Dark Warrior Rising Read Online Free

Slaves were fed raw yeldeth, but probably ate it with
no more enthusiasm than most Nifl would if what ended up on their platters had been kept from wines and sauces and the cooking brazier. Amraunt, now; even raw, those mushrooms were pure pleasure on the tongue, and rare and small of course—and as far as a Nifl belly could get from soft, nourishing, yet nigh-tasteless yeldeth.
    Hmm. Up in the Blindingbright, she’d heard, the Hairy Ones dwelt amid a bewildering variety of edible plants, and ignored most of them. Oriad-witted creatures!
    Or perhaps, as Vaeyemue had thought more than a few times before, they were simply so stupid as to not realize the plants could be eaten—and never think of exploring or experimenting with what grew so abundantly at hand. She looked down the cavern at scores of them intently plucking, twisting, and peering—seeking blooms of just the right hue—and shook her head. They seemed intelligent enough. But then one could never tell with humans.
    Ugly and hairy and pale, yes, but they could imitate Nifl speech and gestures and even—albeit gracelessly—mannerisms.
    â€œSo they watch and hear us,” she murmured aloud, “and remember. And are clever. Yet such imitations have their limits. After all, it’s not as if they’re Niflghar. ”
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    â€œIs this the best the raiders could find?” Brylyaun’s lip curled as he watched the line of sagging humans being unhooded and lashed by bored Nifl overseers; most of them toppled hard to the ground after only a stroke or two. “Every run it seems worse! Is the Blindingbright running out of Hairy Ones, that our take is such … dregs?”
    Orellaun chuckled. “I recall your grandsire saying almost those exact words, while standing looking out this window. I think we all believe slaves were bigger, better, and stronger when we were young—and must have been roaring monsters before that! Yet Talonnorn manages to struggle along, as Houses rise and Houses fall, and slaves beyond numbering work and perish and are devoured and replaced, ov—”
    â€œOver and over and over again,” Brylyaun interrupted, in perfect mimicry of Orellaun’s grandly declaiming tones, and they chuckled together.
    The younger Nifl stopped first, shrugging and turning away from the window. “Well, all the Houses would fall—and Talonnorn itself dissolve into a brawling, lawless way-market of slavers and traders—if ever
we ran out of slaves. Thank Olone they’re mindless, endlessly replaceable fodder.”
    â€œYes, but are they endless?” Orellaun said, still at the window. “This seems a matter no one bothers to debate, when it should concern us all!”
    Brylyaun frowned. “Well, they certainly breed fast enough, up in the Blindingbright!” He strolled back to the window. All of the slaves were down, now, with the overseers bending and untying their throat collars from the line, and retying them to floor rings, for the drenching to come. “We raid and we raid—and there they always are, grubbing the earth of their ‘farms’ and living one day much as the next, making no effort to improve their ugly bodies, or even to keep themselves clean !”
    â€œWell, why would they? They know not Olone; they can have no inkling of devoting themselves to the Holy Way. Not that their grotesque bodies can ever achieve much beauty, no matter how they strive—but the reward of ascending to Olone is not only unknown to them, it’s not offered to them!”
    Brylyaun’s frown deepened. “Indeed. Sometimes I forget that Holy Olone reveals Herself to Niflghar, not to all. It must be strange indeed, to be a gorkul or a Hairy One, and not know the Kiss of Beauty! Do they feel Her radiance, do you think? Or can’t they feel Her?”
    Orellaun shrugged. “I know not, but offer this point: There are Nifl who do not worship Olone.