Desert World Allegiances Read Online Free PDF

freedom, he would be too old to apprentice, and he’d likely be an unskilled worker for the rest of his life. That was still better than exile.
    The priest, Shan Polli, didn’t even bother to hide his unhappiness with the judgment. Shan was a smaller version of his brother. Where Naite was a monster of a man, Shan was tall and sinewy… and intimidating. His leaner frame made his beak-like nose and sharp eyes more frightening, even though Naite had the same features.
    Sometimes, when his father was well and truly drunk on pipe trap juice, Temar had used church as an excuse to walk into town and sit in the quiet and just listen to the sound of the wind whispering through the cracks in the boards. He’d been young when his mother died, but he remembered sitting in her lap and listening to the hum of the church. It was a rare and cherished memory—one that he clung to after his mother had died and his father slowly turned into a drunk. Many times Temar had sat in the last row, listening to the wind against the roof and Shan’s voice, watching the man move with a precision and grace and power that Temar had rarely seen in anyone.
    “Don’t think this will be easy. You’re going to learn to work and respect the land that you seem to have so little regard for.” Naite’s words were gruff as he pulled his hand back, leaving Temar to stand on his own feet.
    “I know,” Temar whispered. Now that the fear of exile had passed, the fear of slavery was starting to creep in. As long as they didn’t sell him to Landholder Young, he’d survive. He just wasn’t sure that anyone would pay a slave price for him, and without a buyer, his papers would go to Young to repay him for the damage.
    “I very much doubt that you do understand.” Shan spoke for the first time, and Temar ducked his head, eager to avoid the disapproval he could hear in that voice. He should get used to it. Even after his slavery ended, he would likely be known as a water thief for the rest of his life.
    “Two landholders have requested your papers.” Lilian quickly filled the silence left in the wake of Shan’s comment. “I don’t think you’ll be surprised to know that Landholder Young filed a request.”
    Temar looked up, horror drawing his gaze to the councilwoman’s face. Lilian gave him a small, crooked smile. “I think our reaction was similar to yours,” she said, humor in her voice. “He’s angry, so I think we can all agree that you are best placed somewhere else.”
    “Yes, ma’am,” Temar agreed. The thought of Young having rights over him was enough to make exile sound pleasant.
    “Ben Gratu has offered a fair price.”
    Temar closed his eyes as relief flooded him. Ben owned the farm on the other side of his father’s land. He was a fair man who had always gone out of his way to offer the family a few kindnesses or a spare flat of seedlings. “Thank you,” Temar managed to say. His legs felt like jelly, like the time he’d fallen from the valley cliff wall, only to be caught by the safety rope at the last minute. That sudden burst of fear and then the realization that he hadn’t been crushed into a bloody mash left his body limp with relief. That’s how he felt now.
    Shan took a step forward, his sharp eyes focusing, so that Temar felt uncomfortably trapped inside the man’s gaze. “Should you need anything, you know you have the same right to come to the council that anyone else has, correct?”
    Temar frowned, not sure why Shan would imply that Ben Gratu would ever do anything that warranted coming to the council. However, he answered as politely as he could. “Yes, sir.”
    Shan sighed, clearly not happy with the answer.
    Naite looked angry enough to chew glass. “Brother, we are not Blue Hope, and I hope you are not suggesting that Ben Gratu is anything like that pig shit they had hiding in their territory.”
    “I am not suggesting anything.” Shan snapped the words out, and the two brothers glared at each other.