A Cat Of Silvery Hue Read Online Free PDF

cause would have been tantamount to bringing about a Confederation-wide rebellion…and the directors of that goddamn Center knew the fact and used it against us.”
    “Gafnee was simply not enough provocation, unfortunately.
You
heard that mealy-mouthed
Ahrkee’ehpeeskohpos
Grehgohreeos whine and grovel and avow that it was an isolated incident of which he’d had no prior knowledge.”
    “Yes,” agreed Aldora. “I recall his performance and I wondered, at the time, if he might not sing a different tune under the skillful direction of good Master Fyuhstohn. Do you want me to tell Mara to have him arrested?”
    Leading his drooping horse around a fly-buzzing huddle of hacked bodies, Milo shook his head again. “No, not yet, not until this present business is more widely publicized. Just tell her to make damned sure the old buzzard doesn’t leave the city—for
any
reason!”
    “You think then that he, too, is a witchman?” Aldora inquired.
    “No,” he assured her. “Our precious archbishop isn’t clever enough to be one of those vampires. Oh, he’s shrewd, I grant you that, but he’s made errors of judgment of which a really intelligent man would never have been guilty. Nonetheless, I’m damned sure that he knows far more of this conspiracy than he would have us believe. After all, it was he who appointed our three murderous witchmen-cum-
kooreeohee
at Gafnee, Vawn and here in Morguhn.”
    She questioned sadly, “All of the Clan Vawn kindred are truly gone to Wind, then, Milo?”
    “It appears so, I’m sorry to say, for the get of brave old Djoh have been good men and quite valuable to the Confederation, over the years. But, from all I’ve heard of their passing, I think he’d have been proud of them. They took more than a few of the rebels with them. It’s said they held the entire mob at bay for weeks, holed up in old Fort Brohdee. And they’d probably still be there, had they faced steel alone.”
    “And that reminds me, Aldora. Place a heavy round-the-clock guard on that big, gilded wain. Keep it well away from any fires and see that no one touches it or any of its contents. According to what I can comprehend of the instructions, those bombs are all safe to handle and transport, but we dare not take chances, since there’re enough explosives in that wain to vaporize the hall and the hill and every living creature in or on or around it.”
    “But I’ve got to speak to Duke Bili, now. I’ll resume contact when we halt. About a half-hour, I’d say.”
    The stallion, Mahvros, was not as done in as Milo’s horse, but he too was obviously tired, standing docilely while cropping half-heartedly at a patch of weeds. He had lost his white stockings, they were now red—blood red. His cheeks and spiked faceplate, his massive barrel and the mail protecting his neck and withers, all were liberally splashed with crimson gore.
    Astride the stallion sat an apparition of death incarnate. From sole to crest, Bili’s boots and armor were besplattered with large splotches of dusty, crusty blood, the whole being sprinkled with gobbets of flesh and chips of winking-white bone. His terrible axe rested across the saddlebow, dripping slow, clotting droplets onto the steel cuishe which covered his left thigh.
    But, beneath the raised visor, his blue eyes sparkled and a smile of grim satisfaction partially erased the lines of fatigue in his weather-browned face. When he sighted the High Lord approaching, his smile broadened and he raised his blood-slimy gauntleted hand in greeting.
    “Ho, my lord! It’s a good morning’s work thus far. I doubt that an equal number of Blue Bear Knights could have done as well. Why, there must be near on a thousand of the would-be pikepushers dead in this field alone!”
    A shadow glided across Milo’s path and he glanced up at a wide-banking turkey buzzard, one of an increasing number that were awaiting the departure of the living from the cornfield which was to be their feasting