Read Online Hell's Foundations Quiver by David Weber - Free Book Online

than it had been among earlier generations and it still cropped up occasionally—not often, but more frequently than on pre-space Old Earth—on Safehold.
    Nynian Rychtair had it. She’d never needed to consult her codebooks when she wrote or read a message, because she carried them— all of them—in her head. Merlin and Owl had always known she smuggled a voluminous correspondence back and forth across the Border States, despite the war, but so far as they’d been able to tell, all of it was fairly innocuous: correspondence with the business managers she’d left behind, letters to some of the young women who had worked for Ahnzhelyk Phonda for so long, or messages from refugees to family and friends left behind, for example. They’d been unable to keep track of all of that correspondence once it flowed into Zion or other major Temple Land cities, and since they’d “known” none of it had been encoded—and that Aivah was on their side, at least for now—they hadn’t actually tried all that hard, given all the other charges on Owl’s surveillance ability.
    â€œWe should be there in about another ninety minutes,” he said now. “We’ll get there well before dawn, not that I expect anyone would be in a position to see us even at high noon. Not in the middle of the Mountains of Light in March.”
    â€œI imagine that would be … somewhat unlikely,” she acknowledged, and he snorted.
    â€œI think you can pretty much take it for granted. That’s the real reason Nimue’s Cave was located here in the first place.”
    â€œâ€˜Nimue’s Cave’?” she repeated with a quirked eyebrow. “That’s an odd name, even for a seijins ’ training camp. Does Captain Chwaeriau’s name have anything to do with the person it’s named for?”
    â€œActually, it does. Quite a lot, in fact. I can’t explain exactly what the connection is—not yet—but I think you’ll understand once we get around to explaining everything else to you.”
    â€œI’m looking forward to that … I think.” Aivah’s eyes gleamed with anticipation, yet his indirect reference to how little she still knew, how much faith it had required to come this far on the basis of so few hard facts, awakened an undeniable darkness under the anticipation. “I have to admit it was probably wise of you not to tell me quite how far we’d have to travel for that explanation until we were in the air. I won’t guarantee I wouldn’t have backed out and run for my life, despite Saint Kohdy’s journal and his description of his hikousen , if you’d told me any sooner!”
    She did not, he noticed, mention how much easier the isolation of their destination would make it if the inner circle ultimately decreed she must disappear.
    â€œOh, I think you’re made of sterner stuff than that,” he said out loud. “Still, honesty compels me to admit that my timing wasn’t exactly a coincidence.”
    â€œNo, really? I never would have thought anything of the sort!”
    â€œOf course you wouldn’t have,” he agreed gravely. “On the other hand, I felt confident that someone of your … accomplishments would understand my thinking without taking it personally.”
    â€œI think that’s a compliment.”
    â€œA very deep one, as a matter of fact. In many ways, you remind me a great deal of Prince Nahrmahn.”
    â€œAh.” She smiled. “I never met Prince Nahrmahn. For that matter, I never crossed swords with him professionally, either. Still, everything I’ve ever learned about him suggests he was one of the best at the Great Game. I deeply regretted his death. Is it true he died protecting his wife from one of Clyntahn’s Rakurai with his own body?”
    â€œYes. Yes, it is.”
    â€œThen I regret his death even more deeply.”