Read Online 5: The Holy Road by Ginn Hale - Free Book Online Page A

buy my way free.” Alidas suddenly sounded very tired. “But after that I’ll be my own man.”
    Ravishan nodded. John could see him trying to imagine Alidas’ life, thinking of his own obligations and his despised superior, Dayyid. “What will you do once you are free?”
    “If I can’t win a captain’s rank, then I think I’d like to return to Vundomu, if they’d take me.” As he stared at the massive fortress, Alidas’ expression again turned wistful.
    “Ten years is a long time to wait to become a priest,” Ravishan remarked.
    Alidas only shrugged in reply.
    Ravishan studied Alidas for a moment, and then asked, “Did you leave a friend behind at Vundomu?”
    “Several,” he replied quickly, plainly startled by Ravishan’s question. Despite the growing darkness, John noticed the flush that colored Alidas’ cheeks.
    “Perhaps you could see them again when we stop,” Ravishan offered.
    “It would be worse to see them for just a few minutes and then have to go again.” Alidas continued to gaze at Vundomu.
    “We’ll be there more than a few minutes,” Ravishan replied.
    “Who knows if he would even remember me? It’s probably best just left alone.” Alidas turned away, clearly uncomfortable discussing the subject any further.
    Ravishan didn’t pursue it. The three of them fell silent. Only the noise and deep rhythm of the train engine surrounded them.
    Ravishan stretched his arms experimentally. He was careful with his right arm. The cuts had healed, but the scars were still tender. John watched the trees whipping past.
    He never would have broached such a private subject with Alidas. In part, because he wouldn’t want to discover that he liked Alidas or that they could become friends. His fate was already too weighed down by the friends that Laurie and Bill had made. He didn’t need or want to feel responsible for yet another person’s happiness.
    John found it strange that Ravishan seemed to have no such inhibition. In a month, they would be leaving. In all likelihood, Ravishan would never see Alidas or even Basawar again. Befriending Alidas would do Ravishan no good. At best, it would just give him someone to miss. But Ravishan was innately outgoing and he obviously enjoyed his newfound freedom to commune with whomever he pleased.
    John supposed that it was that same trait that had allowed Ravishan to befriend him when he had been nothing more than a ragged stranger out in the frozen wastes.
    “You know,” Alidas suddenly looked to John, “I still have your book.”
    John frowned. “My book?”
    “The southern plains songs. You let me read from it the night you quarreled with Tashtu.”
    “Oh, yes.” John remembered now. Hann’yu had purchased the book for him. So many other things had happened that night that he’d forgotten it completely. “Was it a good read?”
    “Lovely,” Alidas replied. “Though it made me homesick. But just a little. It made me miss the south as the poems captured it but not the way I lived in it, if that makes any sense.”
    John nodded. “It captured an ideal of your home.”
    “Yes, exactly,” Alidas replied. “ Pale as stars caught in dark branches, apple blossoms shine even in the black night .”
    “That’s the kind of poetry that makes you think the life of an apple picker must be wonderful.” Ravishan glanced to Alidas. “They write the same sorts of things about the golden taye of the north. As a rule, they don’t mention all the goat shit in the fields and streets.”
    “They really don’t,” Alidas said, laughing.
    “I suppose the song loses something if you praise the golden fields and then advise visitors to bring a second pair of boots for days when they get a little too golden,” Ravishan added.
    “I would have appreciated the warning at least,” Alidas replied. He then turned to John. “What about you? What do they sing about your home?”
    “Shun’sira?” John asked. He’d seen drawings and read descriptions. As far