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 nonchalant; the plundered clothing she wore were at least as expensive as Shkai'ra's, but understated, as if in deliberate contrast. A Marble Palace flunky, an Arkan, came down the steps to meet them, excruciatingly polite but standing a little away as if dreading proximity to these unclean foreign females. That meant he had to hold the heavy ceremonial umbrella at arm's length, quite a strain. "After you, old son," Shkai'ra said, with a cheerful wave to the guards as they passed; several of them stamped their spears on the steps in reply, grinning. Megan and she followed the functionary, walking hand in hand, herding the boys in front while Sova limped beside. They were ushered through courtyard after courtyard, gradually rising, in splendor as well, till the very marble tiles were edged with electrum. Down a hall with chryselephantine statues of ancient Imperators; someone had stripped the golden hair and eye-jewels, leaving blind white sockets, and gone down the line with a war-hammer breaking off the noses. Then into the one where sculpted maidens upbore a ceiling half crystal skylight and half golden sunbursts; Megan hadn't noticed that, in the dark. "Zaik Mother of Death," Shkai'ra said, fingering the hilt of her saber. "I had to miss the sack ofthis ?" "Shut up," Megan saidsotto voce , as they passed a knot of deliberately unintimidated but harassed-looking Yeoli bureaucrats, their wool ponchos looking rough and primitive against this decor. Then into a smaller series of rooms, still sumptuously appointed. More guards outside the final inlaid door; Yeolis, and—astonishingly—an Arkan with the stone face of a Mahid. "Under new management," Megan muttered in Zak. A rebirth, perhaps, but still one had the sense that something grand if wicked had died here. They were ushered into a relatively plain office. Relatively: the desk and wall-mirror were edged with gold filigree.Yes … Megan remembered.I did sneak through here the night I came to see him . Chevenga waited, face looking harried, wearing a half-poncho in the Yeoli style, amarya , they called it, but made of white Arkan sun-cotton, feather-light and translucent so the casts on his arms showed only faintly, the seals still slung around his neck. He smiled. Suddenly Lixand's shoulders were gone from under Megan's hands; both boys in unison were dropping to the floor.Arkans —they prostrate themselves in front of the Imperator. In a single motion, she and Shkai'ra grabbed one each by the collar. "No, no. You don't have to do that. He's afriend , not the Imperator. Well, he is the Imperator," A sudden thought came:maybe he isstanding on ceremony … then,nyata. Not him . She was right: Chevenga just chuckled, gold teeth flashing. "You're free citizens of F'talezon," Shkai'ra added. "Bow, like this." She did, one hand on her chest and the other resting in its usual place on her sword-hilt; as the Imperator-by-conquest's eyes met hers, she winked. The boy's repeated the motion, but without the wink, with dance-trained elegance. "You found him," said the familiar soft voice. "Ia," Shkai'ra said. "Them, actually." She looked around. "You and your Killer Mountain Boys and Girls seem to have found new jobs, too, changed wool and water for silk and wine, hmm? Your Imperatorness." "So it seems," he said, in that impossibly ingenuous way. "Though you know that wasn't the purpose. Everyone have a seat and say what you want to drink. Lixand— I am very pleased indeed to meet you."
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html I bet, Megan thought. "I'm very pleased indeed to meet you too, You-Whose-Mind-is-the-Fortress-of-the-World," Lixand said, with annoying obsequiousness.We'll train him out of that. Still, the polish is good … "Where'd you find him? Them, I should say. And what happened,"—he was looking at Shkai'ra—"to you ?" "Well…" Megan said fast.Let's get the omissions right . "We found out—through an agent of mine—that Lixand had been spirited out of House Temonen. Shkai'ra went after him; she got cut up rescuing him. He didn't know who she was, hid in an attic and wielded a table leg against her when she put her head up to look for him. That's it, in a fingernail's worth of script." Shkai'ra grinned. "When I woke up at the bottom of the stairs, I knew he must be Megan's." "You…faked going missing?" Thesemanakraseye- Imperator's black brows flew up. "That'swhy Mad Cow Whatsername came clean! I thought that would stay an unsolved mystery."You and your fish-gutted attention to detail , Megan thought. "I suppose,"—his grin turned a touch contrite—"you wanted to get him out of the City beforewe got here?" Thank you for giving me an out. Better a friend in a high place thought her cynical or prescient, than almost his assassin. "Well… yes." She waved it away magnanimously. His dark eyes flicked to Shkai'ra. "You might havesaid something, though; we all thought you were dead. You were designated successor for Brigadier-General First, you know." Sheepshit!I was ?! "Well, to be honest," she lied, "we heard the hands the boy was in… weren't kind, shall we say. It had to be quick. And we thought… well… if we asked permission, you might deny us. Wanting to keep me for cavalry commanding, and such." "They weren'tthat bad," Lixand piped up. "They taught me how to play cards." Lixand, my precious long-lost son whom I love like life itself, Megan thought,shut your trap . Chevenga's brows rose, but his smile stayed. "I might have denied you. I might also have sent in my best to do the task for you. I'm a parent too, remember? Strictly speaking, it was acting without orders; you forswore your strength-oath." Megan looked sheepish for all she was worth, found enough sincerity in it to redden her face.Come on, Shkai ra, squirm, dammit; he'll stop asking questions that way . "Well…" He shoulder-shrugged. "Stroke of the past. If it had done us harm, heads would roll, but it didn't."He means that literally , Megan thought; by Shkai'ra's glance, she was thinking the same.Oh, Invincible, if you only knew . "Where to for you, now?" "Back to F'talezon," said Megan, wiping sweat from her brow with a looted kerchief. "Which has lousy winters and that noxious little shit Ranion running it… sorry, love," Shkai'ra added. "I'll be glad to see snow again. Not to mention the rest of the family." Megan smiled.You'll never make a courtier . "How areyou ?" Megan looked Chevenga in the eyes.So I'll be a undiplomatic indiscreet, too .
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Und now I vind dose two—Celestial
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