An Empire Unacquainted With Defeat Read Online Free PDF Page B

The walk from the spring seemed to grow longer.
    "Dad's afraid. Of the Caydarmen." Steban sounded disappointed.
    "With good reason, I imagine." Tain hadn't met any of the Baron's mercenaries. He hadn't met any of the neighbors, either. None had come calling. He hadn't done any visiting during his reconnaissances.
    "Soldiers aren't ever afraid."
    Tain chuckled. "Wrong, Steban. Soldiers are always afraid. We just learn to handle fear. Your Dad didn't have to learn when you lived in the city. He's trying to catch up now."
    "I'd show those Caydarmen. Like I showed that wolf."
    "There was only one wolf, Steban. There're a lot of Caydarmen."
    "Only seven. And the Witch."
    "Seven? And a witch?"
    "Sure. Torfin. Bodel. Grimnir. Olag. I don't remember the others."
    "What about this witch? Who's she?"
    Steban wouldn't answer for a while. Then, "She tells them what to do. Dad says the Baron was all right till she went to the Tower."
    "Ah." So. Another fragment of puzzle. Who would have thought this quiet green land, so sparsely settled, could be so taut and mysterious?
    Tain tried pumping Steban, but the boy clammed up about the Baron.
    "Do you think Pa's a coward, Tain?"
    "No. He came to the Zemstvi. It takes courage for a man to leave everything just on the chance he might make a better life someplace else."
    Steban stopped and stared at him. There had been a lot of emotion in his voice. "Like you did?"
    "Yes. Like I did. I thought about it a long time."
    "Oh."
    "This ought to be enough water. Let's go back to the house." He glanced at the sky.
    "Going to rain," he said as they went inside.
    "Uhm," Toma grunted. He finished one jar and started another. Tain smiled thinly. Kleckla wouldn't be going out tonight. He turned his smile on Rula.
    She smiled back. "Maybe you'd better sleep here. The barn leaks."
    "I'll be all right. I patched it some yesterday morning."
    "Don't you ever sleep?"
    "Old habits die hard. Well, the sheep are watered, I'm going to turn in."
    "Tain?"
    He paused at the door.
    "Thanks."
    He ducked into the night. Misty raindrops kissed his cheeks. A rising wind quarreled with itself in the grove.
    He performed the Soldier's Ritual, then lay back on the straw pallet he had fashioned. But sleep wouldn't come.
     
VIII
    The roan quivered between his knees as they descended the hill. It wasn't because of the wind and cold rain. The animal sensed the excitement and uncertainty of its rider.
    Tain guided the animal into a brushy gully, dismounted, told the horse to wait. He moved fifty yards downslope, sat down against a boulder. So still did he remain that he seemed to become one with the stone.
    The Kosku stead looked peaceful to an untrained eye. Just a quiet rural place passing a sleepy night.
    But Tain felt the wakefulness there. Someone was watching the night. He could taste their fear and determination.
    The Caydarmen came an hour later. There were three of them, bearing torches. They didn't care who saw them. They came down the hill from behind Tain and passed within fifty yards of him. None noticed him.
    They were big men. The one with the horn helm, on the paint, Tain recognized as the Torfin he had seen before. The second was much larger than the first. The third, riding between them, was a slight, small figure in black.
    The Witch. Tain knew that before she entered his vision. He had sensed her raw, untrained strength minutes earlier. Now he could feel the dread of her companions.
    The wild adept needed to be feared. She was like as untrained elephant, ignorant of her own strength. And in her potential for misuse of the Power she was more dangerous to herself than to anyone she threatened.
    Tain didn't doubt that fear was her primary control over the Baron and his men. She would cajole, pout, and hurt, like a spoiled child . . . .
    She was very young. Tain could sense no maturity in her at all.
    The man with the horns dismounted and pounded on the Kosku door with the butt of a dagger. "Kosku. Open in the name