Read Online His Own Good Sword (The Cymeriad #1) by Amanda McCrina - Free Book Online Page A

us?”
    “It’s been too quiet lately, sir. Yes, I think they
will.”
    “They’ve a leader again, then?”
    Verio’s lip curled. “A man who’ll lead them in a
fight? I don’t know. But I think there’s a priest here,
sir.”
    “A priest?”
    “They’re a cultish lot, sir, these mountain tribes. It’s
always their priests who are the goading stick behind the rebellions,
preaching Tarien Varro will come back from the dead to defeat us,
drive us out. Except for the priests I almost think these people
would’ve forgotten there was ever an independent Cesin.”
    “They aren’t of the Church, these priests, I take it.”
    “No, sir. No, these native priests are nothing but political
firebrands, sir. They’ve no other function.”
    “And you think there’s one here?”
    “Yes, sir, I do. Magryn denies it, tells me it’s no
matter. I think he’s afraid, in truth. If we kill a priest
it’ll turn the village folk against him. That’s his
thinking. The fool. Easier to deal with an open uprising than this
quietness, I’ve told him that. And I’ve told him if we do
nothing they’ll rise against us anyway.”
    “But you’ve no proof.”
    “Sir?”
    “You’ve no real proof one of these renegade priests is
here.”
    “Ask Magryn,” Verio said. “Ask him of the priest,
watch his face. Watch the way he reacts. Proof enough. He’ll
deny it, of course, because of his people. But ask him, and watch his
face.”
    “You think he’s right here in the village, this priest?”
    “Maybe. Or one of the outlying farms. No way of knowing, sir.
It might be any of them.”
    He turned that over in his head, carefully. “Outlying farms,”
he said. “How many farms are there outside the village?”
    “Five, six. Up close to the Outland, some of them.”
    “You run patrols through there?”
    “Yes, sir. Corporal Aino takes the patrols out. He’s one
of their kind. He knows the country.”
    “I’ll take the patrol out tomorrow,” Tyren said.
    Verio said, smiling, “The garrison commander doesn’t go
out on routine patrols, sir.”
    “Maybe my presence will make it clear to these Cesini I’m
serious about dealing with their rebellion,” Tyren said.
    * * *
    So the next morning he led a patrol up along the edge of the Outland.
Verio came too, to show he wasn’t above it—couldn’t
let the stripling outdo him. They rode up the western slope of the
valley, following the water channel into the trees. Eventually they’d
make a wide loop to the north, riding at a parallel to the mountains,
and come round and return to Souvin by way of the Rien road. The sun
was shining in a clear sky but a brisk wind was whipping down from
the mountains and even with the thick woolen uniform cape pulled
tight about him Tyren was cold. He didn’t want to think about
what this place must be like in wintertime. He gritted his teeth and
said nothing of it. He felt Verio was watching him, waiting for him
to complain. He didn’t look at Verio. He kept his eyes on the
mountains. He knew now why the Empire had never been able to root out
this Cesino rebellion decisively. Too easy for the rebels to hide in
this country, and you could lose a lot of men here, even in
summertime, if you hadn’t been trained for mountain warfare.
Too many trees, too many sheer-sided valleys, too much raw terrain
that was indistinguishable under the coverlet of the forest. In
wintertime it wouldn’t even take armed rebels to kill you. Draw
you in here and this terrain would do the work readily enough.
    They turned north after a while; they’d go no further into the
mountains. They rode at the foot of a tall, tree-clad hill, on a
beaten-down path winding through the long grass under the
ever-present black pine. On their right-hand side, eastward, the land
fell steeply away back down into the valley. Verio, riding at Risun’s
flank, pointed down into the trees.
    “That’s the farm of the Muryni, sir,” he said.
    There was a little clearing cut among