Jabone's Sword Read Online Free PDF Page A

going-to-be-king-someday lessons," Jestia said with a sigh. "I'm not like him. I long for adventure and if there aren't any real ones for me then I just go out and make them for myself. I just can't stand the boredom of sitting around the castle with my hands folded in my lap learning how to be a good monarch as if a second child with such a careful brother would ever get the chance to rule at all. They have had all these great adventures and expect us to live as careful people."
    "They have taught us warfare and how to fight, but where is our battle?" Tarius added.
    "When my father was my age he was fighting beside Tarius the Black in the Jethrikian war against the Amalites, yet he refuses to even listen when I talk of wanting to go and join our forces overseas in the territories," Ufalla said with a sigh.
    "You, sprout, are only a child. Think of me—a full-fledged man—and yet they still treat me like a child," Tarius said.
    "Because you look like a child," Ufalla spat back.
    "Why I oughtah . . ." Tarius took a menacing step towards his sister and Jabone put up a hand to stop him. His mother had been right. He had been able to change his feelings for Ufalla and found that he enjoyed her company more than that of her brother's. For one thing he found that he had more in common with her than he did the young Tarius who was reckless and a bit of a braggart. In a way he felt as if Ufalla were his own sibling. It wasn't hard to lavish brotherly-type attention on her. In many ways she reminded him of his madra, and it was obvious that her own brother could hardly stand her.
    "Enough you two," Jabone said. He was trying to listen to his madra as she launched into a brilliant telling of the Battle of the Arrow. The others were silent as well as they became mesmerized with the telling. When she had finished Jabone turned to the others with conviction. "Why should we sit here while the enemies of our parents and grandparents darken the shore of even one country?"
    "What are you suggesting?" Jestia asked.
    "My madra is ruler of the Katabull. The Katabull Nation has many ships which we use to fish with and to trade with the territories and the Jethrik. Why could we not be on one of the ships when next it sails to the territories? My madra killed her first Amalite when she was twelve. I am close to eighteen and have yet to know real combat. I have bested my madra, the greatest fighter who has ever lived, I am ready to test my skill in the real arena. We have all of us been trained to fight and you Jestia are trained in the magic arts as well. Why shouldn't we go to the territories, join with our Kartik brothers there, and go in search of these curs root them out and utterly obliterate them once and for all?"
    "Yeah, now we're talking!" Tarius exclaimed. "I have been telling you this ever since we first started to hear the mumblings about the Amalite menace. If they will not let us go with their blessing then we shall go without it."
    "I don't know . . ." Jestia started.
    "You," Ufalla laughed. "You who run around the countryside whoring yourself out to any swinging dick for a laugh and drinking 'til you puke because you say you're bored, and now when we're talking a real adventure you've got cold feet." She looked at Jabone. "I'm in . . ."
    "You . . . You're just a child. We don't need you. We need Jestia she's a witch . . ."
    "She's also a whore." Ufalla never hid her disapproval of the way Jestia behaved. Jestia occasionally came by the Katabull Nation when she was on one of her "excursions," and they would go with her to Montero or some other near-by village and the four of them would just hit every pub in the village drinking themselves silly and having a good time 'til Jestia would go off with one man or another and then Ufalla would spend the rest of the night complaining about Jestia ditching them to tryst with someone she didn't even know. "But then perhaps having a whore along will make life easier for you