![]() He sat up, let his boots drop to the floor. Perhaps this dog does need a master." The mockery in his voice as he spoke of himself was more poisonous than any venom I had spewed. And he said, `All right, show me how you held off five men.' And lit into me." He cleared his throat. I thought he intended to beat me to death. He took off his shirt and picked up a pike from the corner. Then he stood up without a word and pushed his table back to a corner of the room. He sat behind his table, some half-finished writing before him, and looked me up and down. "Chivalry dismissed the Guards, with a purse to pay for damages to the tavern keeper. And there was no one at home strong enough to oppose my will. But I was not a boy who would play in the cottage at quiet games. "A lifetime of being a slave does not leave a woman with sound health. My grandmother looked after me, but she was very old, and often ill." I heard more than saw his bitter smile. My father was dead before I was born, taken by the sea. My mother did washing to support my grandmother and me. A little coast town, a fishing and shipping port. Why soldier for no pay and extra duties?" He docked my pay and gave me more duties. He cocked his head as a dog will when it hears something far off. I stood before him, ready to hate him, and he just looked at me. Everyone expected Chivalry to discharge me the second time. what we might have been in different circumstances. And something like recognition passed between us. I stood there before him and I met his eyes. Almost all his troops were older than I I had expected to confront a middle-aged man. "The first time I was hauled before the Prince, bloody and struggling still, I was shocked to see we were of an age. He was stealing a slab of bacon at the time." He got up from his chair, and went to his blankets. I suppose I was about eight when he ran between a horse and its cart and was kicked to death. She tried to drive the dog away, but like you, I had a will of my own in those matters. My grandmother, I am sure, had her suspicions. Taking what you wanted, when you wanted it, and not worrying past getting it. His only value was survival, his only loyalty to me. "So I bonded, very young, to the only strong male in my world who was interested in me. Or as if he'd been pushed past anger and hurt into numbness. ![]() It was as if my angry words had never been spoken. I felt no hostility from him, no animosity. He sat on it and began taking his boots off. The dwindling light of the fire made a shadowy landscape of his face. ![]() "Chade said I should leave you tomorrow," he said quietly. "Right on target." The sound he made might have been a laugh, if not so freighted with bitterness. It was little different from dying oneself. But Burrich had experienced the actual, violent death of his bond companion. He was not fooled.īurrich had taken Nosy away from me when I was less than that age. A time when it is far too early to arise, but so late that going to bed makes small sense. There is a dead spot in the night, that coldest, blackest time when the world has forgotten evening and dawn is not yet a promise. I spoke carefully, fearing to break the spell of calm. "It's too dark for him to be walking," I said to the flames. ![]()
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