Storm Bride Read Online Free Page B

thing on the ground here?”
    “A captive,” Juyut said.
    “And when did you find the time to take captives?”
    “As you said, they fled like rabbits. This one was in the middle of the pack and fell back, then threw himself down and started to weep and beg. I kept him for my amusement.”
    Keshlik reined his horse and dismounted. Juyut’s new slave was smeared with dust, and he appeared to have soiled himself. Beneath the dirt, he was paler than the Yakhat, his skin the color of dried yellow clay, coarse black hair cropped close to his head, and his eyes a cloudy green. Keshlik nudged him with his toe. A gush of incomprehensible gibberish spilled from the man’s mouth, combined with several fervent bows and a sob that rattled his shoulders.
    “He doesn’t speak any language we know,” Juyut said. “We plan on taking him to the Guza slaves and seeing if one of them can talk to him.”
    Keshlik grunted. “Why?”
    “The Guza said that a city lies to the south, and he probably came from there. He can tell us how it’s defended, and whether its men will flee like rabbits the way this pack of cowards did.”
    Juyut’s reasoning was exactly what Keshlik had hoped to hear. He himself had considered taking a captive for that purpose, but the raid had been Juyut’s. Taking a captive for reconnaissance was more foresight than he had expected of his brother.
    But proprieties had to be observed. “Do you take him for your personal slave?”
    Juyut shrugged.
    Keshlik spat. “Don’t shrug. Only slaves and women shrug. You know that the value of a living slave exceeds whatever lots you were likely to draw in the division of spoils. You’d forfeit all that.”
    “Fine, then he’s not mine.” Juyut grunted. “I take him for the commonwealth of the tribes.”
    “And what will you do with him after he’s told you everything he knows?”
    “Well, if I’m taking him for the commonwealth, wouldn’t that be for the tribal elders to decide?”
    Keshlik grinned and nodded. He slips away like a serpent. “Bhaalit was overseeing the plundering, and even a laggard like you ought to be able to lead a raid and split the spoils in the same day.”
    Juyut nodded and tugged his captive toward Bhaalit and the others. Something glinted in the dirt where the captive had knelt, and Keshlik bent to pick it up. Some kind of fish carved from bone, painted mostly black, with white eyes and belly, and a tall, pointed fin on its back. Its mouth was open and held a tiny chip of mother-of-pearl, polished and shining in the light of the setting sun. Tuulo would like it. He slipped it into his pack and hurried to join Juyut.
    The division of spoils was quick and orderly. Bhaalit handed out the lot-sticks, and Keshlik let Juyut draw the lot for their tribe. The goods were plenty, more than they could take back to their camp: long strings of hemp threaded through purple shells, dried fish, casks of salt, carved baubles of turquoise and mother-of-pearl, sealskins, polished whalebone, and papery, dark-green sheets that appeared to be made of dried and pressed leaves. The purpose of those last items was initially mysterious, until someone tasted one and declared them to be edible, a dried form of some lowlander plant. Keshlik drew a sheaf of those to bring home and hoped that Tuulo would find something to do with it.
    When the lots of plunder had been divided and moved safely out of the canyon, the band piled the remaining carts and packages and all the slain in a wide place in the ravine. The last duty Keshlik and Bhaalit did themselves. It was not a job for young men. Bhaalit brought a burning brand to Keshlik, and Keshlik set the stack aflame and sang the praises of Golgoyat. When the song finished, the flames licked the sky, and heaven was dirty with smoke.
    Keshlik spoke the final words: “Until the Sorrow of Khaat Ban is repaid.”
    They answered him in one voice. “Till the sorrow is repaid.”

    A river trickled out of the mountains to