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‘Rhulad lacks the subtlety to see your reluctance as anything but weakness-’
‘His failing, not mine!’
‘Do you expect a blind elder to cross a streauide him until in his mind’s eye he finally sees that which everyone else can see’
‘If everyone else can see,’ Trull replied, ‘then Rhulad’s words against nore the subtlety’
‘Is it your wish, Fear, that there be enear?’
‘Rhulad is not an eneer for blood You once walked his path, so I ask that you remember yourself back then This is not the time to deliver wounds sure to scar And, to an unblooded warrior, disdain delivers the deepest wound of all’
Trull grimaced ‘I see the truth of that, Fear I shall endeavour to curtail my indifference’
His brother did not react to the sarcas in the citadel, brother Will you enter the King’s Hall at my side?’
Trull relented ‘I am honoured, Fear’
They turned away froliding over the lazy waves a short distance offshore
Thirteen years ago Udinaas had been a young sailor in the third year of his family’s indenture to the merchant Intaros of Trate, the northernmost city of Lether He was aboard the whaler Brunt and on the return run from Beneda waters They had slipped in under cover of darkness, killing three sows, and were towing the carcasses into the neutral Troughs west of Calach Bay when five K’orthan ships of the Hiroth were sighted in hard pursuit
The captain’s greed had spelled their doom, as he would not abandon the kills
Udinaas well remembered the faces of the whaler’s officers, the captain included, as they were bound to one of the sows to be left to the sharks and dhenrabi, whilst the co with every piece of iron and every other iteht the Edur’s fancy Shadoraiths were then loosed on the Brunt , to devour and tear apart the dead wood of the Letherii ship Towing the other ts, the five Blackwood K’orthan ships then departed, leaving the third whale to the slayers of the deep
Even back then, Udinaas had been indifferent to the grisly fate of the captain and his officers He had been born into debt, as had his father and his father before hi Nor was life as a slave a the Hiroth particularly harsh Obedience was rewarded with protection, clothing and a dwelling sheltered from the rain and snow, and, until recently, plenty of food
Aar was the repair of nets for the four Knarri fisherboats owned by the noble family Because he had been a sailor, he was not perht-stones down on the strand south of the river mouth was as close as he ever came to the open waters of the sea Not that he had any desire to escape the Edur There were plenty of slaves in the village – all Letherii, of course – so he did not miss the company of his own kind, miserable as it often was Nor were the comforts of Lether sufficient lure to attempt as virtually i such co in them And finally, Udinaas hated the sea with a passion, just as he had done when he was a sailor
In the failing light he had seen the two eldest sons of Toar on the beach on the other side of the river uishable words they exchanged Letherii ships had struck again – the news had raced a Rhulad had even reached the entrance of the citadel A council had been called, which was to be expected, and Udinaas assu, that deadly, terrifying ed ferocity and sorcery that marked every clash with the Letherii of the south And, truth be told, Udinaas wished the Seals taken by the Letherii threatened fa the Edur, and in famine it was the slaves ere the first to suffer
Udinaas well understood his own kind To the Letherii, gold was all that mattered Gold and its possession defined their entire world Power, status, self-worth and respect – all were commodities that could be purchased by coin Indeed, debt bound the entire kingdo the shadow of every act, every decision This devious hunting of the seals was the opening ainst every tribe beyond the borderlands To the Letherii, the Edur were no different But they are, you fools