Read Online Scarlet and the White Wolf [01] - Scarlet and the White Wolf by Kirby Crow - Free Book Online Page B

with fur cloaks over their leather and deer-hide jackets. It put them in awe of him a little, which is not a bad thing for a man who leads.
    "Don't fret over us," Kio put in. He was better bred than Peysho and had finer manners and speech, yet they made an odd kind of sense together. "The weather's harsher in Morturii than it is here."
    Most of the Longspur krait—named after the brown bird that makes its nest in the flat plains—were from Chrj and had the look of that people, being lean and sharp-faced, their hair ruddy or brown or even a dark gold. Their eyes tended to be green or hazel: unique colors in this land of black-eyed people. Many bore bluish-black tattoos rendered boldly in complex interlocking patterns, the symbolism of which was known only to them. The rest of the krait were Morturii or a 62
    Scarlet and the White Wolf--Book One
    by Kirby Crow
    mix of swarthy Bledlands outlaws and half-Minh Aralyrin, the spawn of captured slaves, whom the Hilurin would have absolutely nothing to do with. The Hilurin were a little more accepting of their people who had married into Chrj and Morturii families, which made up the greatest part of the Aralyrin population of Byzantur, but they stubbornly lived apart from them in their chaste little villages. A pity, since it made them much easier for their enemies to find, and they had many. One hundred percent of the power in the official government of Byzantur was held by Hilurin politicians and nobles, whose people comprised perhaps two percent of the population. Ancient tradition and religion alone held this status quo together, but it was fraying more every day. The Hilurin power structure could not last much longer, and villages like Lysia would bear the worst of it when it fell.
    "Still," Liall answered, "I think it best to stock up on staples and firewood. As long as the krait is fed and warm, we'll have no trouble from within our ranks."
    "And none from without, so long as we keep our knives sharp. I've seen to that," Kio put in with a touch of smugness.
    He had been training several of the youths in dagger-play for months. He also taught long-knives, daggers to the men, and the short, stabbing rapier called a sperret , which is wielded in tandem with a small shield for very swift, in-and-out fighting.
    Very few fighters carried swords in the Southern Continent, and the long-knife was preferred for close work. Byzans in particular, small as they were, never used swords. The standard weapon throughout the Southern Continent was a pair of long-knives, the blade perhaps as long a man's 63
    Scarlet and the White Wolf--Book One
    by Kirby Crow
    forearm from his elbow to the tips of his fingers, with a short, slightly-curved wooden haft and no hand guard. The Morturii made such blades from the black ore of the Byzan hills, and they were prized all over the world.
    Liall finished his soup and handed the cup back to Peysho with a nod of thanks. "Well then, it's back to my cold bed."
    Peysho waved his arm expansively in the general direction of his women's yurt. "Why go to bed cold, Atya? Ye can have yer pick."
    He grinned. "I might, if you ever acquire a woman younger than yourself."
    Peysho laughed. "My wives're exactly the right age to know how ta take care of a man. What would I do with a young woman?"
    "Not the same thing I'd do with her, I venture."
    Peysho shrugged good-naturedly. "Go see old Dira, then.
    He still has a dove or two ye haven't plucked."
    Every krait has its prostitutes, but being the atya, Liall was leery of visiting the same girl or boy too many times.
    Misunderstandings could occur. He would just have to wait until their travels led the krait close to a larger city, one without so many prudish Hilurin.
    "A pox on Dira's stable of skinny birds and on your wizened hags," he pronounced, which sent Peysho into more laughter. "But offer again when you get yourself a pretty boy-wife or two."
    Kio muttered darkly under his breath and poked up the fire with a stick,