The Dread Hammer by Linda Nagata Read Free Book Online Page B

changed when he ran the threads, so he didn’t bleed out even though it was some long time later when he reached Samerhen. He went straight to his sister Tayval where she was reading in her room, and collapsed in a bloody heap on her carpet.
    She saved his life, pinching the threads that underlay his body and stemming the flow of blood. Afterward it took her many hours to suture his severed muscles and sew his skin closed.
    He learned later the officer’s name was Nedgalvin. Chieftain Rennish had lost one-quarter of her troops that night, before calling a retreat.

    On the next morning Ketty woke abruptly. Lurching to her feet, she stepped past Smoke, stumbled to the door, yanked it open, and took two steps in her bare feet before falling to her hands and knees in the fresh snow. She retched up bile and a remnant of supper.
    Afterward she was tired, but in the afternoon she was smiling again and she ate some soup. The next morning, though, her illness returned.
    That night Smoke lay awake beside her, fearing and fretting that a winter sickness had found her. Such spirits could bide where they were not wanted, slowly eating away the sweetness of life, leaving only a wasted husk where once a laughing person had been.
    He resolved to hunt the consuming spirit, but when he felt the threads it was not sickness he discovered but something small and far sweeter. “ Ketty ,” he whispered. Then he kissed her cheek and gently squeezed her shoulder. “Ketty, wake up.”
    She stirred and looked at him in the fire’s light, her gaze puzzled.
    He set his hand—very gently—against her belly. “It’s a magical thing. There’s a baby here, growing inside you.”
    She set her hand over his. “Are you happy?”
    “I don’t know how such a thing could be.”
    A puzzled note entered her voice. “Do you not?”
    “That’s not what I meant.”
    “But are you happy? I was afraid you’d be angry.”
    “Angry? Why would I be?”
    “I don’t know. I mean, it’s the way of the world that we should have children together . . . don’t you think?”
    “I think it’s a magical thing.”
    “Then you’re happy?”
    “I think so . . . Ketty, you already knew?”
    “It is the way of the world, my love. Why are you surprised?”
    ~
    T he Bidden are a mixture of Hauntén and human. It’s an unnatural blend and our children are rare. My father, the Trenchant Dehan, was the only child of his generation. He loved and married a Koráyos woman who safely bore twin daughters, but died in agony giving birth to my brother, Smoke.
    My father tries to find a new wife. He’s had many lovers, but none that suit him.
    I and my sister have enjoyed many lovers too.
    But it seems our kind must be in love to conceive a child—a deeply inconvenient prerequisite, I must say.

    A New God
    Fort Veshitan was the first stop for those women who had abandoned their lives—or what passed for a life—in the Lutawan Kingdom. At the fort they were taught the customs of the Puzzle Lands. Afterward, some went on to work, and others to marry, but many—driven by the fervor of the converted—went on to train as Koráyos warriors.
    It still astonished Takis how the cowed and timorous women of the south could be transformed into such fierce fighters—but then again, any woman who fled the southern oppression and made it whole to Fort Veshitan must have been born with a large helping of courage.
    The new refugees had all been packed off to their barracks by the time Takis came into the mess hall with Rennish and Helvero, but many of the instructors and counselors were still awake. The cook was too, and he came at once with bowls of stew, and sliced bread.
    Several minutes passed in silence as they ate. Finally Rennish leaned over, fixing Takis with a suspicious gaze. “It’s not like you to be so quiet. Are you all right?”
    Takis looked up with a side-eyed resentment. “Only you could get away with a question like that.”
    Rennish’s weathered face