A Battle Lord’s Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B
Author: A Battle Lord's Heart
lie,” MaGrath concurred. Then a big grin spread over his face,
and he stuck an index finger in Yulen’s face. “But! I want you to think back,
Yulen. Think back to the first time we saw Atty. Think about how the people of
Wallis appeared. What they were going through. What do you remember?”
Yulen dropped his head as he
searched his memory. He remembered the terrified faces. The sunken cheeks and
wide eyes with dark circles around them. The gaunt frames of a compound facing
starvation near the end of a cruel winter.
Then he remembered when Sorcher had
dragged the semi-conscious figure of the skinny kid they’d found shooting
arrows at them with deadly accuracy from the top of a building. A skinny kid
who turned out to be a thin, hungry woman who had fiercely struggled to protect
her people against overwhelming odds.
“I remember the people were
starving. Trying to survive.”
MaGrath nodded emphatically. “That’s
right. They were malnourished. They’re still malnourished, Yulen. They eat well
when there’s plenty for their hunters to bring back, but did you notice there
wasn’t one overly plump person at Wallis? Okay, I’ll give you Twoson, but he’s
got all the signs of a pancreatic imbalance. But on the whole, they’re not
getting enough to sustain them at a healthy level. And they haven’t for
generations. It doesn’t take a super smart person to understand that if you
keep a whole compound of people near starvation levels for generations, it will
eventually kill them off.”
Flipping the pages of his journal,
he continued. “But for the past six months Atty’s been living here, she’s been
fed and fed well. She’s been drinking milk like it’s going out of style. Milk
full of rich butterfat. And you can tell by just looking at her that she’s
filled out. She’s lost that sunken appearance. Her hair is thick and glossy.
Her eyes are bright. Her skin glows. And although I’ll give you that some of
that right now is because of the baby, our little bluebell has gone from a
scrawny young woman to a full-fledged, ravishing beauty, if you haven’t noticed
the looks she gets.”
Yulen perked up. “Looks? What
looks?”
The physician barked out in
laughter. “My God, you are the most unknowledgeable lovesick sap I’ve ever
known. Atty, our sassy little Mutah,
draws men to her like bees to a flower. But Atrilan, our beauty, has those same
men seated at her feet, ready and eager to do her bidding. I’m told strangers
to the compound have been known to become enthralled when she walks by them.
Oh, don’t worry, Yulen. She’s so deeply in love with you, you’ll never have to
worry about another man catching her eye. But you need to be aware of the power
she has over others, a power I don’t think even she realizes she has.”
He turned to plop himself down on a
nearby stool. “As long as we’ve known her, Atty eats as if every meal is her
last meal. As a result, her body has adapted, and she’s no longer suffering
from a lack of essential nutrients and vitamins. However, if she were still
living in Wallis...” His voice trailed off to allow the Battle Lord to draw his
own conclusions.
“She would have lost the baby by
now, simply because her body wouldn’t have been able to adequately nourish it.”
“Yes!” MaGrath affirmed. “At least,
that’s my theory. Oh, but I’m not finished. Look at these.” He lifted the tray
of vials, many of which contained dark-colored liquids and sediment. “Atty
found that pouch of tunsul leaves. You know, the pouch she couldn’t find before
we left for Wallis? Anyway, I caught her throwing away the leaves and I asked
to have them, to run them through a few experiments. Just to chase a hunch,
and he stuck an index finger in Yulen’s face. “But! I want you to think back,
Yulen. Think back to the first time we saw Atty. Think about how the people of
Wallis appeared. What they were going through. What do you remember?”
Yulen dropped his head as he
searched his memory. He remembered the terrified faces. The sunken cheeks and
wide eyes with dark circles around them. The gaunt frames of a compound facing
starvation near the end of a cruel winter.
Then he remembered when Sorcher had
dragged the semi-conscious figure of the skinny kid they’d found shooting
arrows at them with deadly accuracy from the top of a building. A skinny kid
who turned out to be a thin, hungry woman who had fiercely struggled to protect
her people against overwhelming odds.
“I remember the people were
starving. Trying to survive.”
MaGrath nodded emphatically. “That’s
right. They were malnourished. They’re still malnourished, Yulen. They eat well
when there’s plenty for their hunters to bring back, but did you notice there
wasn’t one overly plump person at Wallis? Okay, I’ll give you Twoson, but he’s
got all the signs of a pancreatic imbalance. But on the whole, they’re not
getting enough to sustain them at a healthy level. And they haven’t for
generations. It doesn’t take a super smart person to understand that if you
keep a whole compound of people near starvation levels for generations, it will
eventually kill them off.”
Flipping the pages of his journal,
he continued. “But for the past six months Atty’s been living here, she’s been
fed and fed well. She’s been drinking milk like it’s going out of style. Milk
full of rich butterfat. And you can tell by just looking at her that she’s
filled out. She’s lost that sunken appearance. Her hair is thick and glossy.
Her eyes are bright. Her skin glows. And although I’ll give you that some of
that right now is because of the baby, our little bluebell has gone from a
scrawny young woman to a full-fledged, ravishing beauty, if you haven’t noticed
the looks she gets.”
Yulen perked up. “Looks? What
looks?”
The physician barked out in
laughter. “My God, you are the most unknowledgeable lovesick sap I’ve ever
known. Atty, our sassy little Mutah,
draws men to her like bees to a flower. But Atrilan, our beauty, has those same
men seated at her feet, ready and eager to do her bidding. I’m told strangers
to the compound have been known to become enthralled when she walks by them.
Oh, don’t worry, Yulen. She’s so deeply in love with you, you’ll never have to
worry about another man catching her eye. But you need to be aware of the power
she has over others, a power I don’t think even she realizes she has.”
He turned to plop himself down on a
nearby stool. “As long as we’ve known her, Atty eats as if every meal is her
last meal. As a result, her body has adapted, and she’s no longer suffering
from a lack of essential nutrients and vitamins. However, if she were still
living in Wallis...” His voice trailed off to allow the Battle Lord to draw his
own conclusions.
“She would have lost the baby by
now, simply because her body wouldn’t have been able to adequately nourish it.”
“Yes!” MaGrath affirmed. “At least,
that’s my theory. Oh, but I’m not finished. Look at these.” He lifted the tray
of vials, many of which contained dark-colored liquids and sediment. “Atty
found that pouch of tunsul leaves. You know, the pouch she couldn’t find before
we left for Wallis? Anyway, I caught her throwing away the leaves and I asked
to have them, to run them through a few experiments. Just to chase a hunch,