Horselords by David Cook, Larry Elmore Read Free Book Online Page B

spirits of the land and our ancestors, and learn much good advice.” The shaman, whose age Koja found impossible to place, smiled a toothless smile at him.
    “And she,” concluded the second empress, tapping her staff in front of the old crone, “is Boryquil, and this is her daughter Cimca. Boryquil has the gift to see things as they are and things as they should be. She knows the ways of the kaman kulda, the dark spirits that come from the north.”
    “With my eyes I can see them; with my nose I can smell them,” cackled the hag, reciting an old, ritualistic formula. Her lungs labored from the exertion. With each gasping breath, her necklace clacked and rattled. Peering at it from across the aisle, Koja saw that it was a leather cord strung with broad, flat bones. Each bone was covered in red-inked script.
    “So you can see, Koja of the Red Mountain, I have surrounded myself with people of useful skills. They advise me and they teach me.” Bayalun stopped and quickly wet her lips. “Aghul hopes to convert me to Chung Tao. Fiyango worries that I will forget the spirits of earth, sky, and water, while Boryquil protects my tent from evil spirits. Of course,” she added softly, “not that any spirit could enter this area.” She touched the finial on her staff.
    “Tell me, Koja of the Khazari, are you here to teach me the secrets of the Red Mountain?”
    Koja paused for a bit, trying to think of an appropriate response. Finally, he answered, “I was never the best student of my masters, and so I only learned a little from them. These were only small things in the teachings of Furo. I have traveled instead, hoping to aid others through the services of the Enlightened One.” Koja didn’t lie; he wasn’t the best disciple, but his skills were more than he allowed.
    “I thought all of you sat in your temple and meditated,” Bayalun commented, brushing a wisp of hair from her eyes. The shaman to Koja’s right broke into a fit of coughing. Bayalun pursed her lips and waited until he was done. “If you are a teacher, you must stay and instruct me in the ways of your temple.”
    Koja swallowed uncomfortably, unwilling to offend the second empress with a direct refusal. He was not here, however, to teach, even if it might spread the belief of Furo to these nonbelievers. “I will certainly be happy to teach you of our ways while I am here, illustrious empress, but I must carry messages back to my prince in Khazari.” He bowed slightly as he spoke.
    “I understand,” Bayalun said, relenting. She leaned back with a sigh, stroking her eyebrows carefully. Koja detected a note of disappointment in her voice. “So when you summon him, does Furo lay waste to your enemies?”
    Koja started at the boldness of the question. “It is said, Mother Bayalun, that he is both wondrous and terrible, but we do not summon him. We live to serve our god, not to have him come at our beck and call.” A tone of chastisement unavoidably crept into the lama’s voice.
    “I see,” said Mother Bayalun, turning away from Koja. “At this time the interview is over. It is our misfortune that you are unable to stay and instruct us. But I am sure your pressing duties need your attention. You may leave.” Koja bit at the inside of his lip, frustrated by his own indiscretion.
    The chamberlain came forward and touched Koja on the shoulder, motioning the priest to rise. Koja hoisted himself to his feet and backed out of the tent, bowing as he went. The priest, bewildered by the strange meeting, was led back to his waiting horse. Only one man from his original escort remained. The two of them rode back toward his tent, once again following the roundabout way they had taken earlier.
    “Why do we go this way? It is shorter that way,” Koja said, pointing along a route that would lead them past the front of the royal enclosure and Yamun’s bodyguard.
    “Orders.”
    “Oh,” the lama answered. The white-kalated guard trotted his shaggy-maned