Forgotten Suns Read Online Free PDF

bad luck.”
    “There’s no such thing as luck,” said Jamal. But he stopped
tempting it with a god’s name.
    Not that there were any gods but God. Aisha just liked to
cover all the possibilities.
    ~~~
    With Rama in the house, it was much less tempting to
wander off. He got over his fever in no time at all; then he settled in to make
himself useful around the house and the stable. Mostly the stable. He liked
horses, and horses loved him.
    He sat in on lessons, too. First because he came wandering
in in the middle and the bot thought he was another student and asked him a
question, and then because he got curious about the answer.
    Aunt Khalida said he had amnesia. If he did, he picked up
new memories fast. Aisha gave him one of the spare readers that they kept for
interns, and the box of databeads that went with it. After that, if he wasn’t
mucking out stalls or grooming horses, he was parked somewhere, usually in the
sun, with the reader perched on his nose.
    A whole tenday went by without any of them going outside the
walls. Rama didn’t seem to remember there was anything out there, and Aisha and
Jamal found enough to do around the compound.
    Aisha was anything but bored, but Jinni had been stuck in
the paddock for all that time. He let her know that if she kept him in much
longer, he was going to do something about it.
    The day she caught him eyeing the back fence, she knew she
had to get him out of there. Jamal was up for a ride, for a change. She said to
Rama, “You can come, too.”
    Nobody told Rama what to do. Even Aunt Khalida had learned
to ask, and not to argue if he said no. But Aisha could hand him a halter and
point him toward the fat pinto they kept for beginners, and be reasonably sure
he would go.
    Of course, being Rama, he didn’t bring in the pinto. He
brought in the red mare.
    Nobody rode Lilith but Mother or Aunt Khalida. Nobody else
could stay on her.
    Rama could. He got on without even bothering with the
stirrups, and when she started to buck, he rode her out almost as easily as if
she’d been cantering around the paddock instead of turning herself inside out
trying to get him off.
    Lilith was evil but she wasn’t stupid. She stopped all once,
ears flicking back and forth, and tried one last, half-hearted twist-and-kick.
When he didn’t budge, she let out an explosive, two-ended snort, shook herself
all over, and made up her mind to behave herself.
    He laughed. He was not being unkind, at all. She made him
happy.
    Aunt Khalida would be jealous. Aisha looked forward to
seeing that. Meanwhile the horses were saddled and the water bottles were full.
Aisha was ready to go.
    ~~~
    They went in the opposite direction from the dead river
and the broken cliff, down along the edge of the city. Aisha thought she might
find the river where it was now, and see if she could catch some fish for
dinner. She had hooks and coils of line in her saddlebag.
    This part of the city was still under the grass. Here and
there a wall stuck up, but mostly you had to know the hills and hollows hadn’t
grown there on their own. The track they rode on had been a road a long time
ago; it was more or less smooth and mostly straight.
    Lilith liked to lead, but she was out of shape. Soon enough,
Jinni caught up with her. Aisha grinned at Rama and got his white smile in
return.
    Some days it was hard to remember he was really old—as old
as Shenliu at least. Maybe even as old as Aunt Khalida. He looked at Aisha and
Jamal as people, not children, and treated them accordingly. It made all the
difference.
    His smile widened to a grin. “Race you up the hill,” he
said.
    Lilith had a few sparks left in her after all. She left
Jinni in the dust.
    It was a long hill and not very steep, but from the top it
dropped off more sharply, plunging down to the river. Rama never even
hesitated. He gave Lilith half a dozen strides to get her back legs under her,
then let her go.
    Aisha’s heart tried to jump out of her chest. Jamal