Friends (2013) - Adams, Robert

“I have come to the belief that he wishes me to tread on him in full armor and spurred boots,” the girl said sourly, now unmindfui of the chuckling her brothers indulged in. “When he dies he is most unlikely to be sent to Wind, for that would spread the inner stench of him too far. Thank Sun our father had long since given me leave to do as I would with my life, else would 1 surely have found it necessary to spill the blood of a guest—after Father had been petitioned to death by him.”

“Speaking of guests, by now the reception lacks only the presence of us five,” remarked Fhill, nodding toward the closed double doors across the wide hall. “All niceties aside, I find myself curious as to who our visitors are. They must have crept within the house like thieves for none to know who they might be.”

“It seems that Father alone knows them,” Dharrehn said with his own share of curiosity, also looking toward the doors. “As we all know full well that hanging back in the face of the unknown merely allows one’s enemies to creep up behind one, I believe we should now continue as we earlier began. Even proposed marriages should be faced with bravery rather than cowardice.”

The others laughed their agreement even as they again began their advance, and soon they reached the doors to the reception room. No house guards or servants stood before these doors, as they were used only by members of the family, therefore did Dharrehn and his next younger brother Bhen open them as they reached them, then allowed the servants within to see to them from there. In two lines did the five move forward into the surprisingly large gathering, making their way through the greetings of men and women who should surely have had other things than wine-swilling to occupy them at so early an hour of the day. So thought Lisah from her place between Fhill and Jahk, behind Dharrehn and Bhen, pleased to be in the company of her beloved brothers, yet not so pleased to have been called away from axe lessons. The pesky weapon had till then gotten much the better of her, and the summons had come just when she had begun to see a glimmer of hope of reversing that. In battle one occasionally needed to use what weapon came to hand rather than what weapon one preferred, and to fail to learn the use of them all was surely an excellent way to ask to go prematurely to Wind.

“Ah, there they are at last,” came their father’s deep, calm voice from a point beyond Dharrehn and Bhen, a place not easily seen by Lisah from where she walked. “Four of nine sons, my lords, and hidden in their midst my only daughter.”

At which words the two who walked before moved each to one side, and the girl was able to see her father and the three men who stood with him. The one nearest her sire and to his right was not quite of an age with him, the one to the stranger’s right seemed a bit older, and the third was a good deal younger than the others, perhaps Dharrehn’s age. Beside the third and youngest sat the reason the clustering guests failed to cluster too closely about the four, an extremely lovely reason that brought a smile of delight to Lisah. The prairie cat was full-grown although young, and her long-fanged, sharp-toothed grin of amusement was being misinterpreted by those who looked at her. Seated, her brownish-gray head rose easily above elbow level of the man despite his size, and Lisah thought again how good it would be once the new company was formed. Her company would have cat-brothers and -sisters as well as horse-brothers and -sisters, just as the wandering Clans had had all those years ago, unlike most Kindred of the present day.

“. . . and last but certainly not least is my youngest son, Jahk, home recovering from wounds I’m told were gotten under rather admirable circumstances,” her father was saying as her thoughts left the company-to-be and returned to where her body stood. “The circumstances were not described to me by this rapscallion, who has so far avoided discussing the matter, but by other sources a father of sons learns to cultivate. It seems a truism that those who do best are least willing to speak of it.”

“Which is as it should be,” the man beside her father chuckled, accepting Jahk’s bow with a nod of his head. “If fighting men were to spend their time regaling audiences with details of their exploits, they would find precious little time to add to those exploits. Is that not so, Captain Cambehl?”

“As my lord Ahrkeethoheeks undoubtedly knows from personal experience,” Dharrehn replied with a bow of his own, surprising Lisah. More often were Middle Kingdoms titles used by her brothers, and the use of a Karaleenos title could mean no other thing than that this was their archduke, the renowned Bili of Morguhn, Bili the Axe! Lisah looked at the big, light-haired, light-eyed man with something close to awe, wondering if she might somewhere find the courage to question him concerning her difficulties with the weapon that was considered more a weapon-brother to him than mere inanimate metal. In Bili of Morguhn’s hands the axe lived, and Lisah had long believed that this was due to more than his magnificent size and strength.

“As all of us here are likely to know,” the Archduke Bili said with the faintest of smiles, looking about him. “Your father Komees Sahm was a source of delight to storytellers before his return here to claim his patrimony, as was Thoheeks Hwill of Dunkahn before his own return. As the names of you and your brothers are scarcely unknown in this, your own day, Captain, neither is the name of Thoheeks Hwill’s heir, Bryahn, who now stands beside him. His cat-sister, Wind Whisper, is too young to have joined him in battle, yet not so her sire, Iron Claws. Had we days and weeks, the exploits of those two would make excellent telling.”

“Certainly those of Iron Claws,” their youngest guest put in with a laugh, paying no mind to the very evident awe of Bhen and Jahk. “My own exploits, such as they were, simply accompanied his, at times with a great deal of reluctance. One sword and four sets of claws, even accompanied by teeth, should not have accomplished half of what they did.” “Iron Claws offers the tale with a considerable difference of opinion, most especially concerning the value of that sword,” remarked Thoheeks Hwill with bland amusement, sending no more than a glance to his heir. “As a father of sons I, too, found it necessary to cultivate other sources, and the best of them is the prairiecat. No cat of my acquaintance suffers from reticence where battles are concerned.”

“Which is also as it should be,” said the Ahrkeethoheeks Bili into the gentle, agreeing laughter. “Members of the Cat Clan are justifiably proud of their battle prowess, and had we claws and fangs of our own, perhaps our reticence, too, would be overcome. But we’ve scarcely come here to speak of battles and cat-brothers. Is there not one last introduction to be made, Komees Sahm?”

“Indeed there is, my lord,” said his host, turning with a smile of pride to the girl, who had, till then, done no more than join in the general laughter. “It pleases me to present my daughter Lisah, youngest of all my get save Jahk, who has grown to more than adequate womanhood despite having been surrounded by naught save brothers and a father all of her life. Her mother was carried off by fever not long after bearing my last son; therefore has there been a dearth of womanly guidance for her.”

“Surely there were female servants who assisted in raising so delightful-looking a girl,” protested Thoheeks Hwill as Lisah bowed to the Archduke Bili, the duke’s steel-gray eyes seeming well pleased. “She appears quite mannerly and properly modest, a far cry from the outspokenness of too many other girls about these days, who consider their opinion the equal of a man’s.”

“My daughter is well able to appreciate the company in which she finds herself, Thoheeks Hwill,” Komees Sahm said hurriedly, seeing the raising of his daughter’s brows and knowing well what the gesture meant. “She, like her broth-cis, has participated in war training, a thing which became necessary when the female servants in charge of her as a child declared themselves incapable of coping with her . . . manner. Arms masters tend to view such a manner with different sight.”

“And most often produce a far less fascinating product,” put in Bryahn of Dunkahn, his lighter gray eyes showing a matching interest to his father’s. “1 must be sure to send my thanks to the High Lord Milo for his suggestion.”

“You find her acceptable, then,” the Archduke Bili said with approval, nodding his agreement. “The High Lord will be very pleased, and I, myself, am able to recommend a woman with war skills without reservation. Should your own skills exceed hers, that is, which be more of a caution than a reservation. Some men, I hear, prefer it t’other way about.” Again there was general laughter, but this time the girl Lisah failed to share in it. There was an oddness floating about which seemed just beyond the bounds of comprehension, and Lisah had never been one to allow the incomprehensible to pass without questioning it.

“There was a suggestion made by the High Lord Milo which concerns me?” she asked as the laughter wound down, looking at'her father’s guests and then directly at her father. “And for what have 1 been found acceptable?”

“For a truly great honor, daughter,” replied the komees with a wide smile, stepping forward to put an embracing arm about the giri. “The High Lord has had his attention brought to the fact that an inordinate number of nobly born girls in our district are husbandless, and that despite the two and three wives taken by the surviving noble sons and fathers. For that reason has he asked his nobles in more densely male-populated districts, such as Thoheeks Hwill’s demesne, that they seek for wives a time in ours, to even the numbers which have fallen so far out of balance. The thoheeks' heir Bryahn now searches for a wife, and his presence greatly honors us, most especially as it comes at the express request of the High Lord.”

“The High Lord Milo asked that they come here?" Dharrehn inquired with a good deal of surprise, in the process misinterpreting his sister’s suddden silence. “Father, is there a reason for that you have never spoken to us of?’ ’

“The ahrkeethoheeks tells me there appears to be a reason

I, myself, never before considered,” the komees responded, his great pleasure evident in his voice. “We all of us know how strongly mindspeak talent runs in our family, but what we failed to know was that the High Lord was aware of it as well. For many years he had hoped to see a merging between our family and that of Thoheeks Hwill, the Dunkahn line being fully as strong in mindspeak as we, and now such a merging has become possible. The first issue of the union will be more eagerly awaited by the High Lord, 1 am told by Archduke Bili, than by the sire and dam.”

This time nothing of the laughter touched Lisah, who was scarcely even aware of it. She was, instead, wrestling with a problem there could be but one solution to, considering her nature and the manner in which she had been raised. Her brothers had been correct about the awkwardness of the thing and her father was certain to be disappointed, but happily not forever. When the laughter was done, she smiled all about her.