A Cat Of Silvery Hue Read Online Free PDF Page B

ground. The buzzards, at least, were silent. Unlike the brazen black carrion crows who were already flocking to the tons of still-quivering man-flesh, while filling the air with harsh cries.
    “My only regret,” added the young
thoheeks
, frowning for a moment, “is that there were just too few of us, so far too many of those murderous swine got away. But”—his smile returned—”I warrant they’ll not stop running until their damned legs will no longer bear them; then they’ll crawl for a while—and it will take more than a gaggle of demented priests abetted by a pack of perverted nobles to persuade them to again bear arms against their lawful lord!”
    Though he made his lips return the young warrior’s smile, Milo thought that he had not pictured his
thoheeksee
ever ruling their demesnes as Bili must now rule this one in years to come—owning not his people’s love but their fear and hatred. That fear and hatred engendered by the brutal butchery, the victims of which lay stiffening in this field, as well as by the ravagings and savageries which must surely come ere the witchmen’s poison be rooted out of Morguhn and Vawn.
    It was a surface thought and unshielded, so easily grasped by Bili’s sensitive mind. “But what other course can be taken, my lord? What else can I do?” came his powerful mindspeak. His own thoughts were a roil of disappointment and sorrow that he had so displeased his respected overlord, simply by doing that which his instinct and training assured him was right.
    “But you
are
right, Bili,” Milo beamed gently. “You have followed the best course available to you, are pursuing the only choice that this time, this place, this world will allow you. It is your lord who is truly in the wrong!”
    “Just last night, I chided the witchman who calls himself Skiros for attempting to apply the standards of a long-dead time and world to the here and now. This morning, I find myself guilty of the same folly.”
    “If any erred, it was me, young Bili; and that was long years before ever your grandfather’s grandfather first saw Sacred Sun. I should have realized that the Ehleen Church would never forget, never forgive me for weakening their stranglehold on their adherents, for discrediting their motives and for depriving them of most of their ill-gotten gains.”
    “I should have known that they would always provide a chink in the Confederation’s armor and than, sooner or later, some enemy would discover and utilize that opening. And now we know that an enemy did just that.”
    “Bili, do you recall the conversation we had at Horse Hall? How I compared rebellion to a festered wound?”
    Unconsciously, the
thoheeks
moved his head in an affirmative, the blood-draggled plume nodding above the blued-steel bear which surmounted his helm. “Yes, my lord,” he beamed.
    “Then you are aware that that evil infection has all but gobbled up Vawn and is deeply seated in Morguhn. So, regrettably, our surgery must be most extreme. You and I and the Undying Lady Aldora must be the physicians, Bili. Your brave Kinsmen and retainers, Chief Hwahltuh and his clansmen, and the Confederation troops must be our instruments.
    “The initial cuts were made last night and this morning, but we must cut far deeper, deeply enough to be certain that we have excised the last trace of the infection. So heed you not those who would gainsay you in this, the work you know best. Sacred Sun was watching over our Confederation on the day you were sent to the court of King Gilbuht, for he has made of you the man whom I need in the present unpleasantness.
    “I
am
displeased, Bili, but by the circumstances only. All that I have thus far seen of you is very pleasing, and when Morguhn and Vawn are both cleansed and again at peace, you shall experience the gratitude of the High Lord.”

CHAPTER TWO
    Sweat-soaked and dust-coated, Lord Drehkos Daiviz came within sight of the City of Morguhnpolis and vainly spurraked his