The Shattered Chain Read Online Free PDF Page B

how they fight. Those long blades … anything else? Leeanne?”
    “Remember that sometimes the Dry-Towners poison their swords. Don’t neglect even a scratch. I’ve got some ointment that is supposed to neutralize their worst poisons. … ”
    “Then Hastur son of Light had known,
    (For so had ruled the Shining Sire
    When first he left the Realm of Fire)
    Once more his star must burn alone …
    For on the earth he might not reign
    If he should cause one mortal pain,
    Or in that hour he must return
    To the far realms that were his own. … ”

    “We’ll never be readier than now,” Kindra said softly. “Finish the damn song, Rafaella, and get your dagger.”
    Gratefully Rohana began the last verse:

    “And ever more the cloud waves break,
    Along the fringes of the lake,
    And tears and songs still whisper there,
    Upon the still and misty air. … ”

    It was an unnerving experience, knowing they were all listening now, but impatient of every note, eager for her to finish. Damn it, no more eager than I!
    “They built a city in the wild,
    Fit for his rule, the kingly child,
    And singing of Camilla’s doom,
    They wrought for her an opal tomb.”

    She skipped the little postlude and rose impatiently, letting Rafaella put her harp away. Earlier in the afternoon she had packed the few possessions she had brought on this journey into a small bundle. Inside the tent the Amazons moved quickly and efficiently by the light of a single shaded candle, stowing food and necessary belongings in their saddlebags. Rohana watched, keeping out of their way. Devra and Fat Rima moved away toward the city gates, and Rohana felt another shudder take her; their business was to assure that those gates would be unguarded when they came back this way in a hurry, fleeing. …
    Don’t be squeamish! The guards there are Dry-Towners; they’ve probably deserved death a dozen times over. …
    But they have no quarrel with any of us! There must be some good men among them, who have done nothing more than live as their forefathers have lived for centuries. …
    Angry at herself, Rohana stifled the thought. I hired Kindra’s band to get Melora and her child away. Did I really believe it could be done without bloodshed? You cannot take hawks without climbing cliffs!
    Kindra beckoned the red-haired woman to her side. She said in an undertone, “I had thought to leave you here with these; but we shall need you, in case your kinswoman must have help—or reassurance. Come with us, Lady, but look to yourself if there is fighting; none of us will have time or thought to protect you, and Jalak’s men may think you one of us and attack. Have you any kind of weapon?”
    “I have this,” Rohana said, showing the small dagger she carried, like all Comyn women, for personal protection. Kindra looked at it, trying to conceal her scorn. “It would be small service in a fight, I fear. But if we fail—I do not think we will fail, but nothing in this world is absolutely certain but death and next winter’s snow—if we fail, at least it will keep you from falling alive into Jalak’s hands. Are you prepared for that, vai domna?”
    Rohana nodded, hoping the Amazon could not see that she was trembling. And again it flickered fleetingly through her mind, as had happened more than once during the twenty days she had been in their company, that perhaps Kindra had some small spark of psi power, that she followed Rohana’s thoughts a little more than might happen by chance, for the Amazon’s hard-boned hand descended briefly on her shoulder; only for a moment, a light touch, and hesitant, lest the noblewoman angrily refuse her sympathy. “My Lady, do you think none of us is afraid? We have not learned not to fear; only to go on in the face of fear, as women are seldom taught to do on our world.” She turned away, her voice brusque again in the darkness. “Come along. Nira: to the front, you know the way step by step, we know it only from my Lady’s drawings