Spear of Heaven Read Online Free PDF Page A

Only necessity. And I think the expedition needs me, now more
than ever. The place it goes to is all strange to us, and its people are afraid
of magic. Or, no, maybe not afraid, but wary of it; inclined to hate it,
because they don’t trust it. If something happened to the Guardian because of
that, and broke the Gate, then it may be that I can use what I am for once, use
it to teach these strangers that magic is nothing to fear or hate.”
    Once she had said it, it sounded hollow, bombastic, a child’s
arrogance. Chakan said nothing of that. He said, “What can you do that the
Master of mages can’t?”
    “Be my grandfather’s heir,” she answered without even
thinking. “Speak for him with the authority of his own blood.”
    “So you won’t escape him even on the other side of the
world.”
    Daruya hissed at him. “I’m not trying to run away from my
inheritance! I just want to stand on my own feet.”
    “And make your own mistakes.” He lay back on his flat stone.
After a moment he slipped the fastenings of his veils and let them fall free,
baring his face to the wind and the sun.
    It was a handsome face, beautiful in fact, as Asanians of
pure blood and long, close breeding could be: smoothly oval, white as new
ivory, nose straight and finely carved, lips full, chin as sweetly rounded as a
girl’s. And yet it was not a girlish face, not at all. The right cheek bore
healed scars, four thin parallel lines running from cheekbone to jaw; and a
fifth, matched to the rest, so new that it still bled a little.
    Daruya caught her breath at that. “You didn’t tell me you
were being raised to the fifth rank.”
    He slanted a glance at her. “I didn’t know. My Master called
me in in the middle of the night, ordered me to unveil, and marked me as soon
as he saw my face.”
    “He didn’t by any chance say why?” she said.
    “Eventually,” said Chakan. “I’m to take ten Olenyai to the
other side of the world, to guard the mages.”
    Daruya’s fury was so perfect that it did not even blur her
senses. “Mages don’t need guarding.”
    “For this they might,” he said. He laced his fingers beneath
his head, raised a knee, looked utterly off guard.
    That, she knew, was a complete deception. She was fast, and
Olenyai-trained—but if she leaped, he would meet her in the air, and give her a
ferocious fight.
    She might have welcomed it. But she was stalking other prey.
“Tell me why they chose you.”
    “Because I’m very good at what I do,” he said honestly. “And
because I’m used to mages.”
    “And,” she said, “because they can’t get at you with magic.
That’s it, isn’t it? That shield of yours—they want it. Maybe need it, if it’s
mages they fight.”
    “They also want my skill with the swords, and the ten
bred-warriors I can lead. I’m going to ask for Rahai. He’s so good with his
hands, he never has to use his swords.”
    He was happy, hells take him—brimming over with his good
fortune.
    She sprang. To her startlement, he did not meet her in
midair. When she struck the rock with bruising force, he was gone.
    She lay winded, gasping for air. His voice sounded above her
head. “I was thinking. You can’t wear the robes and the veils—you’re too tall.
But there’s another way.”
    She rolled onto her back, still wheezing. “What—in hells—”
    “It is a pity you overtop the tallest of us by a head,” he
said, maddeningly roundabout as Asanians were when one most wanted them to be
direct. “Your eyes would do. Your skin is darker than most, but in veils that’s
less noticeable. Do you think your daughter will be another long tall creature?
She’s shaping for it already, poor thing.”
    “You babble like a flutterbird,” said Daruya. She could
breathe again, if shallowly. Her ribs hurt. “I can’t play the Olenyas. It would
cost you your honor at least.”
    “It would cost me my life,” he said with no perceptible
apprehension. “It might be worth it, mind, for