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

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"My Fater vass no saint; I know. I've only had that rammed down my zhroat, a lot by perfect strangers,
all my life. But when Habiku ordered him to killzhymata , he didn't. Else you never would have met and
loved her. Some say it was greed; maybe it was mercy, you ever think of dat? Zo she came back, and he
was ruined either vay. Because of deir hate, her und Habiku, which you saw for yourself; he got caught
between, he got betrayed himself by Habiku."
"Zo beme ! He had to feed us all. If you can't win,cheat , you say yourself! How vere the rest of us at
fault, my mother, my brother, and I, and the servants, who all lost deir places? Beme . Be me and
Francosz. Fater pushed us away, ven you took us as your prizes, ya; if he'd clung, you vould have torn us
out of his arms. Unaden you cut our hair, und made us strip,right dere in front owfa crowd owf Zak,"
—the lividness had turned red, now, and the eyes were bright with the beginnings of tears—"made us
strip und leered at us und made everyone laugh und den chased und beat us naked all de vay to
the Knochtet Voorm… zight. You don't understandzight . No, you do—you chust vanted to ruin it. It
was the vorst blow to hiszight , and mine, if I may be permitted to have some, Okhyd-hird who says
only you give mezight , the very worst that could be in the vorld, that you took me into your house, and
made meyour daughter. Und it burns myzight further still now, dat you say these things."
"And my brother, Francosz! I don't know vether anyone else is left alive in my family, but Ido knowhe
issn't. Maybe he vould haf died, if you had left us—but maybe not! Definitely not, if you vould haf left
my family alone! He died inyour, your andzhymata's , feud!"
"You took us to get your own back, for the rotten vayyour parents treatedyou —as if dat vassour fault I
Ofcourse I agreed to let you adopt me—think about it! Vat else vould I,could I, have done? In your
own words: scutwork somewhere! You don't and never did treat me like a mother does—more like a
slave-driver! And you call yourself Mother. How dare you! Howdare you !"
The girl was trembling from head to foot.Maybe some of it's fear , Shkai'ra thought,but more than half
is anger. " So:chiravesa ," Sova said, evening her voice. "Be me and imagine all that, if you want to be
my mother."
Shkai'ra took a deep breath, and stared out to sea frowning. "Don't know now the woolheads do this all
the time," she muttered under her breath to herself. "Makes my brain hurt."It's sort of like meditation .
She was suddenly aware of Megan standing near, drawn by Sova's raised voice, but didn't let it interrupt
her imagining.
"Well," she said, after several minutes. "You're quite right, Schotter's deeds were no fault of yours or
Francosz's or the others." She inclined her head toward the distant coast, in the direction of Arko.
"Kurkas made a mistake, and peasants get their houses burned down by warriors from nowhere; that's
the way the world works. I took you two on impulse, red-angry-drunk-on-rage, because he'd tried to kill
me and my love and I wanted to make him suffer; about the consequences to you, I just didn't think, that
was sheer stupidity. Not that I'd wish it undone; it can't be.A-hia , what's more common or futile than the
wish to be able to do it over?"
"Making you strip and run through the streets was, umm, crueler than I intended. I'd been told Thanes
didn't like to be seen naked, but didn't realize how seriously they took it. Strange… another point to my
stupid impulsiveness and lack of empathy, as Megan told me at the time. So you're quite rightly angry at
me for that; I apologize. I was raised a savage, what can I say? No harm to yourzight was intended, to
my people a child that age doesn't have any to begin with." A thin smile. "I don't think anyone will treat
you so again and come off harmless from it, eh?"
"Sometimes,khyd-hird , some places, it doesn't matterhow veil youvedam fight!"