Holly Lisle Vengeance Of Dragons

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

discoveredthat she d lost a week. She had never been Karnee for so long.She
would have been amazed, but she was too tired to feel anything.She gave
herself a cursory wash, ate everything she could lay handson, and finally
crawled into her cold tent and fell into the deep,miserable sleep of
Page 170
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
post-Shift.
She woke two days later with the full weight of post-Shiftdepression riding
her. Her fugue had solved nothing. The problemsher world faced remained
unsolved, but were a week more firmlyentrenched. The Reborn was still dead;
her once-beloved cousin wasstill a murderer not just of her own child but of
the hopes of theworld; the Dragons still walked free and worked toward the day
whenthey would rule the world as gods from the backs of a world ofenslaved
mortals.
This won t do, she whispered to herself. If I m not yet dead, I can t act as
if Iam.
So she forced herself to get up. She ate hugely, then washed,ignoring the icy
water, the howling wind. She dressed in the onlygood clothing she had a fine
winter suit of Gyru-nalles spunwool with heavy fur boots and a long fur coat.
She plaited her hairand painted the symbols of devotion on her forehead
andeyelids.
She looked for answers as she had been taught by the parnissas.She prayed to
the Falcons god
Vodor Imrish, who hadfallen silent with the death of his Reborn; to the Iberan
gods whomshe had been taught to revere, but who had no place for
amagic-Scarred monster like her; and even to the old gods that herparents had
scorned as the superstitions of ignorant peasants. Fortwo days she fasted and
prayed, but the gods had no word forher.
She could have despaired then, but she didn t. If the godsoffered no answers,
she would find one for herself. She took foodagain, then meditated. She
discovered that she did not wish to givethe world over to the Dragons without
a fight, no matter howhopeless that fight might be. She discovered that she
still hadbreath and will, the two things she d had before the death
ofSolander.
And she discovered that action even action shefirmly believed was hopeless
gave rise to its own strangebreed of hope.
She began to wonder if she and the Falcons had overlookedsomething in their
rush to declare their cause lost and the Dragonstriumphant by default. Another
three days spent poring through theSecret Texts convinced her that they had.
So she sought out her uncle.
D�ghall lay in one of the Gyru wagons, wasting away. TheGyru girl who had
taken over tending him said that he had onlyaccepted bites of food and sips of
water in the last days, that hewould get up to relieve himself but that he
never spoke or movedotherwise. She said she d begun bathing him each morning
witha bucket of cold water and coarse rags, partly because he had begunto
smell, but mostly because she hoped the rough treatment wouldstir him to some
sign of life. So far, she said, her plan hadfailed.
Kait stepped up into the wagon and noted that, even after thebaths, D�ghall
stank. He lay in a fetal position, curled underseveral blankets, face to the
featureless wall. His hair stuck outat odd angles, unwashed, greasy, gone from
black with a smatteringof gray to gray entire in the days since the Reborn s
death.Where he had been lean the Reborn s sword, he dsaid now he was
scrawny. He looked like a sick old man, likea dying old man.
Uncle, she said, this has to end.
He said nothing. He didn t move, didn t twitch. Therhythm of his breathing
didn t even change.
She counted hisbreaths for a moment and realized that he had put himself into
theFalcon trance;
he was far beyond the reach of her voice.
She shook him hard, and felt his breathing pick up, then fallback into the
slow trance-inducing rhythm. She considered heroptions, didn t like any of
them, and chose the leastoffensive. She slapped him. Again she jarred him from
his breathingfor an instant, but again he escaped her.
Page 171
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
She was going to have to hurt him. A lot. She jammed her thumbunder his
collarbone and pressed hard. He lost the rhythm of hisbreathing entirely; he
growled and tried to push her hand away.
Shewas stronger than he, though Karnee strength would have lether best a
stronger man than sick D�ghall and shepushed harder; he whimpered with pain.
You can t sleep yourself to death, and I can thide inside the monster. There
aren t any answers there. Youknow that. You re hiding out of fear, but you
can t be acoward anymore. We need you.
Get up.
Go away.
Get up or I ll break your collarbone. Sheshifted her pressure from the space
under the bone to the boneitself, and bore down. She could feel the grinding
of the ends ofthe bone transmitted through her fingertips, and she shuddered
andgritted her teeth and pushed harder.
D�ghall yelled and flailed at her with his free arm.
I m not leaving, Uncle, and you aren t going tolie in here and die. Get up
and face me. He tried to fallback into trance, tried to regain the slow,
steady breaths thattook him there, but she applied more pressure. She hated to
hurthim, but she could think of nothing that would force him to actfaster than
intense pain. Better a broken bone than death. Shehardened herself to his
eventual wordless scream, and was rewardedfor her efforts thankfully, before
she had to snap the bonein two.
He jerked himself upright in the narrow bed and turned to glareat her. Get
out of here, Kait.
No.
Let me die. The world is doomed, and I want to end beforeit does. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Tematy