Time of the Eagle Read Online Free PDF Page B

comforted. “I suppose I’m a true Navali,” I said, “since I’m half Navoran and half Shinali. Yet when I saw the man Embry yesterday, that was the first time I’ve seen a Navoran close. He was supposed to be my enemy, but he was not. He was my father’s friend, a friend to Yeshi, to you, to all of us. Men like him, like my father, have loved our people. Surely there are more like them. All Navorans can’t want us dead.Yet we flee from them like rabbits fleeing from a fox.”
    â€œThe Navoran with highest power is the Emperor Jaganath,” she said. “What he commands is done. And he wants us dead. The prophecy of the Time of the Eagle is not forgotten in Navora, certainly not forgotten by Jaganath. He knows that if the prophecy is fulfilled, he will lose everything. So he wants to wipe out every chance that the Eagle might rise. He wants to wipe out our race.”
    â€œAnd we want to wipe out the Navoran race,” I said. “Which one of us is right? Or are we both wrong? Can we not live in peace, side by side?”
    â€œNot all of Navora will be destroyed, in the Eagle’s Time,” she replied. “The prophecy also speaks of a Navoran remnant that will survive, a group of dwellers near our Shinali land, who will live in peace with us, and make a new way. I believe that Gabriel’s mother, your Navoran grandmother, is among those people. The Time of the Eagle is not about destroying the nation that stole our lands, though many of us have lost sight of that; it’s about making a new life for all of us. Then, we will all live in peace, side by side. That part of the prophecy is a great comfort to me.”
    â€œAre you ever afraid, Mother, that the Emperor Jaganath will find us? That the prophecy won’t come true?”
    â€œEven great prophecies are not set in stone, but depend on human beings to work them out and fight for them and bring them into being. And human beings are frail. We are all afraid at times. Even your father knew fear.”
    â€œWas he afraid of his destiny?”
    â€œYes, at times he was. Sometimes our destiny is hard, my love, and costs us much. But it is always to do with the things we lovemost deeply, and there is always joy in it, somewhere. Don’t worry about how you will carry out the task ahead; your path will unfold before you, one step at a time. You don’t have to search for your destiny; it will find you.”
    She caressed my cheek, moving her thumb around the painted Navoran horse, and I knew she was thinking how like my father I was. Always there seemed to be two loves in her eyes when she looked at me; she saw my face, and loved it, and she saw another face, behind and beyond, that she loved above all else. Other men in the tribe had wanted her for wife, for she was a high lot beautiful, but she never went to them. She was my father’s, then and now.
    â€œMay I ask you something, Mother?” I said.
    â€œAnything, love.”
    â€œYou and my father, why did you never marry? You had time, in Taroth Fort, and Zalidas, he would have blessed it.”
    She looked away, over the river, her eyes full of sunlight and far things. “We wanted to marry,” she said. “But Tarkwan would not give his permission. He said there would be no blessing-rituals until we were free again, that there could be nothing blessed in captivity. And yet your father and I, we were blessed, and we were married in our hearts.”
    Suddenly someone called to her, and people ran toward us from the tents.
    â€œAshila! It’s Zalidas! He’s collapsed!”
    Zalidas had a high fever, and although my mother did all she could for him, by morning’s middle he still lay unknowing.People walked about quietly, new fears mingling with their wonder at the prophecies spoken last night. Only the children played as usual. I went to sit with my friends on the grass, needing to talk about everyday things, but