Read Online Jabone's Sword by Selina Rosen - Free Book Online

throwing his arms about. "Tarius the Black, who conquered the Amalite scum, the greatest fighter who ever lived, the Great Leader who built our sea port and brought in the ships that serve our nation and who built the great wall between the Katabull Nation and the sea, who is Kingdom Warlord and the best bard in the country. There is nothing which she does at which she doesn't excel. Everyone is always saying Jabone you are just like your madra ; I know they only mean this as a great compliment and when I was younger when they would say it I would glow with pride. Now . . . Well I don't want to hear that anymore. What they're really saying is that I will never be as great as my madra. I will be like her but I will never be her. I want to be my own man, to have stories told about me and my great deeds, but that will never happen as long as I'm with her because she shines brighter than the sun. "
    Ufalla sighed. "That she does."
    Jabone laughed at her crush and she shrugged and smiled knowing why he was laughing. "It's more wanting to be her than wanting her you know?"
    Jabone nodded, understanding what she meant. Jestia and Tarius went running past them in some game of chase and Ufalla made a face. "My brother makes an ass of himself two or three times daily."
    It was the first time Jabone had seen it, or at least if he had seen it before he hadn't recognized it for what it was. Suddenly so many things made sense. "Oh," he said simply.
    "What?" Ufalla asked nervously.
    "Just oh," he said with a shrug and a smile.
    Ufalla sighed and her shoulders slumped. "Is it that obvious?"
    "Not at all or it wouldn't have taken me this long to see it," he said. "Have you told her how you feel?"
    "Why would I? She's slept with half the men in the kingdom."
    "That doesn't mean she would reject you, Ufalla. I mean look at you, anyone would have to be crazy not to want you."
    "Oh she'd probably have sex with me just for the experience and then toss me aside like all the others and expect me to act as if nothing had happened and . . . Well I love her so that wouldn't really work for me. I'd become one of those people who chase after the person who doesn't like them and won't let go."
    "Like Tragon," Jabone said, making a face.
    "The man who betrayed your madra?" Ufalla didn't understand the reference.
    "He did worse to my mother, to Jena." Jabone told her the story.
    "See? No one should ever chase after someone who doesn't want them, it's just hateful and pathetic," Ufalla said as he finished. She was still watching Jestia where she was now standing talking to Tarius on the other side of the boat. "I'll just watch her from afar and hang onto my fantasies. Those usually turn out to be better than the real thing anyway."
    Jabone looked at her with raised eyebrows then. "Voice of experience my sister?"
    "Like you I've had my share of women. It's never been as good as I thought it was going to be."
Jabone nodded. "I think it's better if you really love the person, if they love you."
    "But you can't make people love you," Ufalla said with a sad sigh.
    "No, but you can let that love change into something like a really good friendship." He looked at her then. "Ufalla do you ever worry that . . . oh never mind."
    "What?"
    Jabone took in a deep breath and let it out. "Do you ever worry that you'll never find someone that you love who will love you back?"
    Ufalla sighed and smiled a sad smile. "Only every time I look at Jestia."
    * * *
    "I don't see why we can't just go off on our own. We don't need a bunch of stuck up Jethrikian bastards telling us what to do, and we sure don't need them to tell us how to fight," Tarius said.
    "You do remember that you're half stuck up Jethrikian bastard don't you?" Jestia asked with a smile.
    Tarius made a face. "I was born to the Pack of the Marching Night in the Valley of the Katabull. The Great Leader's own breath flows through my body . . . "
    "Yeah, yeah," Jestia said with a sweep of her hand. "Half your