6: Broken Fortress Read Online Free PDF Page A

unfamiliar or new plants mentioned in it.”
    “You’re joking,” Kahlil said. “Anyone could do this. Don’t you want me to go after-–”
    “Obedience. Remember?” Jath’ibaye gave him a hard smile, but there was an amused tone to his voice.
    Kahlil scowled sullenly down at the book. He couldn’t have devised a more appropriate punishment for his own insolence if he had tried.
    “And this isn’t work just anyone could do.” Jath’ibaye’s tone softened slightly. “There’s almost no one left who can read Payshmura writings. Even those of us who can read them often can’t understand the dialectical ones.” Jath’ibaye stood and walked to the door. “Feel free to make yourself at home in here.”
    “Is this some kind of a test?”  
    “You can think of it that way if you like. But the information in those books really is of great importance to me.” As Jath’ibaye spoke, a shadow of sorrow drifted across his expression. “You’ll be in harm’s way soon enough, Kyle. There’s no need to rush into it.”
    “I know, I know.” Kahlil bowed his head over the book. “I just don’t want all my life to have been for nothing.”
    “None of us do,” Jath’ibaye said. “But that’s no reason to throw yourself away.”
    A strange cold breeze whipped through the room and Kahlil’s head came up in alarm, but it was only a draft from the open door. Jath’ibaye stepped out and the door fell closed behind him.  
    Kahlil gazed at the door for several moments. He could easily pass through it. If he wanted, he could be in Vundomu in a matter of seconds or even travel beyond that to find Fikiri. Kahlil felt the temptation strongly, but he hadn’t yet recovered his full strength and more importantly he’d given his word. In any case, Jath’ibaye was probably right about opportunities for future battles. With the gaun’im raising armies he’d soon have more than his share.  
    Kahlil stretched out on the bed and opened the book. He only made it through three pages before he was dozing, doodling, and absently wondering how Jath’ibaye had come to know him so well.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Fifty-Four
     
    For three days Kahlil did little other than translate the botanical guide. He rarely left the cabin and he fell asleep often, lulled into unconsciousness by seemingly endless lists of small to middling seeds as well as detailed descriptions of countless earthworms.
    Ji called on him twice, inquiring about his health. He assured her that he felt fully mended and she offered him a gaze that was as skeptical as her canine countenance allowed. Strangely, Kahlil found her company deeply soothing. He knew he should have been suspicious of the witch, but some inexplicable instinct made him trust her.
      Jath’ibaye returned infrequently, most often to change his bandages. He certainly wasn’t a good conversationalist, but often during their brief exchanges, Kahlil sensed Jath’ibaye making an effort for his sake.
      If Jath’ibaye slept, it wasn’t in his own bed. Kahlil soon came to suspect that Jath’ibaye’s bed, like Alidas’ chairs, were only maintained for the comfort of guests.  
    They at last reached Vundomu just before dawn. Jath’ibaye woke him where he’d passed out, face down in the botanical tome. Embarrassed and still groggy, Kahlil packed up the book and the yasi’halaun, making haste to join Jath’ibaye and the ship hands on the deck as they cleared the last of the locks in the river city of Mahn’illev and made for Vundomu’s port.  
    The vast fortress straddled the river’s mouth the way that Kahlil remembered it once looming over railroad tracks. In sheer scale it rivaled the jagged mountains surrounding it, but where the cliffs abounded with vegetation, the seven stepped terraces of Vundomu bristled with heavy artillery and godhammers.
    For a sleepy instant