Read Online The Invisible Chains - Part 3: Bonds of Blood by Andrew Ashling - Free Book Online

son of the highest noble, as the Cutting Out doesn't discriminate between classes.”
    “So, they set out to new lands. That can't be easy, a group of inexperienced young people like that.”
    “You don't know half of it. They can't take anything with them. They are declared brezzonmàhai, but get a period of grace of seven days to leave the territory of the tribe.”
    “But why?”
    “Supposedly to break all relationships of family, friendship, whatever. It is meant to make certain they will indeed leave the territory as fast as possible. Not that it matters much. Other tribes will see themthat i secer and immediately recognize them for what they are, a cut out group. They will treat them as shorringah. And there is not—”
    “Not so fast. Shorringah?”
    “Eh... How to say this? Non-humans. Below the status of animals. Anybody who catches them can do with them as they please.”
    “They kill them?”
    “If they resist, yes. But most of them become slaves and are put to work on the fields until they die of exhaustion, malnutrition, sickness... whatever comes first.”
    Rodomesh had stopped speaking, and Anaxantis was at a loss for words. He thought of the Royal Farms and didn't feel he had the moral high ground here.
    “The odds are stacked against them,” he said. “Imagine, being put out in the wild with only the clothes you wear. Do they get to keep some kind of weapon at least? A dagger or so?” he asked after a while.
    Rodomesh looked up and grimaced.
    “I told you: they can't take anything. Not even their clothes, let alone weapons.”
    “They... they... they chase them away naked?” Anaxantis asked, exasperated.
    Rodomesh nodded.
    “Yes. The whole point is saving the resources of the tribe.”
    “But surely, the parents can't—”
    “The parents better shut up if they don't want to be declared brezzonmàhai themselves. In fact they are supposed to be in the front line when the new tribe is chased away. The whole population comes out to jeer at them. They throw offal and sometimes stones.”
    “And nobody protests?”
    Rodomesh shrugged.
    “Yes, sometimes an older brother does. Not many however. They know that the consequence is that they're cut out of the màhai as well. No, your highness, it's not the Mukthar way. It's thought of as false sentimentality, detrimental to the tribe, treason even.”
    “By the Gods, Rodomesh, that's really cruel.”
    “You can say that again. Some tribes organized the Cutting Out in September. Late September.”
    “When it starts getting cold. They put out a bunch of naked young people at the moment winter is coming.”
    Anaxantis shivered, suddenly feeling cold himself.
    “Well,” Rodomesh said, with a weak smile, “Mukthar customs evolve as well. By the time of my great-grandfather, during the last Cutting Out, things went a little bit different. My father told the story often enough.”
    “Please, I'd love to hear it.”
    “Nobody knows exactly why the Cutting Out was decided upon, as there was no shortage of food or any kind of overpopulation. The quedash of the time was already old. Most probably his council pushed him to declare the state of emergency that necessitated the Cutting Out. One of the reasons could have been that a young frishiu, the son of a minor queen, fell into the age brackets and that he was hated by his older half-brothers.
    People said that his older brother, who had been very popular, was murdered by the sons of another queen because they feared he would be a serious contender for the throne. They wanted to eliminate his younger brother out of fear that someday he would exact revenge, or maybe it was just because they thought hege, orhounat could take the place of his older brother in the hearts of the people. But a lot of other scores were settled as well.
    “There was also the case of the heir of a rich, noble family. He had been an only son, until his father remarried a young widow. A son was born, but according to Mukthar law