A Warrior's Path (The Castes and the OutCastes) Read Online Free PDF Page B

to die!”
    Rukh stepped away from Randall, confused by the man’s panic.  Fear he could understand, but right now, the man’s behavior was downright cowardly.  It was embarrassing to wi tness, and Rukh wished he could look away; pretend he couldn’t see or hear Randall’s blubbering.
    Randall still shrieked, begging for protection, almost directly in Rukh’s ear.
    Rukh grimaced.
    He wished someone could smack some sense into the caravan master.  Tell him to be a man about it.
    The thought was brief and fleeting.  First of all, hitting a caravan master was absolutely prohibited.  The law was quite clear on the matter but vague on the punishment, but well-known to be quite severe.  Beyond that: while hitting the man might be momentarily satisfying, it really wouldn’t help the situation.
    Rukh gathered his patience and sympathy.  Maybe he could cal m the man down.  “We’re all afraid,” Rukh said in what he hoped was a reasonable tone, “but now is not the time to panic.”
    “Now is the perfect tim e for panic, you fragging idiot!” Randall cried.  “In case no one’s informed you, we’re about to get our back passages stuffed with Chimera spears!”
    Rukh’s patience snapped.  “Stop your sobbing, you fragging coward!” Rukh said.  “We aren’t dead yet.”
    “How dare you!” Randall shrieked.  “When we get back to Ashoka, I’ll make you pay.  I’ll make everyone pay…” he trailed off and licked his lips.  “Yes, we must get back to Ashoka.  I was promised.”  He snarled suddenly.  “I will have what’s mine,” he vowed, mounting his horse and heeling it into motion.
    “What’s wrong with Randall?” Brand asked, riding up just then.
    “The man’s a coward,” Keemo said, as if that answered everything.  In the world of the Kummas, it did.  Nothing else was worse.
    “Leave him be,” Rukh said.  “He’s not worth our time.  We’ve got more important things to do, like getting our gear and supplies together.  As in five minutes ago.  We don’t want to be left behind or cut off.”
    “What do you mean?” Brand asked.
    Rukh had thought about their situation while overseeing the offloading of the wagons.  Three large groups of Chims were rolling toward them.  Who was to say there wasn’t a fourth?  Even now, the caravan might already be encircled.  He wasn’t sure how the veterans would treat his suspicions.  They might tell him h e was just jumping at shadows.  He was only a Virgin, after all, but with his cousins and Brand, he would get a fair hearing.
    “I think we’re going to find Chims up north as well,” Rukh said.  “We need to get moving if we’re to have a chance of getting out of here.”
    “Chims to the north,” Brand said, surprised.  “How do you figure?”
    Rukh nodded even as he wondered how they would react to the rest of his reasoning and his fears or whether those fears even had any basis in fact.  He suspected they did.  “All these Chims coming at us at once and on top of us before we even knew they were there.  The only way I see something like that happening is they already knew how our scouts operate,” he said.
    Brand wore a look of skepticism.  “What are you saying?  Someone in the caravan told them?”
    “I think he’s saying Sil Lor Kum,” Farn said.  “Aren’t you?”
    Rukh nodded again, not surprised by Farn’s correct guess.  His taller cousin had always been bright, sometimes even the brightest of the three of them.  “The Secret Hand of Justice.”
    “The Sil Lor Kum are nothing but a legend,” Keemo scoffed.  “They have to be.  I mean, Human agents of Suwraith?  Who in their right minds would agree to serve Her?  The Chims just got lucky finding us.”
    “Keemo’s right,” Brand quickly agreed.  “There’s no such thing as the Sil Lor Kum.  It’s all talk and no fight.”
    Rukh wasn’t surprised by Keemo and Brand’s disbelief.  He had trouble believing it, too.  For most