Read Online Path of Honor by Diana Pharaoh Francis - Free Book Online

that was a blessing from the Lady ran over her left cheek and down into her collar and glittered stark and garish against her pallid skin. Beneath his hands her body felt gaunt—bones and wire.
    “You look like skraa, ” he said. “Don’t you eat, little sister?” The diminutive had made her cringe growing up, a way to pretend kindness while insulting her. Now her grin grew more natural.
    “Not as much as you do, little brother.” She poked his stomach. “You look fat enough, though someone might mistake you for a bear wandering into Koduteel.”
    Juhrnus rubbed his beard. “Good for the trail. Keeps the wind and snow from peeling away my face. Besides, Esper likes it.”
    “Where is he?”
    “Curled up by a roaring fire. Where I should be. But you’re going somewhere,” he said, gesturing at her loaded gelding.
    “Not far.”
    “Oh?” He lifted his brows and she flushed.
    “I’m tired of sleeping in a stall. The straw is itchy. And Tirpalema is too kind to tell me he’s tired of feeding me. So I’ve found a new place to stay.”
    “What about the Temple?”
    Her look was sharp and hard as a jade knife. “No.”
    “What’s going on?” Juhrnus demanded. “Tell me. I’ve had enough evasions from everyone else.”
    Reisil looked away, chewing her upper lip. Then she gave a little shake of her head and looked back at him. “The nobles and the ahalad-kaaslane have come to believe that I’m a threat—like Upsakes. I’ve been able to use my power only sporadically and have had no luck curing the plague. They think I’m doing it on purpose. That I’m just letting people die for some plan of my own.”
    “That’s . . .” He searched for adequate words. “That’s stupid! How did they get such a skraa -for-brains idea? How could they believe it?”
    Reisil grinned, bitterness coiling through her voice. “I wish I could tell you.” Juhrnus hooked his thumbs on his belt. She obviously wasn’t telling him all of it. But she wasn’t ready to talk, and he knew better than to try to force her.
    “Where’s Saljane?” he asked, following after her as she returned to Indigo and tightened his cinch.
    “Hunting. She doesn’t much care for the city.” Again there was a sense of something she wasn’t saying, and Juhrnus clenched his jaw. Reisil had never been one to talk about herself or depend on anyone else. Abandoned by her parents at birth and raised on the charity of Kallas, she’d always been too aware of being a nuisance, an added expense. She was always afraid of making herself more of a burden. As a boy, he’d hated her obsequiousness, her selfeffacement. For a long time he thought it was sucking up. Then he figured out it was stiff-necked pride and shame. Nothing he did made her stop—though in the way of boys, he’d not been kind. He winced. That didn’t begin to cover what a ganyik he’d been. He couldn’t seem to stop attacking her, as if sooner or later she’d have to defend herself and quit sulking around. Not then, and not later, not until he’d almost lost Esper.
    He shied away from the memory. He’d never forget Esper’s limp, broken body; he’d never forget the way Reisil had nearly sacrificed herself and Saljane to save Esper. Unthinkingly he reached out and touched his bond with Esper. The sleeping sisalik radiated contentment. Juhrnus smiled. He owed Reisil everything.
    The last straw for Reisil was discovering that Kaval was a traitor—finding him in that room, Ceriba battered and raped. Juhrnus didn’t know if Reisil would ever trust anyone with her feelings again. He rubbed the back of his neck. Maybe Sodur knew something.
    “I thought I’d go looking for Sodur later. We could all have dinner and I could tell you about my circuit.”
    For a bare moment Reisil’s hands froze in the middle of untying Indigo. Then she tugged the reins free and guided the horse out the gate. “Not tonight.”
    “Tomorrow, then.”
    She strode quickly down the street in the