The Hordes of Chanakra (Knights of Aerioch) Read Online Free Page B

enough against unskilled bravos such as the briganti.  Nor like I the sword you took.  Such a light weapon would be all but useless against a good broadsword, or a mace, or an axe, or....
    "I'm sure he understands, Kaila." With a sigh, Shillond waved her to silence. "You may go tomorrow to buy a good weapon and I can leave his training in that to your capable hands."
    Shillond looked at Kreg,
    then cast his eyes upward.  Kreg was beginning to get the picture.  Kaila seemed to think that a strong sword arm was the answer to any problem.  She reminded him of Billy, the man who watched the shop where Kreg had worked--good-natured, but blunt.  Billy had seemed to think that the answer to most problems was to pound on them until they stopped being problems and Kreg suspected that Kaila felt much the same way.
    "Look," he said. "Teaching me to fight is all well and good, but there is more to living than that.  You saw how helpless I was in so simple an act as ordering a meal." He scowled at Kaila, attempting to look fierce, but Kaila's impish grin told him that he had not succeeded. "Things you learned as children, I have never experienced.  For instance, if magic works here--and thanks to your demonstration, Shillond, I have to accept that it does--well, it doesn't back home."
    "Absurd!" Kaila burst out. "Such things are of minor consequence.  A good sword arm will see you through all matters of import."
    Shillond pretended that she had not spoken. "Perhaps we should see about finding a way to return you to your own world as quick as may be.  Your background may cause you problems here."
    Kreg shook his head. "I wouldn't even know where to begin," he said. "Would you?"
    Shillond sighed and shook his head.
    Kreg sighed. "Then I guess I'm stuck here...for a while anyway."
    "Our food comes," Kaila said.

CHAPTER TWO
    Late the next morning Kaila hid a smile as Kreg tried, unsuccessfully, to hide the way aches pulled at his body.  He had slept the night bunking on a pallet of folded blankets in the room she shared with Shillond.  He was still wearing the light cloak of a style favored by the desert nomads.  Knowing how the local people felt about the nomads, Kaila thought that Kreg would find the cloak a burden in more ways than one.
    "'Twould be best if I did the bargaining," She told Kreg. "Just watch and learn."
    "As you say," he said.
    Trevanta by day was a far different place from Trevanta by night.  Hawkers, selling from wagons, lined the streets, extolling the virtues of their various wares.  Crowds surged through the streets, passing in and out of various shops that claimed to sell a plethora of goods.  Wagons and carts bounced over the deeply rutted, muddy streets, splashing mud and slop on anyone too slow to get out of the way.  Hogs wandered freely, set loose to eat the garbage dumped into the streets.
    On closer look, however, the wares hawked from wagons were spare indeed, with more space than goods on the racks.  The crowds too, were thin, only seeming thick in their frantic energy.
    Shillond had been right.  The city was dying and only pretending to health.  Few of the ships, which had been the life-blood of Trevanta, docked here anymore.  Trevanta was yet one more casualty in the collapse of the Empire.  Had old King Cael been right, she wondered, to venture down the path of independence from Shend?  Much evil seemed to have sprung from it.  And yet... She sighed.  Such matters were beyond her.
    Sometime during the night the storm had spent its fury.  Now the sky was clear, with only an occasional wad of cloud to mar its deep blue.  Yet, even after the cleansing rain, the city stank of waste, filth, and decay.  Kaila longed to be back in Norveth, the capital of Aerioch, with its cool breezes and streets not so choked in filth.
    "First, a stout sword is needful," Kaila said, turning back to Kreg. "When I did examine the briganti’s sword, I found it too slender for serious combat.  A pretty