Farmers & Mercenaries Read Online Free PDF Page A

for once.
    Letting his eyes linger on the group, Arderi wondered once more what Riln had been up to. Herders occupied public houses on the opposite side of the stead from the fielders. They tended the many animals that lived within the walls of the stead. Even though Arderi did not envy them for how long their day was—having the job of taking all the animals from the protection of the stead walls and leading them to pasture morn after morn, as well as bringing them back inside eve after eve—he still saw their aurns in between as ill spent. “I do not think they work as hard during the day as we fielders do.”
    Arderi was speaking to no one in particular, although Riln chimed in. “Because they are lazy!”
    “I would not be so fast to judge.” Shaking his head, Tanin gave Riln a disapproving look. “Remember the saying, first to rise, last inside, a herders day is long.”
    “Mayhaps.” Arderi glanced over at his Papa. “Yet they sure do sit a lot during that long day of theirs.”
    His father grinned back at him. “It is only what you see on the ride to and from the fields, my boy.” Waving a hand, the older man indicated the vast pastures that hugged the stead’s wall. “They also handle all of the slaughtering and skinning. I do believe you enjoy the meat they provide. And do not forget the wool and hides that you wear.” A guarder, one of many accompanying the work detail, trotted by on a horse, and Tanin nodded to him before turning his attention back to the boys. . “Aye, they may sit a lot during the day.” Tanin raised one eyebrow. “Alas, remember we fielders let our fields run fallow during the winter season. Herders are still out there, day after day, season after season, regardless of the weather.”
    Arderi pulled his feet under him and sat up for more comfort on the hard, wooden bench. “It is not as if we fielders do not work during the winter moons.”
    “Aye.” Tanin nodded sagely. “Alas, most of our day is spent on inside work, mending or making tools and the like. Not out in the cold, wet weather.”
    “I never thought of it that way, Papa.” Glancing back down the road, Arderi stared at the small group of herders as they faded from view.
    “Nix!” Riln’s whisper was sharp, and he directed it into Arderi’s ear so as not to be overheard. “I know it was some stinking herder who dumped the load of dung in my sleeping room. I still have to leave the window open for the smell. Yet, soon…” He sat back and smiled, bobbing his head like a fool in rhythm with the bounce of the wagon.
    Leaning over toward his friend, Arderi kept his voice in the same conspiratorial whisper. “At halfmeal we shall steal away. You must tell what you have planned.”
    Riln nodded, his eyes twinkling.
    Flopping back to enjoy the warm spring sun, Arderi followed the one stray cloud drifting high in the clear blue sky.
    What a perfect day. Not too hot, nice cooling breeze. A shame this day is not Holiday. At least the tenday is more than half-gone, and Holiday will be here soon.

R eality appeared skewed—akin to peering through a kaleidoscope. A mish-mash of colored points of light floated in Alant Cor’s field of vision, swirling and bouncing all around him.
    Like opening my eyes under water, yet instead of a wavy view, everything looks crisp and clear. I just cannot tell what anything is!
    “Now, Alant, focus. Bend your mind and see me.” The voice of Sier Sarlimac, one of Alant’s teachers here at the Chandril’elian of Mocley, came from somewhere in front of him. “Tell me what I am holding.” Strain as he might, Alant could see no difference in the sparkle of colors spinning around him.
    Focusing on the voice, Alant let his mind relax, allowing the floating swirls of colors to differentiate from one another on their own, as he had been taught. Within moments, his eyes adapted, adjusting to the foreign sight they beheld. Nothing changed in the dots themselves, yet his Sier’s face