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.It was no good.He was no great warrior – his skills lay in tactics, and he never fought in the frontline like some Baraks did – but he certainly looked like one now.Once he had been shy and uncertain of himself; now he was lordly and assured, and people responded to that and followed him.Asara had watched that change, due in no small part to her.Having a lover and later a wife of such staggering beauty did wonders for his self-esteem.She had been unfailingly supportive and loyal, guiding him towards strength, and he had done whatever she suggested.When he was with her, he believed he could achieve anything, and believing made it so.Four years had passed swiftly for her.At her age, time was accelerating faster and faster.She had the body and face of a twenty-harvest goddess, but the soul of a woman of ninety.However, things were not as they were.A cloud had gathered over their relationship and was darkening rapidly.He was asking about her past, and he would not let it lie.His love for her was poisoning him.His imagination fashioned dozens of different scenarios that he tested her with to see her reaction: desperate suggestions as to how she might have lived her childhood, as if she might give away some signal when he struck on the right one.It had become an obsession, a worm of doubt that had grown into something monstrous and gnawed him inside, feeding on the magnitude of his passion for her.Had she not won him so utterly, he might have managed to be content with ignorance; but she had long experience of men and their ways, and she knew that this would consume him until he was either satisfied or driven to some mad act.She had known men slay their partners in frustration when in the throes of such torment, or cast themselves from cliffs.Even a lie would not be enough, now.Soon it would be time to leave.Her whole life had been a sequence of transitory episodes, always forced to move on as her nature became apparent.Eventually people noticed that she did not become old, or that she healed from wounds uncommonly fast, or that people had a strange tendency to die in any place where she settled.The Sleeping Death had struck several times in the last few weeks, causing consternation among the men and fears of a plague.It was unwise, but Asara was hungry.Hungrier, in fact, than she had ever been.And she knew exactly why; had suddenly, unequivocably understood when she woke in the night less than a week past.She was pregnant with Reki’s child.Even the Libera Dramach, where her Aberrancy was acceptable and known to some, she must leave behind now.Cailin would learn in the end that Kaiku had been persuaded into completing her part of the bargain struck with Asara long ago.Asara was beholden to Cailin no more.She had what she wanted.But Kaiku’s misgivings at allowing her to become pregnant would be shared by Cailin.It was simply not politic to let Asara breed, to run the risk of allowing her to become the first of a race of beings that could change their outward shape at will.Asara believed that Cailin would kill her if she ever knew.And kill her children too.So she would never return to Araka Jo, nor ever have any part of the Libera Dramach or the Sisters again.Then why not go now? said the new voice in her mind, the voice that thought of her child first and only and always.You have what you want from him.If you make yourself part of this battle, you could die; and what you carry is too precious to lose.You have a duty to survive now.But as much as she believed that, she could not leave.There was one thing left to do.A cry from somewhere in the army brought her attention sharply back to her surroundings, and, seeing that everyone was looking up, she followed their gaze, and saw the Aberrants.They were swarming down one side of the pass, a heaving mass of claws and fur and hide and teeth; and there, on the other side, more of them, coming from behind as well.‘How did we not see them?’ Reki cried, unsheathing his sword.He turned to the Sister that rode nearby.‘How did you not know?’Her expression was grim; she did not seem surprised or horrified, but resigned.‘They have learned to disguise themselves well,’ she said [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.It was no good.He was no great warrior – his skills lay in tactics, and he never fought in the frontline like some Baraks did – but he certainly looked like one now.Once he had been shy and uncertain of himself; now he was lordly and assured, and people responded to that and followed him.Asara had watched that change, due in no small part to her.Having a lover and later a wife of such staggering beauty did wonders for his self-esteem.She had been unfailingly supportive and loyal, guiding him towards strength, and he had done whatever she suggested.When he was with her, he believed he could achieve anything, and believing made it so.Four years had passed swiftly for her.At her age, time was accelerating faster and faster.She had the body and face of a twenty-harvest goddess, but the soul of a woman of ninety.However, things were not as they were.A cloud had gathered over their relationship and was darkening rapidly.He was asking about her past, and he would not let it lie.His love for her was poisoning him.His imagination fashioned dozens of different scenarios that he tested her with to see her reaction: desperate suggestions as to how she might have lived her childhood, as if she might give away some signal when he struck on the right one.It had become an obsession, a worm of doubt that had grown into something monstrous and gnawed him inside, feeding on the magnitude of his passion for her.Had she not won him so utterly, he might have managed to be content with ignorance; but she had long experience of men and their ways, and she knew that this would consume him until he was either satisfied or driven to some mad act.She had known men slay their partners in frustration when in the throes of such torment, or cast themselves from cliffs.Even a lie would not be enough, now.Soon it would be time to leave.Her whole life had been a sequence of transitory episodes, always forced to move on as her nature became apparent.Eventually people noticed that she did not become old, or that she healed from wounds uncommonly fast, or that people had a strange tendency to die in any place where she settled.The Sleeping Death had struck several times in the last few weeks, causing consternation among the men and fears of a plague.It was unwise, but Asara was hungry.Hungrier, in fact, than she had ever been.And she knew exactly why; had suddenly, unequivocably understood when she woke in the night less than a week past.She was pregnant with Reki’s child.Even the Libera Dramach, where her Aberrancy was acceptable and known to some, she must leave behind now.Cailin would learn in the end that Kaiku had been persuaded into completing her part of the bargain struck with Asara long ago.Asara was beholden to Cailin no more.She had what she wanted.But Kaiku’s misgivings at allowing her to become pregnant would be shared by Cailin.It was simply not politic to let Asara breed, to run the risk of allowing her to become the first of a race of beings that could change their outward shape at will.Asara believed that Cailin would kill her if she ever knew.And kill her children too.So she would never return to Araka Jo, nor ever have any part of the Libera Dramach or the Sisters again.Then why not go now? said the new voice in her mind, the voice that thought of her child first and only and always.You have what you want from him.If you make yourself part of this battle, you could die; and what you carry is too precious to lose.You have a duty to survive now.But as much as she believed that, she could not leave.There was one thing left to do.A cry from somewhere in the army brought her attention sharply back to her surroundings, and, seeing that everyone was looking up, she followed their gaze, and saw the Aberrants.They were swarming down one side of the pass, a heaving mass of claws and fur and hide and teeth; and there, on the other side, more of them, coming from behind as well.‘How did we not see them?’ Reki cried, unsheathing his sword.He turned to the Sister that rode nearby.‘How did you not know?’Her expression was grim; she did not seem surprised or horrified, but resigned.‘They have learned to disguise themselves well,’ she said [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]