The Oathbound Read Online Free PDF Page B

to make me feel better?”
    “You’re smiling, aren’t you?”
    “Well,” Kethry admitted reluctantly, “I guess I am.”
    “When a child of the Clans falls off her horse, we make her get right back on again. She‘enedra, don’t you think it’s time you remounted this one?”
    “I—”
    “Or do you prefer to live your life with them dictating that you shall not return to your own city?”
    Her chin came up; a stubborn and angry light smoldered in her eyes. “No.”
    “Then we face this city of yours and we face it together. For now, make a mattress of Rodi, she‘enedra; and sleep peacefully. I intend to do the same. Tomorrow we go to Mornedealth and make it deal with us on our terms. Hai?”
    Kethry nodded, convinced almost against her will, and beginning to view the inevitable encounter with something a little more like confidence.
    “Hai,” she agreed.

Two
    K ethry envied her partner’s ability to drop immediately into sleep under almost any circumstances. Her own thoughts were enough to keep her wakeful; add to them the snoring of her mule and the wailing of the wind outside their shelter, and Kethry had a foolproof recipe for insomnia.
    She wanted to avoid Mornedealth no matter what the cost. Just the thought that she might encounter Wethes was enough to make her shudder almost uncontrollably. In no way was she prepared to deal with him, and she wondered now if she would ever be....
    And yet, Tarma was right. She would never truly be “free” unless she dealt with her fear. She would never truly be her own woman if she allowed fear and old memories to dictate where she would or would not go.
    The disciplines of the Order of White Winds mandated self-knowledge and self-mastery. She had deceived herself into thinking she had achieved that mastery of self; Tarma had just shown her how wrong she was.
    It’s been seven years, she thought bitterly. Seven long years—and those bastards still have power over me. And I’ll never be an adept until I break that power.
    For that, after all, was the heart of the White Winds discipline; that no negative tie be permitted to bind the sorcerer in any way. Positive ties—like the oath of she‘enedran she had sworn with Tarma, like the bond of lover to lover or parent to child—were encouraged to flourish, for the sorcerer could draw confidence and strength from them. But the negative bonds of fear, hatred, or greed must be rooted out and destroyed, for they would actually drain the magician of needed energy.
    Sometimes Tarma can be so surprising, see things so clearly. And yet she has such peculiar blind spots. Or does she? Does she realize that she’s driving us both to the Plains as if she was geas-bound? She’s like a messenger-bird, unable to travel in any direction but the one appointed.
    Kethry hadn’t much cared where she wandered; this was her time of journey, she wouldn’t settle in any one place until she reached the proficiency of an Adept. Then she would either found a school of her own, or find a place in an established White Winds enclave. So Tarma’s overwhelming need to return home had suited her as well as anything else.
    Until she had realized that the road they were on led directly to Mornedealth.
    It all comes back to that, doesn’t it? And until I face it, I’m stalemated. Dammit, Tarma’s right. I’m a full sorceress, I’m a full adult, and I have one damned fine swordswoman for a partner. What in Teslat’s name am I afraid of? There is nothing under the law that they can really do to me-I’ve been separated from Wethes for seven years, and three is enough to unmake the marriage, assuming there really was one. I’m not going in under my full name, and I’ve changed so much. How are they even going to recognize me?
    Across the shelter Tarma stirred, and curled herself into a tighter ball. Kethry smiled and shook her head, thinking about her partner’s words on the subject.
    “Do you want them sliced lengthwise or widthwise”