Lord of Mountains: A Novel of the Change Read Online Free PDF Page B

friends, too, insofar as the Grand Constable
had
any friends…Lady Delia’s modest tally of three children (with one on the way) all looked respectably like her husband or her own dark comeliness. Mother and children mostly lived in Barony Ath when the family wasn’t at court in Castle Todenangst or Portland, but visited Forest Grove frequently.
    They…all three of them…must have serious pull to keep the clergy from getting on their case,
Huon thought.
    He supposed he disapproved himself, though it was really between them and God and none of his business; he hoped he was a good son of Holy Mother Church, but didn’t pretend to overmuch sanctity and he’d never seriously entertained the thought of a vocation.
    And
judge not, lest ye be judged
is really sort of scary when you think about it. I’m not that brave, or maybe not that self-confident.
    Lady Delia was beautiful in a lushly feminine way, and much admiredas a leader of fashion; Huon had seen her a few times at Court or social events, and felt the same awed goggle-eyed lust as any boy his age. Baron de Stafford was ruggedly handsome, a noted champion in the lists, victor in two duels, and a respected leader in the field. Lady d’Ath was known as
Lady Death
; she’d been the Regent’s hatchetwoman for years before she became a commander, and she was victor in more than a
dozen
duels, about which rumor told equally credible and really, truly hideous details. Not many people liked her and a fair number hated her bitterly, but he’d never heard an Associate nobleman refer to her with anything but wary respect shading into outright fear.
    She certainly scares
me, he thought.
Of course, if things had gone a little differently, the Regent might have sent her to kill the rest of House Liu; I’m pretty sure she was the one who…executed…Mom.
    He grimaced slightly at the thought. His mother hadn’t really been herself that last year or two before things fell apart; it had been like living with a stranger who just
looked
like the mother he remembered. A dangerous and utterly unpredictable stranger. According to rumor, again, she’d been
possessed
, a thing of evil. He could believe it—though he very much didn’t want to—and a lot of his nightly prayers were for her soul. He couldn’t even really resent the way the Regent had dealt with her.
    On second thought, with the Spider of the Silver Tower behind them, it’s no wonder nobody makes trouble for d’Ath and de Stafford, even if they’re not scared of ending up in a dueling circle. Which I would be. But the Regent’s mind scares me even more than Lady Death’s sword, now that I’ve seen Lady Regent Sandra Arminger in action at close range.
    “Were you with the Grand Constable at Walla Walla?” Huon asked Lioncel, a little enviously.
    D’Ath had commanded the Montivalan vanguard there, the army screening the gathering of the High King’s host and turning to snap and slash at the eastern invaders as they advanced. The war-camp was full of the news of their deeds, and the way the High King had led a charge to rescue them when they were surrounded by the Prophet’s cavalry just before they reached safety a few days ago. Huon had been part of that, but you didn’t see much even if you were involved; it was all a whirlingconfusion, not the neat lines and duel-like blow-by-blow encounters of which the troubadours sang.
    “Yes,” Lioncel said; his face was sober as he replied, as if he were suddenly looking somewhere quite different. “My lord my father was too. It was…there were so
many
of them, the enemy, even when they split up to try and trap us. If we’d made
one
big mistake, none of us would have gotten away. It was…like dancing backward while someone really big tried to hit you with a war hammer, but my lady d’Ath never let them get a grip on us. And we hurt them, hurt them badly.”
    Then he smiled. “At first the regiments from the Yakima League didn’t like serving under the Grand