again with a bigger stick. If they emptied their quivers on Rashid and Steck, the Warriors would probably whack away with spears, and swords, and that big steel ax our First Warrior Bonnakkut always bragged about.
It put me in a quandary, that ax. Did I want to close my eyes when Bonnakkut swung it at Rashid, so I wouldn’t be dazzled when the ax exploded? Or did I want to watch, so I’d see the expression on Bonnakkut’s face when his precious baby turned to smoke in his hands?
Tough choice. A flash that big might permanently blind me, but it could be worth it to see Bonnakkut reduced to steamy tears. Why did I hate him so much? Let’s just say Warrior Bonnakkut was not a music lover. He was five years older than me, and had always been jealous of the attention I got for being talented. Bonnakkut wasn’t talented; he was only big and strong and mean. Apparently that was enough to win his way to the top of the Warriors Society in record time.
You had to worry about the safety of Tober Cove, if this ineffectual volley of arrows was typical of Bonnakkut’s “tactics.”
Rashid did nothing despite the commotion. He continued to sit on the ledge where he’d watched the dance, one arm wrapped around the Neut’s shoulders. With his other hand, he shielded his eyes from the bursts of violet flame that flared a finger’s width away from his face. I had to admire his composure; if I were the target of so many archers I’d be flinching constantly, no matter how protected I was by diabolic fires.
The arrows were still flying when Leeta stuck her head from behind a nearby tree and called, “I’m only a foolish woman, but perhaps you might humor me.” Those words always started a Mocking Priestess homily, and Tober custom dictated that people stop what they were doing to let her speak. I figured it was fifty-fifty whether Bonnakkut would let the other warriors quit shooting; but maybe he thought Leeta would suggest a more effective way of killing the outsiders, and he was ready to listen. The forest fell silent: no thrum of bows, no cracks of flame.
Leeta cleared her throat. “I just wanted to say perhaps you should save your arrows for when they might be useful. It’s exciting to watch them go pop and make pretty lights…but suppose a wildcat or bear shows up in the pastures before Fletcher Wingham has a chance to make more ammunition. We’d lose sheep and cattle, wouldn’t we? People wouldn’t like that.”
“They don’t like Neuts either,” a deep voice shouted back. Bonnakkut, of course.
“That’s true,” Leeta agreed, “but your arrows aren’t solving the Neut problem, are they?”
“There is no Neut problem,” Rashid said, rising to his feet. Steck stood quickly too, wrapping an arm around Rashid’s waist; I could just make out the violet glow surrounding both of them. “Steck and I won’t harm anything,” Rashid went on. “We just want to observe your ceremony tomorrow.”
“You can’t,” Bonnakkut snapped. “Steck was banished twenty years ago, legal and proper. And Cappie said you claim to be a scientist. That’s against the law too.”
“All these laws against being something,” Rashid grimaced. “Don’t you have any laws against doing things? Like trying to kill visitors who come in peace?”
Steck said, “The Patriarch was not noted for his hospitality.”
“I’m prepared to be lenient,” Bonnakkut said in an unlenient tone of voice. “If you leave immediately, we’ll let you go.”
“Oh, very generous.” Rashid rolled his eyes.
“Otherwise, we’ll kill you here and now.”
If those words had been said by anyone but Bonnakkut, I might have held my tongue; but I’d hated him ever since he was a twelve-year-old girl who shoved my sheet music down an outhouse hole. I couldn’t pass up the chance to rub his nose in his inadequacies, even if it meant siding with outsiders. “Come on, Bonnakkut,” I shouted from the cover of the bushes, “you can’t make a
It put me in a quandary, that ax. Did I want to close my eyes when Bonnakkut swung it at Rashid, so I wouldn’t be dazzled when the ax exploded? Or did I want to watch, so I’d see the expression on Bonnakkut’s face when his precious baby turned to smoke in his hands?
Tough choice. A flash that big might permanently blind me, but it could be worth it to see Bonnakkut reduced to steamy tears. Why did I hate him so much? Let’s just say Warrior Bonnakkut was not a music lover. He was five years older than me, and had always been jealous of the attention I got for being talented. Bonnakkut wasn’t talented; he was only big and strong and mean. Apparently that was enough to win his way to the top of the Warriors Society in record time.
You had to worry about the safety of Tober Cove, if this ineffectual volley of arrows was typical of Bonnakkut’s “tactics.”
Rashid did nothing despite the commotion. He continued to sit on the ledge where he’d watched the dance, one arm wrapped around the Neut’s shoulders. With his other hand, he shielded his eyes from the bursts of violet flame that flared a finger’s width away from his face. I had to admire his composure; if I were the target of so many archers I’d be flinching constantly, no matter how protected I was by diabolic fires.
The arrows were still flying when Leeta stuck her head from behind a nearby tree and called, “I’m only a foolish woman, but perhaps you might humor me.” Those words always started a Mocking Priestess homily, and Tober custom dictated that people stop what they were doing to let her speak. I figured it was fifty-fifty whether Bonnakkut would let the other warriors quit shooting; but maybe he thought Leeta would suggest a more effective way of killing the outsiders, and he was ready to listen. The forest fell silent: no thrum of bows, no cracks of flame.
Leeta cleared her throat. “I just wanted to say perhaps you should save your arrows for when they might be useful. It’s exciting to watch them go pop and make pretty lights…but suppose a wildcat or bear shows up in the pastures before Fletcher Wingham has a chance to make more ammunition. We’d lose sheep and cattle, wouldn’t we? People wouldn’t like that.”
“They don’t like Neuts either,” a deep voice shouted back. Bonnakkut, of course.
“That’s true,” Leeta agreed, “but your arrows aren’t solving the Neut problem, are they?”
“There is no Neut problem,” Rashid said, rising to his feet. Steck stood quickly too, wrapping an arm around Rashid’s waist; I could just make out the violet glow surrounding both of them. “Steck and I won’t harm anything,” Rashid went on. “We just want to observe your ceremony tomorrow.”
“You can’t,” Bonnakkut snapped. “Steck was banished twenty years ago, legal and proper. And Cappie said you claim to be a scientist. That’s against the law too.”
“All these laws against being something,” Rashid grimaced. “Don’t you have any laws against doing things? Like trying to kill visitors who come in peace?”
Steck said, “The Patriarch was not noted for his hospitality.”
“I’m prepared to be lenient,” Bonnakkut said in an unlenient tone of voice. “If you leave immediately, we’ll let you go.”
“Oh, very generous.” Rashid rolled his eyes.
“Otherwise, we’ll kill you here and now.”
If those words had been said by anyone but Bonnakkut, I might have held my tongue; but I’d hated him ever since he was a twelve-year-old girl who shoved my sheet music down an outhouse hole. I couldn’t pass up the chance to rub his nose in his inadequacies, even if it meant siding with outsiders. “Come on, Bonnakkut,” I shouted from the cover of the bushes, “you can’t make a
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