bright ruby.
Mearn straightened, astute enough to shout through the clangour of hammers and dismiss the journeymen armourers. The knife in his fist remained poised in fierce irony as the grumbling men filed out. Too soon, he was facing an empty doorway across the brimstone hiss of the coals.
' You ' ve knocked heads with Bransian, now it ' s my turn, ' he supposed without formal greeting. Youngest by ten years, he avoided his sibling ' s mistake of presuming his visitor was Luhaine. Mearn mopped his wet blade on the leather apron tied over a dandy ' s trim doublet. Unhurried, he inspected his work, then stamped a dissatisfied foot onto the grindstone ' s treadle.
Were Kharadmon still embodied, his smile would have befitted a hunting tiger. ' I could edge that blade for you, without need to sweat. '
Mearn raised refined eyebrows. Thin as a whip, and crafty since birth, he shrugged with exquisite disinterest. ' For what price, pray tell? '
Kharadmon also liked spare debates. ' The safekeeping of your pregnant wife in the caithdein ' s lodge tent in Atwood. '
' You foresee our defeat? ' Not waiting for answer, Mearn grinned. ' Bransian will be smoking with temper, for that. Nor, I imagine, did you waste the breeze chasing down brothers Keldmar and Parrien. '
Kharadmon ' s snort flared the coals in the pit. ' That pair? Thick as they are, like two stones in a sack? Though in naked truth, any word from a rock is dulcet and politely reasonable. '
' You couldn ' t expect courtesy, ' Mearn agreed without heat. ' My brothers see nothing more in a rock beyond dinging the heads of our enemies. ' His quicksilver grin showed sharp teeth. ' When Bransian wants us complacent in council, he tells our women to ply us with drink. Personally, I ' d stuff the lot with red meat. Drowsy and parked like swilled hogs in their seats, they ' re less apt to start hammering fights. '
' Our Fellowship should stoop to such tactics, you think? ' Kharadmon pressed with snide irony.
Mearn deigned not to comment. As the wheel lagged, he resurveyed his blade. Since the finish seemed pleasing, he tucked the glittering weapon back into the wrist sheath beneath his lace cuff. ' You realize, ' he said, thoughtful, ' I would set my manhood at risk if I dared to speak for my wife? That ' s if she deigned to address me at all. Since Arithon ' s rebuff, she ' s been thick with Dame Dawr. I will tell you this: if she wanted to birth our first child in Atwood, she would have gone there directly '
Kharadmon ' s sigh riffled dust from the shelves, all but worked bare of the ingots the forges were smelting for weaponry.
' You ' re perfectly free to try swaying Anzia ' Mearn invited. ' You ' ve no skin to blister. Nor ears to be thrashed till they ring like whacked chimes. The wife swears, ' he admitted. ' I ' m amazed the grandame ' s endured for this long without tossing her out on her petticoats. '
Kharadmon did not laugh. ' If the grandame ' s hand selected your match, she ' ll have balanced your badgering wits. '
' She did, the sly bitch. ' Mearn shrugged. ' Gave me a woman intelligent enough to split hairs with a glower. At least on those days when she ' s not ripping mad. Then it ' s cut to the tenderest parts straightaway. She ' d snip a man ' s bollocks with pincers. ' Fishing his next dagger out of his boot, he gave the wheel ' s pedal a vengeful kick. As the stone whirred, the knife was applied with neat fingers. ' Our child ' s near term. If I want another, or hope for a kindly welcome in bed, I know when to keep my douce distance. '
' But unlike your brothers, you ' ve never liked hunting ' Kharadmon admonished with piercing persistence.
' No. ' Mearn stopped his sharpening, brown eyes intense. ' But try telling that to the rest of my family. As you ' ve said, dumb rocks clapped in a sack have more sense. Nobody weans a s ' Brydion from war. Long before Dawr, the cock ' s hens were hand-picked for hatching their get for the battle-field. '
' Not
Mearn straightened, astute enough to shout through the clangour of hammers and dismiss the journeymen armourers. The knife in his fist remained poised in fierce irony as the grumbling men filed out. Too soon, he was facing an empty doorway across the brimstone hiss of the coals.
' You ' ve knocked heads with Bransian, now it ' s my turn, ' he supposed without formal greeting. Youngest by ten years, he avoided his sibling ' s mistake of presuming his visitor was Luhaine. Mearn mopped his wet blade on the leather apron tied over a dandy ' s trim doublet. Unhurried, he inspected his work, then stamped a dissatisfied foot onto the grindstone ' s treadle.
Were Kharadmon still embodied, his smile would have befitted a hunting tiger. ' I could edge that blade for you, without need to sweat. '
Mearn raised refined eyebrows. Thin as a whip, and crafty since birth, he shrugged with exquisite disinterest. ' For what price, pray tell? '
Kharadmon also liked spare debates. ' The safekeeping of your pregnant wife in the caithdein ' s lodge tent in Atwood. '
' You foresee our defeat? ' Not waiting for answer, Mearn grinned. ' Bransian will be smoking with temper, for that. Nor, I imagine, did you waste the breeze chasing down brothers Keldmar and Parrien. '
Kharadmon ' s snort flared the coals in the pit. ' That pair? Thick as they are, like two stones in a sack? Though in naked truth, any word from a rock is dulcet and politely reasonable. '
' You couldn ' t expect courtesy, ' Mearn agreed without heat. ' My brothers see nothing more in a rock beyond dinging the heads of our enemies. ' His quicksilver grin showed sharp teeth. ' When Bransian wants us complacent in council, he tells our women to ply us with drink. Personally, I ' d stuff the lot with red meat. Drowsy and parked like swilled hogs in their seats, they ' re less apt to start hammering fights. '
' Our Fellowship should stoop to such tactics, you think? ' Kharadmon pressed with snide irony.
Mearn deigned not to comment. As the wheel lagged, he resurveyed his blade. Since the finish seemed pleasing, he tucked the glittering weapon back into the wrist sheath beneath his lace cuff. ' You realize, ' he said, thoughtful, ' I would set my manhood at risk if I dared to speak for my wife? That ' s if she deigned to address me at all. Since Arithon ' s rebuff, she ' s been thick with Dame Dawr. I will tell you this: if she wanted to birth our first child in Atwood, she would have gone there directly '
Kharadmon ' s sigh riffled dust from the shelves, all but worked bare of the ingots the forges were smelting for weaponry.
' You ' re perfectly free to try swaying Anzia ' Mearn invited. ' You ' ve no skin to blister. Nor ears to be thrashed till they ring like whacked chimes. The wife swears, ' he admitted. ' I ' m amazed the grandame ' s endured for this long without tossing her out on her petticoats. '
Kharadmon did not laugh. ' If the grandame ' s hand selected your match, she ' ll have balanced your badgering wits. '
' She did, the sly bitch. ' Mearn shrugged. ' Gave me a woman intelligent enough to split hairs with a glower. At least on those days when she ' s not ripping mad. Then it ' s cut to the tenderest parts straightaway. She ' d snip a man ' s bollocks with pincers. ' Fishing his next dagger out of his boot, he gave the wheel ' s pedal a vengeful kick. As the stone whirred, the knife was applied with neat fingers. ' Our child ' s near term. If I want another, or hope for a kindly welcome in bed, I know when to keep my douce distance. '
' But unlike your brothers, you ' ve never liked hunting ' Kharadmon admonished with piercing persistence.
' No. ' Mearn stopped his sharpening, brown eyes intense. ' But try telling that to the rest of my family. As you ' ve said, dumb rocks clapped in a sack have more sense. Nobody weans a s ' Brydion from war. Long before Dawr, the cock ' s hens were hand-picked for hatching their get for the battle-field. '
' Not
Similar Books
