Read Online The Way of Things: Upper Kingdom Boxed Set: Books 1, 2 and 3 in the Tails of the Upper Kingdom by H. Leighton Dickson - Free Book Online Page B

not.”
    “Of
course I was,” said the man. “You simply weren’t looking.”
    The
Major urged her horse forward. The man spoke with the voice of a lion, in the
deep, rumbling tones and accents of the Old Courts. He was maned, too, his hair
growing long and dark and falling loosely past his shoulders. His pelt was a
pale sand, with a scar of fine white fur running across his left eye from brow
to cheek. He sat quite still, clothed in sweeping robes of brown leather, and
he carried a staff of twisted bamboo, which he tapped softly against the base
of the rock. He seemed tall, being long of limb and lean of torso and his
leonine tail was tufted with black.
    But
he was as far from Lion, or any Pure Race, as a cat could get.
    This cat wore a beard.
    Mongrel ,
she thought grimly. Mountain Lion . Like the stripe of a tiger, or
rosette of a jaguar, a dark circle of coarse fur ran over his lip and around
his mouth, framing it, accentuating it in a way no true lion’s should. It ran
just to his chin and across it, thankfully stopping there and not traveling up
his jaw like she had seen in other mountain cats. What was this called
again?
    Oh yes, a goah-tee. Appropriate,
since he apparently tended goats.
    “Do you know where the main
entrance to the monastery is?”
    He
seemed to consider this a moment.
    “I don’t think there is one.”
    Again,
that rich, rumbling voice. She did not like this one bit. Mixed Breeding . The scourge of the Upper Kingdom. She decided to speak slowly, for he
was also, apparently, quite stupid.
    “We seek Sha’Hadin . Can you
help us?”
      “Yes. I can.”
    “Can
you take us there?”
    “Yes.
I can.”
    She
felt her claws begin to curl.
    “Now?”
    “Well,
I don’t think they’ll let you in.”
    “Why
not?”
    “Why
should they?”
    “We’re
here on business.”
    “Business?”
He was smiling at her now, the kind of patient, long-suffering smile of only
the very wise, or the very dim. “Are you buying or selling?”
    “Not
that kind of business.”
    “We
have nice goats.”
    She
stiffened in her saddle.
    “We’re from Pol’Lhasa .”
    “Aah. Pol’Lhasa.” It was only then that she realized his eyes were brown. Unnatural. Cats’ eyes were light, like the sun, like the sky, like the grass. Dogs eyes
were brown like the earth. This was unnatural. “Are you the Empress?”
    “Simpleton!”
she sputtered. “Let’s go. This mongrel couldn’t find his way into a sheep pen,
let alone the monastery of the Seers!”
    She prodded her horse forward,
almost pushing the man off the rock with her passing. He sent a curious,
lop-sided gaze to Kerris, who merely shrugged.
    “Sorry, sidi. I’m just the
stableboy.”
    The
leopard fell in behind and the party rode out of the small valley at a forceful
trot, picking one of the goat trails and following it as if they could make it
take them where they wished to go.
    The
bearded one watched them, until they had disappeared into the long shadows of
evening. He shook his head with a sigh, rose from the rock and began to walk in
another direction, back along the way they had come.

 
      ***

 
    Sunset was changing things.
    The usually clear, bright blue of
sky had faded, growing dark, muddy, almost the color of the mountain rock
itself. Slopes, once red as clay, became the color of old wine and wine-colored
clouds took the shape of slopes. Everything gleamed and glistened on snow. It
all blurred the distinction between heaven and earth, making the narrow trail
more treacherous than ever before and causing great strain on already-strained
eyes. If he hadn’t known better, Kirin might have thought that the coming of
night beckoned the elements together, gathering them in some ancient ritual of
unification or prayer.
    He
was tired.
    And they seemed no closer to their
destination than when they had set out this morning.
    All conversation had ceased after
repairing the ox-cart’s broken axle. It was as if each word was an added hour,
time