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.”Brevoro shuddered.“I, too! I have never seen either Ulin or Ulharl, and I pray to Lomallin I never do! What has sent these half-beasts into movement?”Lucoyo shrugged.“Ulahane himself, with his Ulharls whipping them on, I would guess.Is it anything else that has loosed the Vanyar?”“There was some talk of strange monsters who were half bald yellow men and half pony—surely not big enough for a horse—who struck like lightning, with complete and utter cruelty, striking down every living being before them.I did not place much credence in that, though, since there was also talk of there being too many Vanyar for the herds, even the huge herds of aurochs that they followed.No, they are hungry for land, these chariot-riding barbarians with their double-edged axes; there were far too many of them for their ancestral lands, so they began raiding and conquering, and have overrun the steppe lands north of the Land Between the Rivers.”“I have heard of that land.” Ohaern frowned.“They say the plain between those rivers is rich beyond belief, so much so that people live in the same place year after year and do not hunt, but only push seeds into the ground.”“It is true, and those villages have grown mightily, so that the plain is thronged with cities, from Merusu at its northern edge to Kuru at its most southern.”“Surely the Vanyar dare not challenge the might of those cities!”“Surely they do, though they have sent one wing of their horde to make sure these northern lands will send no armies against their rear when they turn south.”“Only one wing?” Lucoyo stared, aghast.“There are more of them?”“Three times as many, at least—and their elders speak of cousins who rode south and east, instead of here into the west.No, it is three-quarters of their host who will ride south.They learned of the wealth and luxury of the cities from their newly conquered slaves, and decided to capture and loot them.Their first target is to be Cashalo, a rich city on the eastern shore of a strait between two inland seas, a strait that opens out to become a tiny sea in its own right.”“A city west of Merusu?” Ohaern asked.“There are several along the eastern shore of the Middle Sea.They are the homes of seafaring trader folk.” Brevoro grinned.“I would resent their competition if I did not know that they only trade with seacoast towns, whereas my people trade with river villages and those inland, wherever there are roads, or even paths.” He took a small flask and three beakers from his pack.“This is the wine of Cashalo.Will you drink to my hope that they will withstand the Vanyar?”“Aye, right gladly!” Lucoyo said.“Pay him no mind,” said Ohaern.“He will drink to anything.” He took up a beaker.“Is their situation hopeless, then?”Brevoro shrugged as he poured.“I have not heard of the Vanyar attacking a city yet—but I had not heard of the Vanyar at all, until this last month.” He shook his head sadly.“We traders feel saddened by the doom coming on Cashalo, for the people there are good—hospitable to traders, and fair, though hard in their bargaining.”Ohaern stared.“City dwellers who are good? Are they not all like those of Kuru?”“No, not really.It is a matter of which god a city worships—in their hearts, even more than with their mouths.Kuru worships Ulahane, heart and lips and soul.But Cashalo holds the Scarlet One in disdain.”Ohaern sat still, numbed by amazement.He had met the soldiers of Byleo, and Manalo had cautioned them to wariness with regard to the people of Cashalo.But the notion that there might be city dwellers who were really good disturbed him in some deep way that he could not fathom.He felt a sudden, almost angry desire to see these people of Cashalo for himself, that he might judge whether they were truly good, or merely not as evil as those of Kuru.“It is a shame to see good folk despoiled and debauched,” Brevoro sighed, “and worse to think of them maimed and slain—but what can a man do?”“Exactly.” Ohaern bent a stern gaze on Lucoyo.“What can a man do?”“At the least,” Lucoyo said slowly, “a man might bring them word of their peril, so that they might have time to prepare for the onslaught.” He turned to Brevoro.“Are the pleasures of the cities everything they say?”“Well, the streets are not paved with gold,” Brevoro said, nor even paved at all, for the most part—but the most important streets are paved with stone.”“What is a ‘street’?”“Like a road, only it runs between houses
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Tematy
IndexChristine Amsden [Cassie Scot Cassie Scot ParaNormal Detecti
Christie Craig [Divorced, Des Divorced, Desperate
Moore Christopher Ssij, mała, ssij (II)
Christine Feehan Mroczna Seri Mroczny Demon
Cidney Swanson [Saving Mars Saving Mars (epub)
Feehan Christine Mroczna Seria 01 Mroczny Ksišże
Christine Feehan Mroczna Seria 13 Mroczne Przeznaczenie
R. Murray Thomas Manitou and God, North American Indian Religions and Christian Culture (2007
Fry Leslie, Waters Flowing Eastward The War Against the Kingship of Christ (1988)
Andrea A. Contemporary sources for the fourth crusade