Conflict and Courage Read Online Free PDF Page A

days
small groups of unattached Lind were on their way east intent on
finding the right human with whom to life-bond.
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     

CHAPTER 3 - VADATH
     
    Tara stood
watching Janice as Brian settled himself on Sofiya’s back. They
were the only cadet duo going with Francis and Asya and the
remainder of the Vada, the other cadets would not leave for another
few weeks when Jim and Larya would escort them south, Larya having
expressed a wish to see the stronghold for herself.
    Beside Tara
stood Brian’s three little sisters, Violet, Lucy and Juliet,
wide-eyed at what was happening around them and upset at the
departure of their brother. Violet, the elder of the three,
appeared to be the most affected. With a valiant effort she was
managing to keep her tears under control. She had told Brian
earnestly the previous evening that she intended to join him before
she was much older, a sentiment that Brian cautioned her to keep to
herself, lest the thought of losing yet another child to the Vada
unhinged their mother completely.
    “Don’t forget
to give Louis my love,” Janice said in a shaky voice.
    “I won’t
mother,” Brian answered with a jaunty wave, not knowing that Louis
and Ustinya had left for Argyll with Geraldine and Jsei and
correspondingly would not be there to greet them.
    “Remember to
give him the socks.”
    “Louis is hard
on his socks,” Janice explained to Tara, who nodded, understanding.
It was a difficult thing for any mother to watch first one and then
another of her sons go off to join the army and that was what the
Vada was.
    The cavalcade
set out, those staying behind waving until the column was out of
sight before going back to their cabins and dagas.
    Tara followed
behind what was left of her foster family. The Randall family would
not be remaining in domta Afanasei for much longer either. Soon
they would be on the move again, to the river-wood where Winston
intended to set up his medical school. It was not far away, a
decision for which Tara was inordinately thankful; she was sick and
tired of moving from one place to another and yearned for a place
she could call home. Perhaps in the new domta they could all settle
down, far away from armies and wars.
    She wondered
when she would next see Brian. Kolyei was another Lind who wished
to see the stronghold but she, herself, did not want to visit and
Tara knew that he would not go without her. Perhaps she should ask
him to bespeak Ustinya and ask her to send some images of the
place. At least then she could describe them to Janice and so put
her foster-mother’s mind at rest a bit.
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     

CHAPTER 4 - ARGYLL
     
    Hidden in the
woods of the country to the east, which was becoming known as
Argyll, Aoalvaldr the Larg watched and brooded on what he saw and
heard.
    Unsuspecting
fools! It was time for him to return to the southern continent, his
fact-finding mission at an end and decide how best he could
engineer his revenge.
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     
    Seven days west
of the stronghold, Louis and Ustinya abandoned Geraldine, Jsei and
Mislya and headed north on an errand of their own. It was the end
of summer, the downpours that marked the beginning of the changing
of the seasons over. The countryside was lush with vegetative
growth.
    As they
journeyed, the three saw signs of colonists spreading inland and
along the coast. Farmsteads were springing up everywhere, the
majority beside the hundreds of rivers and streams that
criss-crossed this part of the continent. The farmers were busy in
their fields. Under planned cultivation, the roots that grew
profusely, even when wild, were yielding far more per acre than the
most optimistic had estimated. There would be plenty for all and
some over come winter, their second cold season on the planet.
    Transportation
was still a problem. The intractable jezdic were being broken to
harness but it was a slow process.
    Most of the
adults they passed carried a weapon of some sort. It was