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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Lix<strong>and</strong>. <strong>Son</strong> of my body. We're closer. Her pony sneezed at the dust.Lix<strong>and</strong>. I won't think of what<br />
your life is like . The implications of the words in the agent's letter, "… he is a favorite of the Lord," tore<br />
at her like Hotblood's fangs tearing horsemeat.<br />
Plans. What good suggestions could she come up with for scaring Arkans? Visions of Halya; Hayel,<br />
their Halya, didn't have air.Hmmm. Could I make someone think there was no air ?<br />
One of the squires came whipping back on a pony. "Megan called Whitlock?" She nodded. "You're<br />
comm<strong>and</strong>ed forward. To thesemanakraseye ." She thanked him <strong>and</strong> he went off.Looks like I'll finally<br />
get to be useful. If I can get this beast to trot …<br />
At the column-head, surrounded <strong>by</strong> his staff <strong>and</strong> gallopers, she found Chevenga riding on his Lakan<br />
black, carrying the great mountain-<strong>and</strong>-stars on his shoulder.Symbolic. He believes in that . His armor<br />
matched, the trim blue <strong>and</strong> green <strong>and</strong>, here <strong>and</strong> there, flashes of gold: it was segmented plate of the<br />
highest quality Yeolis made, as good as Zak. His helmet <strong>and</strong> gauntlets were off, hooked to his saddle; on<br />
his head he wore only a green b<strong>and</strong>anna. As she came up alongside him, he h<strong>and</strong>ed the st<strong>and</strong>ard off, <strong>and</strong><br />
wheeled with a smile to her <strong>and</strong> a beckoning gesture. A little way back was a small covered cart; passing<br />
their horses' leads to a squire, he gave her a h<strong>and</strong> up, <strong>and</strong> they climbed in.<br />
Inside was spare, reminding her of his tent. It was a rolling office: the folding desk was set up, <strong>and</strong> an old<br />
white-haired woman he introduced as Chinisa somebody, his scribe, sat behind it busy with some<br />
paperwork, glancing up with a polite smile. The same locking file cabinet was there too, <strong>and</strong> a small pallet<br />
with blankets neatly made up; beside it was a large s<strong>and</strong>-timer, the type with a switch-valve between the<br />
glass chambers so it could be shut off without being turned on its side.Who sleeps here ? He <strong>and</strong> the<br />
scribe spoke back <strong>and</strong> forth in Yeoli; all Megan caught of Chinisa's words were "semanakraseye," <strong>and</strong><br />
that only because he corrected her, clearly saying "No, it's just Chevenga." —"Amiyaseye," the scribe<br />
said then, teasingly. He said something with a peeved look, <strong>and</strong> she was gone, grinning.Does it bother<br />
him to be called that ? Megan remembered how it had made her squirm, to learn of her own fame.Still,<br />
I wasn't born <strong>and</strong> trained into a position …<br />
Chevenga wrung out his b<strong>and</strong>anna, tucked it in a dagger-strap, <strong>and</strong> offered her a cushion, sitting himself<br />
on the one opposite, <strong>and</strong> running a h<strong>and</strong> through sweat-sodden curls. "Cider, unfermented, or tea?"<br />
"Cider, please,kras ," she answered. He called out the door; in barely a moment, the jar, sweating in the<br />
heat, came.<br />
"Well," he said, as he poured, "I've been thinking about it some. I hope you've been thinking about it<br />
more; you underst<strong>and</strong> what you can do better than I. We're going to have an Arkan camp within reach<br />
tonight, though, <strong>and</strong> probably fight tomorrow."<br />
"Back inside Yeola-e, we were trying to convince them we had Hayel-demons on our side. The first<br />
time, I promised their general, the famous Abatzas Kallen, that is, that Hayel would visit their camp if they<br />
didn't march forthwith; he laughed, of course, <strong>and</strong> that night Hayel visited their camp. I won't say how,<br />
but we had them convinced enough." He didn't need to say more; she'd heard tales of the rout.<br />
"We kept that sort of thing up, all across Yeola-e; I didn't know we were going to cross the border then,<br />
before my people took their decision. Now… Arko will be happier feeling we're winning <strong>by</strong> the grace of<br />
Celestialis, not Hayel."<br />
What do you care, how they feel? But Ivahn's words came back:He wouldn't leave Arko leaderless