John Dalmas Farside 01 The Lion of Farside

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
. I didn t tell you the entiretruth, earlier.Bono and I d planned to murder Orthal.Last night.Orthal andSlaney and a few others had a reputation for fighting and getting in trouble.Making trouble.Then the reeve came in with his bully boys and killed somepeople, burned some farms, and drove off livestock.For holding back on taxes,he said.When the word got around, folks were pretty upset, and Orthal and hisbuddies were naturals to recruit wild or would-be wild young bucks to form upa rebel band. Tarlok shook his head. We didn t realize what a damned trollPage 130ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlhe really was.In the long run he was a hindrance for recruiting.Bono and Ibrought in quite a few men that afterward slipped off and wenthome didn t like the way Orthal did things.It was their stories, more thananything else, that hurt recruiting.Looked like he d turn the whole thinginto banditry.Macurdy interrupted before Tarlok could say more. I m worn out, Tarlok.What are you getting at?Tarlok nodded. Right.We brought Kithro back with us because people know andrespect him, and because he s a friend of Pavo Wollerda, the captainof Wollerda s company.Of the eastern clans.It s supposed to be a lot biggerthan ours, and better organized and trained.And we figured when we had abetter leader, maybe the two bands could work together. Who did you figure would lead, once Orthal was dead? Well, I sort of planned to, if we couldn t talk Kithro into it.But nowyou re here, and we re all agreed you d do a lot better job.Macurdy grunted. Kithro, do you think this Wollerda would be interested inworking with us? I think so.Otherwise I wouldn t have come up with Tarlok.I m too old for arebel.Old and spoiled by comfort.Kithro s aura was pretty clean.Arbel would call him a warrior, in this casean overage warrior who d go for his goals by other means than a sword: byfocus and intelligence, and maybe other people s swords. Tell me aboutWollerda, Macurdy said.Wollerda was of a lineage of chiefs, Kithro told him, and that still meantsomething among the Kullvordi, which was what the hillsfolk calledthemselves.When Wollerda had been a small boy, the king had beenhaving trouble with the Kullvordi, and because Wollerda s father andgrandfather had both been headmen, Wollerda and his mother had beentaken to the palace as hostages.Wollerda had grown up there, he and hismother living in a small room in the servants wing.As a bright,inquisitive child whom adults tended to like, he d learned a lot about theflatlands, its government, and the royal court.And about the rest of theworld, because the palace held a royal library with two or three hundredbooks, and the old man who looked after it took a liking to him.When he d pretty much grown up, he and his mother were let go,but after a few years of farming and herding, he d returned to thecapital, Teklapori, and set up business as a traveling salesman ofbooks and jewelry.He not only traveled all over Tekalos, but east to theGreat EasternMountains, west to the Great Muddy, and north to the Big River, buying andselling books, and fine jewelry made by the Sisters.He d even been north ofthe river, into the Marches of the ylvin empire. How do you know so much about him? Macurdy asked. We traveled together now and then, Kithro said. I used to gofrom place to place making fine boots.And when you travel together and stayin inns together, you talk a lot.He and I got pretty close.I ve made bootsfor him and his servants traded them for books.Macurdy nodded thoughtfully, not as tired as he had been.When hisvisitors were done, they left.By then the smell of smudge fires filledthe camp, mosquitoes being out in force for the first time thatspring.He d killed several on his face and neck already, and decided to trya spell Arbel had taught him one he hadn t had a chance to usebefore: creating a repellent field to keep them away.Briefly, as hemuttered the formula, his hands moved, weaving something unseen.It worked; the mosquitoes stayed too far away to hear.As he lay waiting forsleep, Macurdy thought about what Kithro had told him.He d planned to gettogether with the commander of the other group anyway; now it seemed he hadsomeone besides Wolf who could vouch for him.Page 131ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlA few hours later he awoke, slapping and scratching.The field had worn off.He wove another and fell asleep again, but the bites he d already gotten stillitched, troubling his dreams.Macurdy spent another day helping the company get started in its newtraining mode [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Linki