Tooth and Claw Read Online Free PDF Page B

long uphill walk across mountains. Frelt condemned them equally. Parsons were immune and therefore they had their wings bound in red in sign of it, and therefore they walked. He did not hold with the extremists who said everyone should walk on Firstday, though he did think walking to church was good manners, unless the journey was too difficult. But parsons should walk, all the time, even when inconvenient, and this Frelt diligently did. He wished he had someone with him to be impressed, or someone waiting for him at home to bring him a drink and admire his fortitude and exclaim over the distance he had walked. A wife. Berend was lost to him, but he needed a wife.
    For the first time he thought of Berend’s sisters. He had never paid them much attention. When he had courted Berend they had been mere dragonets, and there had been little interaction between the parsonage and Agornin since they had grown up. He had hardly seen them except in church. Yet today he had noticed them, and they were both pretty and of marriageable age. He held his memory of them before his eyes as he walked on. Selendra had perhaps a touch brighter maidenly gold than her sister, and he thought her eyes were a little sharper, violet, like Berend’s. Haner was definitely paler and dreamier, with silvery eyes. He hesitated for a moment, foot outstretched. Might not a quieter dragon suit him better as a wife? He would want home comfort and admiration, not drama and excitement. But liveliness often went with endurance. He wanted a wife who would give him dragonets and live on as his companion, not fade away and leave him widowed after her first clutch.
    Selendra, then. He stepped on, carefully, for the sun was down and the road was darkening. Yet Selendra was the one who would go with Penn, while Haner was to join Berend’s establishment. Haner’s connections would favor him, while Penn might oppose a match out of anger over today’s decision. It was, in retrospect, a foolish decision, he realized. If he had thought of marrying one of the maidens ahead of time it would have been in his interest to decide with Penn and make sure they were given their fair share of flesh. As a parson he would have enough for his wife, but no abundance. He thought of little green Lamerak and shuddered. That dragonet should be culled, not indulged. His sister had been a pale gold, with only the faintest green blush. He should have decided against Daverak and let the younger ones eat, then Haner and Selendra would have been better nourished and grateful to him. Too late now. He would have to rely on the gratitude they would feel at being married and given their own establishment instead of living as poor relations.
    He weighed the merits of the two maidens for the next hour’s walk. Before he reached home he had decided, for reasons he called charitable, that he would offer for Selendra. Haner was going to the home of an Illustrious, to high society and fashionable life. She would have every opportunity to meet possible husbands. Selendra would be going to a country parsonage like his own, only as suppliant rather than mistress. (Surely he need not worry about her excessive liveliness if her brother Penn, who knew her so much better, thought such a life suitable for her.) He would be rescuing her from penury, or near-penury. Her dowry would not be much, but it would nevertheless be a pleasant addition to the thin layer of gold that padded his undercave. If he acted soon, before Penn took her away, Penn’s opposition would not count strongly. It might even be possible to persuade Selendra to agree to an immediate romanticelopement where he would sweep her off without waiting for formal consent and sort out the details later. Penn would not withhold the dowry in those circumstances. How convenient it would be to be married. A parson’s wife can fly, except of course on Firstday, which would make bringing supplies up through the mountains very much easier.
    By the time