[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
were only bandits and I let scum like that wound me badly."
Ansa wrapped his arms around his brother. "You're a warrior hi truth now, not
just by custom! And brag all you like. That modesty business is just a pose
old warriors affect, mostly to hide the fact that they never performed any
worthy deeds. Six, maybe seven! Show me your scars."
Perforce, Kairn stripped off his shirt and leggings to display the new scars,
still an angry pink color. Ansa whistled in admiration. Other idling warriors
wandered over and offered their compliments.
Kairn resumed both clothing and story. With some be-musement, he told of his
interlude with Star Eye.
"Strange," Ansa commented, "how both of us ended up meeting healing women,
your Star Eye and my Lady Fyana. Do you think there is some power at work,
leading us to such women?"
"Now you're talking like Father," Kairn said. "He spoke of destiny, and tried
to rope me into it. It scares me, and I want no part of it. The difficulties
ordinary life throws me are quite enough, without getting tangled up in a
higher purpose."
Ansa rose and went to get them fresh bowls. He returned with a larger bowl
full of fruit, flat bread and roasted meat. They ate and traded stories
between mouthfuls of food, Kairn finishing his own story and Ansa fleshing out
Page 97
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
the tale of his
THE STEEL KINGS
201
wanderings, a story Kairn had only heard in barest outline, so precipitous had
been his leaving to search for their father.
The stars twinkled in the cool night air and both brothers had donned cloaks
by the time their tales were finished. Men formed snoring heaps on the ground
and the sounds of revelry had long since faded to silence. Here and there, a
few sleepless ones sat around fires, conversing in low voices.
"The world is changing again," said Ansa when they were done. "As it did when
Father left the islands and came to the mainland. And when Gasam came to stir
things up all over the west and south."
"I think it's all of a piece," Kairn said, remembering the things taught him
by his childhood tutors. "For hundreds of years things went along with little
change. Nations fought each other over small matters, and nothing really
happened. All the nations stayed the same, borders moved around a bit but
remained as always, for all practical purposes. The same dynasties ruled as
they always had.
"Then Father showed up. Before you knew it, there was a new kingdom where none
had been before. Not just a little, inconsequential state, either, but a
powerful force that could tip every balance at will." He was not accustomed to
this sort of thought, but the ale he had drunk lent him insight and eloquence,
or so it seemed to him.
"Then came Gasam, and everything collapsed into chaos. Everything that is
happening now came about because Father and Gasam hated each other since
childhood. No, that's not just. Father has always done what he thought best
for his people. He'd have forgotten Gasam in time, if the monster hadn't
followed him to the mainland."
"And now Mezpa wants to found a world empire as well," Ansa said.
"Mezpa was not created yesterday," Kairn said. "It's been there a long time,
expanding, growing by eating up weaker states. It only seems new because it
has been remote from us, far away and existing for us only as stories told by
travelers. Now they've hopped the big river and the only direction
202 John Fladdox Roberts
for them to expand is into our kingdom or Gasam's. It looks as if Deathmoon
wants an alliance with Gasam against us."
"He sounds like a strange person," Ansa mused. "Gasam I can understand in a
way. He's a warrior, and in most ways he's just a child grown powerful, a
willful infant who gets whole nations of people to kill for him and do his
will. Lar-issa is the brains of the pair, and I don't think either would
amount to much without the other.
"But this Deathmoon, what are we to make of him? He sounds hi some matters a
genius, and in others a fool. His people don't worship him as Gasam's do, or
revere him as our people do our father. Instead there is what you describe as
a sort of of quiet fear. What sort of leader is that?"
"I don't know," Kaim said. "Even when he was torturing me it was like being in
the power of a merchant's clerk. I'm not at all sure that Deathmoon himself is
the real leader, the way Father and Gasam and Queen Shazad are leaders. It may
be the Assembly itself that is the evil power behind this expansion of Me/pan
power."
It occurred to Kairn that he and his brother had never spoken like this
before, seriously, on matters of state and of destiny. It was a sign of their
new maturity, but it was also a frightening and humbling sign that the two of
them, who had never aspired to be anything other than warriors of their
people, had at a very early age found their lives entangled with the most
powerful people hi the world. Between them they had been held captive by
Deathmoon and Gasam, had had dealings with the sorcerous Canyoners, had ridden
over much of the world to bear news of danger and catastrophe, and had
experienced more adventure than most warriors saw in a life-tune.
"The steel mine," Ansa said eventually. He drained his last bowl. "Everything
Page 98
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
hinges on that steel mine. Well, little brother, we've done all the damage
we're going to do tonight. Let's get some sleep. In the morning, we'll
undoubtedly hear all about Father's big plan to solve everything. He always
has one."
The two rolled into their cloaks and lay quietly, waiting
THE STEEL KINGS
203
for sleep to come. Kairn was not at all sure that his father had a plan.
Perhaps he would make one of his trips to the hills, to commune with the
spirits. Kairn doubted that the spirits would have any helpful suggestions.
This disaster was man-made from beginning to end.
Elsewhere in the camp, King Hael rose from the side of his sleeping wife and
left his tent. He wore only the breech-clout of plain cloth that he favored as
closest to the garb of his younger days in the islands. He took his famous
spear from its place, jammed into the ground on the right side of the tent
door, where it was convenient to his right hand as he left. Many years before,
as junior warriors, he and his hut-mate, Danats, had cast lots for this
position. Danats had lost and had to spike his spear into the ground on the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl ocenkijessi.opx.pl
were only bandits and I let scum like that wound me badly."
Ansa wrapped his arms around his brother. "You're a warrior hi truth now, not
just by custom! And brag all you like. That modesty business is just a pose
old warriors affect, mostly to hide the fact that they never performed any
worthy deeds. Six, maybe seven! Show me your scars."
Perforce, Kairn stripped off his shirt and leggings to display the new scars,
still an angry pink color. Ansa whistled in admiration. Other idling warriors
wandered over and offered their compliments.
Kairn resumed both clothing and story. With some be-musement, he told of his
interlude with Star Eye.
"Strange," Ansa commented, "how both of us ended up meeting healing women,
your Star Eye and my Lady Fyana. Do you think there is some power at work,
leading us to such women?"
"Now you're talking like Father," Kairn said. "He spoke of destiny, and tried
to rope me into it. It scares me, and I want no part of it. The difficulties
ordinary life throws me are quite enough, without getting tangled up in a
higher purpose."
Ansa rose and went to get them fresh bowls. He returned with a larger bowl
full of fruit, flat bread and roasted meat. They ate and traded stories
between mouthfuls of food, Kairn finishing his own story and Ansa fleshing out
Page 97
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
the tale of his
THE STEEL KINGS
201
wanderings, a story Kairn had only heard in barest outline, so precipitous had
been his leaving to search for their father.
The stars twinkled in the cool night air and both brothers had donned cloaks
by the time their tales were finished. Men formed snoring heaps on the ground
and the sounds of revelry had long since faded to silence. Here and there, a
few sleepless ones sat around fires, conversing in low voices.
"The world is changing again," said Ansa when they were done. "As it did when
Father left the islands and came to the mainland. And when Gasam came to stir
things up all over the west and south."
"I think it's all of a piece," Kairn said, remembering the things taught him
by his childhood tutors. "For hundreds of years things went along with little
change. Nations fought each other over small matters, and nothing really
happened. All the nations stayed the same, borders moved around a bit but
remained as always, for all practical purposes. The same dynasties ruled as
they always had.
"Then Father showed up. Before you knew it, there was a new kingdom where none
had been before. Not just a little, inconsequential state, either, but a
powerful force that could tip every balance at will." He was not accustomed to
this sort of thought, but the ale he had drunk lent him insight and eloquence,
or so it seemed to him.
"Then came Gasam, and everything collapsed into chaos. Everything that is
happening now came about because Father and Gasam hated each other since
childhood. No, that's not just. Father has always done what he thought best
for his people. He'd have forgotten Gasam in time, if the monster hadn't
followed him to the mainland."
"And now Mezpa wants to found a world empire as well," Ansa said.
"Mezpa was not created yesterday," Kairn said. "It's been there a long time,
expanding, growing by eating up weaker states. It only seems new because it
has been remote from us, far away and existing for us only as stories told by
travelers. Now they've hopped the big river and the only direction
202 John Fladdox Roberts
for them to expand is into our kingdom or Gasam's. It looks as if Deathmoon
wants an alliance with Gasam against us."
"He sounds like a strange person," Ansa mused. "Gasam I can understand in a
way. He's a warrior, and in most ways he's just a child grown powerful, a
willful infant who gets whole nations of people to kill for him and do his
will. Lar-issa is the brains of the pair, and I don't think either would
amount to much without the other.
"But this Deathmoon, what are we to make of him? He sounds hi some matters a
genius, and in others a fool. His people don't worship him as Gasam's do, or
revere him as our people do our father. Instead there is what you describe as
a sort of of quiet fear. What sort of leader is that?"
"I don't know," Kaim said. "Even when he was torturing me it was like being in
the power of a merchant's clerk. I'm not at all sure that Deathmoon himself is
the real leader, the way Father and Gasam and Queen Shazad are leaders. It may
be the Assembly itself that is the evil power behind this expansion of Me/pan
power."
It occurred to Kairn that he and his brother had never spoken like this
before, seriously, on matters of state and of destiny. It was a sign of their
new maturity, but it was also a frightening and humbling sign that the two of
them, who had never aspired to be anything other than warriors of their
people, had at a very early age found their lives entangled with the most
powerful people hi the world. Between them they had been held captive by
Deathmoon and Gasam, had had dealings with the sorcerous Canyoners, had ridden
over much of the world to bear news of danger and catastrophe, and had
experienced more adventure than most warriors saw in a life-tune.
"The steel mine," Ansa said eventually. He drained his last bowl. "Everything
Page 98
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
hinges on that steel mine. Well, little brother, we've done all the damage
we're going to do tonight. Let's get some sleep. In the morning, we'll
undoubtedly hear all about Father's big plan to solve everything. He always
has one."
The two rolled into their cloaks and lay quietly, waiting
THE STEEL KINGS
203
for sleep to come. Kairn was not at all sure that his father had a plan.
Perhaps he would make one of his trips to the hills, to commune with the
spirits. Kairn doubted that the spirits would have any helpful suggestions.
This disaster was man-made from beginning to end.
Elsewhere in the camp, King Hael rose from the side of his sleeping wife and
left his tent. He wore only the breech-clout of plain cloth that he favored as
closest to the garb of his younger days in the islands. He took his famous
spear from its place, jammed into the ground on the right side of the tent
door, where it was convenient to his right hand as he left. Many years before,
as junior warriors, he and his hut-mate, Danats, had cast lots for this
position. Danats had lost and had to spike his spear into the ground on the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]