The Golden Sword Read Online Free PDF Page B

mid-board, of movement and manifestation, we have a threx on the gray of death, and one upon triumph’s purple and loss’s yellow. We see a woman, near the dying threx, within the swirl square of’ change. And the man, almost atop the threx that abides in both triumph and loss. Corning to challenge these we have the ebvrasea, opposite the man, and upon the square of overriding purpose. Thus, the ebvrasea will use the threx and man to its ends. And lastly, the sword, upon the threx in the death square, its blade pointing to the woman within the square of change. Remember, as you consider this board, whose symbol the ebvrasea has become, and what rumors about its flight we have just recently heard. I think, as it falls, that Besha lies here.” He pointed to the woman in the swirl.
    Chayin nodded, leaning forward, his eyes narrowed, his chin resting upon his fist.
    “And last, the board of outcome,” Hael continued. “The Well in the white of what may be gained, with the fire upon its home, what is needed, and the spear upon the square of the heart. Into this come two men and one woman. One man takes up the spear with the power of the fire at his command, and opposes the man and woman who stand before the Well. The woman stands in hate, and the man in love. I think we have thrown for Frullo jer, and gotten a glimpse of something else, of which the races at Frullo jer are only a small part. Only in the mid-board are the pieces concerned with our question.” He looked up from the board, at Chayin.
    “If the ebvrasea seeks your aid, will you give it?”
    I wondered who the ebvrasea represented to them. I knew of no Well or city, town or tribe, who used that great soaring mountain carnivore as a symbol.
    Chayin met Hael’s eyes.
    “Would you, brother, were our positions reversed?” The jiask, silent, watching, had his hand upon his sword hilt.
    “I think I would. The board demands it. The time demands it. And yet, much blood would flow, if such a thing were done, for reasons that are none of our affairs. Or were not, until this day. If one made this move”—he reached to the top board and plucked the woman from it, and placed it atop the ebvrasea upon the second—“one could perhaps avoid the entire sequence. With the prime mover surrendered to the square of overriding purpose, one might avoid what follows. It would have to be done before this occurs.” He pointed to the threx within the square of death.
    Chayin regarded the changed board. He reached out and removed all the pieces with the exception of the ebvrasea and the woman Hael had placed beside it in the green square. He tossed the bone pieces in his closed fist.
    “Could you not be wrong, could that woman not be Besha also, and the ebvrasea the speed of the threx, the purpose of the race itself?”
    Hael smiled and shook his head.
    “When did you last throw the Well, brother? There is but one Well,” he reminded Chayin gently, “among all the pieces.”
    “I threw it six passes ago, sets before we went to Rollcall at Yardum-Or.” He grinned ruefully.
    “And did you not, while, in Yardum-Or, ride close to two hundred neras to see Well Oppiri?”
    “It was an impulse, drunken and ill-conceived.”
    “But you did, against your own judgment and intentions, enter into a Well soon after you threw one. Had you ever thrown the piece before?”
    “You know I did not ever before throw one. And you know what you would make of this board,” Chayin said sharply. “I say it is Besha that is our problem, at the moment. If the Menetphers attend, and Aknet aniet Boshast rides the Son of Tycel, who has taken the Golden Sword three years in a row, then Besha’s Gtianden is our only hope. Saer has not the stamina for the two-nera run, and your Quiris has not the speed to take a Tycel son.”
    It was clear to me at that moment that the Nemarsi had been upon the desert to toughen the threx. I had wondered why they carried no helmets, no spears, no shields. Nor had I