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 "Ultimately, it does." "Not ven it's a matter of finding somewhere you belong! Dat's life and death, too!" "Because you ask it," Shkai'ra went on, "I'll try seeing selling Megan rather than killing her as a mercy. I'd rather be dead myself, but he may truly have seen it otherwise, and you knew him better than me. Your brother—we didn't kill him, Habiku's minions did. Treacherously. We couldn't know what would happen." "You made him a warrior. You ordered him to watch, to fight if someone attacked. Else he would have swum away and lived." "But he was part of the crew, part of the family, in spirit, by then." "Tzen kellin ripalin," Megan muttered. "Who kills becomes. Yes, we did that." "On my honor," Shkai'ra went on, "adopting you was done purely from regard and a desire to do well by you, from all four of us. I thought…" She looked slightly wistful. "I thought you understood that at the marriage." "Oh, I understood that. And a lot of other things." Shkai'ra looked aside, out to the open water, her mouth twisted with an old bitterness. "The way I was raised, I remember hiding in a corner of the upper castle when the adults, parents included, had been at the drink again and wanted to rape someone small and tight. We'd hear their boots on the stairs; they knew where we were.They'd hid in the same corners." "Oh, well, yes!" Sova broke in, voice cutting-high again, but this time in a startlingly accurate imitation of Shkai'ra's accent. "It was so rough and I'm so tough and no way a weak honey-pastry wimp likeyou could ever survivethat , little silver-spoon-born Thane-brat. And I'm doing yousuch a favor byjust taking a belt or gauntlet or boot to you, I must be going soft in my old age!" From Megan came a snort of barely repressed laughter, which drew a furious look from Shkai'ra. "It wasso horrible," the Thane-girl went on, "you wanted to get your own back. That's what yousaid ." Her eyes stayed on Shkai'ra's, but her pale face went suddenly red. "So I thought… I'd hearyour boots on the stairs one day." Shkai'ra's jaw dropped. "What!? BaiwunThunderer, dip me inshit !" "Youlooked at me like dat!" "I've never done it with anyone under sixteen, since I was sixteen myself!" The Thane-girl's face was colder than the moon, even as her teeth pinched her lip. "Veil, you said I was too young." "Sova, I wouldn't touch you with a lancebutt if you got down on your knees and begged me! First, I never wanted to; I'd rather juggle skunks. Second, I'm happily married, three times, and not so ugly I can't get more if I've a mind to, and besides…" She jerked a thumb towards Megan. "Don't you thinkthis one would claw my intestines out through my nose if I did?"
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Sova and Megan exchanged a remembering look, which Shkai'ra didn't miss. For a moment the Kommanza's teeth clenched, words failing her. "Listen! Until I was exiled, I thought the way of Stonefort was the way of the world. The Warmasters said that a child taught to hate all that lived was the better killer… warrior, most peoples say. When I saw the ways of some other peoples, where parent and child could… feel for each other, it was as if they walked with their heads held under their arms, it was so strange. For a time, I doubted everything I'd been taught, down to how to latch my boots, because so much seemed to be lies." A softening. "Then I met Megan… She's always telling me I'm sensitive as a stone shithouse, and occasionally it's true, I know." "Occasionally?" Sova said, blinking. That went past Shkai'ra, but Megan smirked, then shook her head scoldingly. The Kommanza raised her hands in a gesture of helplessness. "How good a parent I can be, I don't know. I know whatnot to do, mostly: the way I was raised was shit." Sova's thin brows rose in surprise. "Administered by people who were shits, and all it taught me was to turn outmore shits, if you take my meaning. I'm still learning else." "I don't want to be a shit," said Sova. "Khyd-hird, you molded me no less than my parents. They would have said it was aman's mold. I wanted to marry a nice Thanish man, and live in a nice house in Branvniki. I can't now, never will. You say that's only because I was raised to want nothing else; but maybe, underneath that, I reallydid want it. I'll never know now. I never would have known had things been left as they were, either; I wouldn't have known either way." Shkai'ra paced. "You've got choices, girl. More than most: peasants grow to be peasants, because their lord'll lop their heads if they try otherwise, or else they get dragged off to the levy and filled full of arrows. Crafters count themselves lucky to get apprenticeship… You have half a dozen callings you could take. You're getting a good general lessoning—I can hardly write more than my name, you know—" "Emmas Penaras,solas ," Megan cut in. Shkai'ra's words were lost in laughter, even Sova's. The Kommanza went on, "So if you want to shake the dust of the House of the Sleeping Dragon off your feet, you can, easily enough." "I didn't think you cared what I wanted," said the girl. "You certainly didn't, at first." "Well—true. But that changed. Don't you remember the words: "Sova, do you consent to be the child of these,as of their blood ? Wewanted you to be our daughter, by then; wefelt like you were our daughter. You'd fought at our side, shed blood with us; we knew you and… hmmm. A lot of reasons. Megan saw something of herself in you, I think, and wanted to make the story come out better this time." Sova looked; the Zak nodded, confirming. "Shyll has a loving heart, and you appealed to it. Rilla likewise, and… well, you'll have to ask them for the details." "Me… had I a daughter born of my blood, I couldn't ask for better. You're as brave as any youngser I've met, you've learned fast, you're smart, and you've got a loyal heart, when push comes to shove." She grinned. "Don't get a swelled head, girl, but I'm actually quite proud of you. Besides, having you around makes life… more alive,ia ? Of course, you're sullen and flighty and give me grief, at times, but I said you were a daughter to be proud of, not a god. Gods know,I'm no vessel of sweetness and light…." "It was for honor, too. Once we had you, we had to dosomething for you, and would have—fosterage, an apprenticeship, something. Less would be acting like a shit to someone who'd done me no wrong;
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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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Shadow's Son by Shirley Meier, S.M. Stirling and Karen Wehrstein ...

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