Glory Season Read Online Free Page B

of one” seemed apropos. Some
smart moves
were little more than nicely padded traps.
    “A myriad thanks for the offer,” Leie said, with wasted sarcasm. “If we’re ever desperate enough to come back to this frigid—”
    “Yes, thanks,” Maia interrupted, taking her sister’s arm. “And Lysos keep you, Captain.”
    “Well … at least stay away from the Pallas Isles, you two! There are reports of reavers …”
    As soon as they turned a corner, Maia and Leie dropped their duffels and broke out laughing. Sheldons were an impressive clan in most ways, but they took things
so
seriously! Maia felt sure she would miss them.
    “It’s odd, though,” she said after a minute, when they resumed walking. “Jounine really did look more anxious than usual.”
    “Hmph. Not our problem if she can’t meet recruitment quotas. Let her buy lugars.”
    “You know lugars can’t fight people.”
    “Then hire summer stock down at the docks. Plenty of riffraff vars always hanging around. Dumb idea expandingthe Guard anyway. Bunch of parasites, just like priestesses.”
    “Mm,” Maia commented. “I guess.” But the look in the soldier’s eye had been like that of the Mizora sweets-merchant. There had been disappointment. A touch of bewilderment.
    And more than a little fear.
    A month ago wardens had stood watch at the getta gate, separating Port Sanger proper from the harbor.
    Maia recalled how the care-mothers used to take Lamatia’s crèche kids from the high precincts down steep, cobbled streets to ceremonies at the civic temple, passing near the getta gate along the way. Early one summer, she had bolted from the tidy queue of varlings, running toward the high barrier, hoping to glimpse the great freighters in drydock. Her brief dash had ended with a sound spanking. Afterward, between sobs, she distantly heard one matron explain that the wharves weren’t safe for kids that time of year. There were “rutting men” down there.
    Later, when the aurorae were replaced in northern skies by autumn’s placid constellations, those same gates were flung back for children to scamper through at will, running along the docks where bearded males unloaded mysterious cargoes, or played spellbinding games with clockwork disks. Maia recalled wondering at the time—were
these
men different from the “rutting” kind? It must be so. Always ready with a smile or story, these seemed as gentle and harmless as the furry lugars they somewhat resembled.
    “
Harmless as a man, when stars glitter clear.
” So went a nursery rhyme, which finished,
    But wary be you, woman, when Wengel Star is near.
    Traversing the gate for the last time, Maia and Leiepassed through a variegated throng. Unlike the uphill precincts, here males made up a substantial minority, contributing a rich mix of scents to the air, from the aromas of spice and exotic cargoes to their own piquant musk. It was the ideal and provocative locale for a Perkinite agitator to have set up shop, addressing the crowd from an upturned shipping crate as two clone-mates pushed handbills at passersby. Maia did not recognize the face type, so the trio of gaunt-cheeked women had to be missionaries, recently arrived.
    “Sisters!” the speaker cried out. “You of lesser clans and houses! Together you outnumber the combined might of the Seventeen who control Port Sanger. If you join forces. If you join with
us
, you could break the lock great houses have on the town assembly, and yes, on the region, and even in Caria City itself! Together we can smash the conspiracy of silence and force a long-overdue revelation of the truth—”
    “
What
truth?” demanded an onlooker.
    The Perkinite glanced to where a young sailor lounged against the fence with several of his colleagues, amused by the discomfiture his question provoked. True to her ideology, the agitator tried to ignore a mere male. So, for fun, Leie chimed in. “Yeah! What truth is that, Perkie?”
    Several onlookers laughed at