Lindskold, Jane [Firekeeper 04] Wolf Captured

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.She bit her tongue and kept silence, though she longed to challenge theother.And could you win? she asked herself, and had to admit that she was far from certain.After eating was done, the pack settled in to gossip and nap, interested in what Blind Seer could tell them about thelands to the north.Firekeeper resolved to listen more than speak, determined to learn everything she could, andknowing that the novelty of her would take time to wear off.Better to let them forget that she was there andconcentrate on Blind Seer.Watching the One Male effortlessly crack a bone, Firekeeper wondered at her own arrogance in thrusting herselfinto this company especially as she had done so with every intent of telling them she was there to free them from analien and terrible imprisonment.If these wolves were imprisoned, they certainly felt no shame.You have been too much among two-legs, Firekeeper thought, and have forgotten how dangerous wolves can be.It was an unsettling thought to carry with her into sleep.VARJUNA KEPT THE TALK FOCUSED ON HORSES AS THEY DROVE TO U-BISHINTI.HE ASKED WHEN DERIAN HAD RECEIVED HIS FIRSTpony and what type it had been, what had been the first horse he had selected for himself, what his family tended to dowith horses past the prime age for work.As the ikidisdu learned more, he asked about the purchasing Derian had beendoing for House Kestrel's depleted stables, about the trips Derian had made to horse fairs with his father.Varjunawanted to know if Derian could drive as if with a name like "Carter" Derian could not and what style vehicle hepreferred.At first, Derian thought Varjuna was just making conversation.Then he began to wonder.Varjuna wasn't a subtleman as the politically astute Earl Kestrel was subtle, but he wasn't just a monomaniacal horse fancier either.Hisreaction to learning about Roanne's death had been indignant and quietly angry, but not shocked, so that Derian beganto believe Varjuna had been told in advance.Who would have told him? Only a small number of people knew: Harjeedian, Barnet, and the sailors who had beenon the small ship.Waln might have known, and perhaps the ship's captain, but would they have attached anyimportance to the event? Waln had been a phantasm after whom Derian and his companions had chased for longmoonspans, but they had actually spent very little time in his company.The only way Waln would have learned howfond Derian was of his chestnut mare would have been for someone to tell him.Harjeedian seemed the most likely source of the information, but try as he might, Derian could not think why hewould confess what he had ordered done to Roanne and the pack pony to Varjuna of all people.Derian filed this away as one of those mysteries for which he lacked sufficient information to find a solution butresolved as he still resolved to get revenge for Roanne to somehow learn why Roanne's death should have come tomatter enough that Harjeedian had let word of it get to the ears of this most horse-loving of humans.When they arrived at u-Bishinti, the atmosphere was markedly different.Whereas upon Derian's first visit all butthe most senior hands had kept studiously to their work, now everyone turned to look many to wave a cheerfulgreeting.Derian suddenly realized that the attentiveness to duty had not been for Varjuna's benefit as he had thought,but had been meant to impress him.And now I've decided to come for a stay, he thought, and they're happy about it.Is it just because this means thatthe horse keepers have scored some sort of coup over their fellows or is it something else?Derian decided he'd learn soon enough.Meanwhile he basked in the warmth of the welcome and luxuriated, asbefore, in the sight of so much magnificent horseflesh.Varjuna's house the residence of the ikidisdu, to be more correct was a splendid place.It was built, as seemed tobe the case for the best buildings in this land, of brick ornamented with mosaic reliefs in enameled brick.These, ofcourse, depicted horses.One thing immediately caught Derian's eye as Varjuna took him on a quick tour.The entire structure was built onone level, which Derian had already learned was not the rule, and each room either had doorways large enough toadmit a horse or was equipped with broad windows clearly intended to permit a horse to poke its head into the room."My mother," Derian laughed, "would be horrified.She was always reminding us to close the doors after ourselves.'You're not down at the stables' is what she'd say.""I say the same thing," came a calm, level, feminine voice, "but it doesn't make any difference."Varjuna turned and, with an abbreviated form of the hand gesture that served as the local version of a polite bow,indicated the woman who stood framed in one of the doorways."My wife, Zira," he said with evident affection.Zira was, at first meeting, incredibly plain.Her dark hair was a bit coarse, her teeth stained to the ivory-brown ofold bone [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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