Read Online Stormseer (Storms in Amethir Book 3) by Stephanie A. Cain - Free Book Online Page B

so difficult to understand?"
    "Mmm. It is often difficult for the young to understand the old, as much as it is difficult for the old to understand the young. But I think your father understands you very well, Prince Razem. My suspicion is that he simply disagrees with you. Perhaps it is that, having lost one child to the war, he fears even more mightily the thought of losing the other child to the same war." Arkad squeezed Razem's shoulder.
    Could that be true? Was it possible that Marsede's stubbornness over this whole matter was him trying to protect Razem? Razem stared at the baron, trying to form a coherent response. To his mixed embarrassment and relief, Arkad chuckled.
    "I see this is a novel suggestion. Well, think on it, young man, as wisdom from this particular old man." He patted Razem's shoulder and let him go. When he spoke next, he raised his voice. "Here we are, then. My chamberlain Risia will show the others to their rooms. I myself shall accompany you and Lord Burojan."
     

Chapter 5
    "Hawk! Get up! We're moving into Salishok today."
    Hawk sat up on his cot, rubbing his eyes. His reflexes were rusty; the guard's approach hadn't wakened him. For that matter, he hadn't been in the habit of sleeping in the middle of the day when he was a Tamnese warrior. And that thought brought on its heels another thought: When had he stopped thinking of himself as a Tamnese warrior?
    "Prince Razem's party has arrived, then?" he asked.
    "Duke Oler has reached the Embattled City," the guard replied. She was a mahogany-skinned woman with wide lips that were currently flattened in disapproval. "I assume that means your prince is with them."
    Hawk nodded, not bothering to argue with her. Let her have her zealotry. He would settle for swinging his legs over the side of his cot and searching for his boots.
    "Commander Ayowir has ordered that we ride within the hour. You have little to pack, but be certain you are ready." The guard turned to go.
    "I don't suppose you'd be kind enough to release the shackle on my leg?" Hawk made his voice as mild as possible. "I have no desire to run away and destroy the peace process. I merely wish to have my boots on before the last minute."
    She snorted, but turned back and knelt to unlock the shackle. "There will be no peace. Don't delude yourself. We are exchanging one prisoner for another, but that does not mean the war will end."
    Hawk shook his head. "Do you not wish to learn what peace was like? You must be too young to remember it. I am not."
    "Silence! I will not hear your seditious talk. There can be no peace while you Tamnese dogs live in our Kreyden." She stood and strode out of the tent.
    Since when was talk of peace seditious? Hawk wondered. He didn't bother with being offended over being called a Tamnese dog. He'd heard it often enough over the past six years.
    He was washed, shaved, and dressed when the next guard arrived to take him to Commander Ayowir's tent. As he walked away from his own tent, he saw servants already disassembling it. The guard he followed this time was a slender man about his own age. Hawk wondered if this man would also consider peace talk to be dangerous. He decided not to try him, but the thought continued to trouble him as he greeted Ayowir.
    She was dressed in her full uniform despite the heat, her sword resting on her hip and a dozen medals decorating her sash. Her hair was braided in a crown about her brow, which was furrowed. "He looks shabby," she said to someone over her shoulder. "Let's put him in nicer clothes."
    To Hawk's astonishment, the two people who bustled up to him were tailors, a man and a woman. They measured him and studied his complexion and within minutes were coaxing him out of his clothes. He shrugged out of his tunic and shirt, then glanced meaningfully at Ayowir.
    "I have my modesty," he said, and was rewarded with her sharp bark of a laugh.
    "If you had modesty, it was lost to me years ago when I first had you deloused," she said.