk coat was another, and the silver and turquoise studs on her
sword belt, and the rings…
"Lixand! Ardas! Stop fidgeting?" Megan snapped, though fondly. The boys were pulling at the hems of
their tunics; nervousness at the thought of meeting the Imperator, she supposed. Sova was elaborately