King's Shield by Sherwood Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

then his thoughts galloped off the road. “Oh, shit. Oh, damn. Inda, that was what ditched you, wasn’t it? What happened to Dogpiss?”
    Tau’s heartbeat quickened. In one conversation they were learning everything about Inda’s past that they’d spent nine years speculating on; Jeje sat there, food forgotten, her lips parted as she tried to catch the quick words.
    “Dogpiss,” Inda repeated softly. The pirate commander was back with that narrow, direct gaze, the jut of his jaw and thinned lips. His words were slow and reluctant. “I tried to stop Dogpiss from running that sting in the prisoner-of-war camp.”
    Prisoner-of-war camp? Jeje sent a questioning look at Tau: Weren’t they just boys? He flicked his hands outward in question.
    Cama said, “All I remember is you reminding him of banner-game rules. No stings. So me ’n’ Flash, we rolled up. Remember how tired we were, the horsetails running us all night long? Slept in a heartbeat.”
    “Night? Nights!” Cherry-Stripe protested.
    “We talked about it for a long time, after,” Cherry-Stripe said. “Tried to figure it out. What happened? What did Dogpiss do?”
    “Argued. Then slipped out when I was half asleep, and I went after him. Hawkeye jumped up. Took us by surprise. Dogpiss slipped on that big rock, I tried to catch him—almost got his wrist. But he fell. You know the rest. Hit his head.” Inda pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. “I saw him like that in dreams. Still do. If that rock hadn’t been there—if I’d gotten his wrist—”
    Buck said in a low voice, “He also broke his neck.”
    Inda laid his hands on the table. “Noddy was on guard, he saw the most, and I told him everything afterward. Why wouldn’t the Harskialdna listen to him?”
    “Partly Kepa’s lies. Then Kepa’s father called in old promises. Ruse to get rank out of the Harskialdna, and it worked.” Cherry-Stripe spread his hands wide. “But we didn’t find that out until a lot later.”
    “A Harskialdna is a Royal Shield Arm,” Jeje whispered behind her hand to Signi. “It’s the king’s brother. I mean, if he has a brother.”
    Signi gave a sober nod—of politeness, not of sudden comprehension. Jeje suspected that the Venn mage probably knew more about the Marlovans than she did, and blushed. But Signi’s grateful smile made her feel slightly less stupid.
    The escape to the past was now over, they all sensed it. In the Marlovans’ minds these past events connected directly with the threats of the present.
    “We called that one the Summer Without a Banner,” Cherry-Stripe said.

Chapter Six
    “THE Summer Without a Banner,”Cama repeated,his rough voice quarry-deep with regret.
    “That summer changed a lot of things, though we didn’t see it at the time. We were just boys.” Buck gazed into the fire.
    “And we were only Tveis,” Cherry-Stripe said.
    Later on Tau learned what that meant—second sons, defenders and spare heirs. Inda and his friends had been among the first class of brothers brought to the academy to be trained under the Harskialdna instead of by their families, as was traditional.
    “What about Sponge?” Inda’s expression was troubled. “Did he say nothing?”
    “After you disappeared he cried himself to sleep every night,” Cherry-Stripe said, grimacing as he scratched under his horsetail clasp. “Heyo, most of us blubbed. Dogpiss dead, you gone, and no one would say where. Ev—Sponge—we call him Evred now, y’see. He talked among us —Noddy, Flash, Rat—”
    “Rat?” Inda interrupted. “Rattooth Cassad?”
    “Yep. We call him Rat now. And Cama—” A gesture toward Cama, who turned his thumb up, firelight gleaming in his good eye.
    “His Sier Danas.” Cama swept one hand in a circle. “May’s well call ourselves that. No strut, not anymore. Not when Evred said it at his coronation.”
    Cherry-Stripe grinned. “We arranged a nine-times-nine drum corps. He was only going to have the