Path of the Sun: A Novel of Dhulyn and Parno by Violette Malan Read Free Book Online

he had been.
    “I found out what she’s been so stiff about. Not much wanted or valued at home, it seems, and has come to be with the only person who does want or value her.” Sensible , Dhulyn thought. And brave of the girl to face reality so squarely and act on it. But still. Hard to know that it was so easy for some to let her go.
    “She told you?”
    Dhulyn shook her head, relating the princess’ story in a few words. “You’d have got more out of her, I know. She professes not to think much of men—what Arderon woman does? But she’s of a High Noble House, practically royal, and that gives you more in common with her than I, whatever the Princess Alaria might think.”
    Dhulyn smiled her wolf’s smile, her lip curling back from the scar that marred it. She had been a Mercenary Brother since Dorian had rescued her from the hold of a slaver’s ship. House manners and pretty speeches did not come easily to her.
    “I’m still surprised you asked her anything at all. It’s not like you to be curious about a young woman’s private life.”
    “The last time we let one of our charges keep something private, we were taken captive and almost killed.” Even Dhulyn could hear the dryness in her tone. “I’ll admit it’s hard to see how these princesses could be involved in the disappearance of our two Brothers, but this marriage was contracted for before they vanished,” Dhulyn said. “We cannot rule them out entirely, not just yet.” She looked up at her Partner. “What of the other one? It seems she may be in need of sympathy and comfort, considering the role she’s about to take on, especially if, as the young cousin implied, she leaves love behind her.”
    “What makes you suggest I was thinking of comforting her?”
    Dhulyn looked at her Partner sideways, trying not to smile. “You’re always thinking of comforting someone .”
    “That’s because you never need any.” Parno pressed his shoulder against hers, and Dhulyn answered his pressure with her own.
    “You’re all right then, being back here in your old School? I wonder how I would feel, to be back in the mountains with Nerysa.” The tone was light, but Dhulyn felt the reality of Parno’s concern under it.
    “This was my home for many years, after I thought I would never have a home again,” she said, knowing that Parno would understand. “But watching these youngsters, here where I used to be one,” she shrugged. “It only makes me feel old.”
    “Old? You?” Parno spoke almost loudly enough for the man at the wheel to hear. “You’ll never be old, my heart. Now me, I was born ancient.”

    “If it were not for the cover it gives you to enter Menoin without questions, I would tell the Princess Cleona to find another ship.”
    Parno took his eyes away from the apprentices practicing signals—some close together, others as far apart as the narrow-beamed ship would allow—and eyed Dorian with interest. The irritation present in the man’s words was not noticeable in either tone or facial expression. At least, not that Parno could see. Dhulyn, of course, knew her Schooler much better, which was not to say that the man had no secrets. From what Dhulyn had told him, the first time Dorian had spoken to her, in the hold of the slave ship he’d rescued her from, it had been in her own language, the tongue of the Espadryni, known to the rest of the world as the Red Horsemen. Dorian had used that language only once more, on the day Dhulyn had passed from being a youngster apprentice to a Mercenary Brother. She had never asked her Schooler how he knew the language of a dead Tribe, and Dorian had never explained.
    “Princess causing trouble, is she?” Parno said now. “Well, isn’t ‘passenger’ another word for ‘trouble’?”
    “She is holding herself very stiff, very aloof, showing smiles only to the young cousin. Did I tell you Princess Cleona pretended at first not to know me?” Dorian said. He grinned at Parno, who