The Sheening Of The Blades (Book 1) by Kari Cordis Read Free Book Online Page A

chuckled.  “Banion, do you know any Stories?”  Ari looked up in eager longing.  Campfires needed stories like summer needed swimming holes. 
    “ Wonderful,” Cerise drawled in high disdain, “Campfire tales.”
    “ Oh, aye,” Banion rumbled.  “I’ll introduce you to tale-telling Merranic style.  Soon as everyone’s eaten.”
    True to his word, once the water was heating to clean their few dishes, he sat back, scratched his stiff beard, and said, “Hm…what shall we have?  Perhaps we should start at the beginning…”                             
    An owl hooted in the far trees, the fire glowed deep and orange in front of them, and against the infinity of darkness closing in around them, man did what he has done since the beginning of time.  He cleared his thro at, dropped the timbre of his already deep voice, and with wonderful smoothness, began:
    “ There came a time, before all things, when the gods grew lonely and the world seemed to them a dull and empty place.  It came to them to create a new world, ordered as they desired, that they might have pleasure and amusement and companionship.  So, in a great twisting and heaving and uprooting, with many storms and floods and quakings and great winds, they brought the lands into being.  And upon them they brought forth all the creatures that are.  Man was their special creation, and those first that walked upon the earth were fairer and stronger and keener of mind than any that came after.  The gods chose from amongst them those that were the most wise, of the deepest compassion, the sharpest intellect and soundest judgment, to be their leaders—a Royal Line of chiefs.  The first ones lived in great peace, for the gods taught them what was good to eat and how to raise it from the soil.  They taught them how to make snug homes and how to store for times unplentiful, how to live amongst the wild beasts and the forests and to gather from both so as to live in harmony with all.”
    “ Now, there are four gods.  Eldest and chief amongst them is Marek.  Also, Vangoth, Laschald and Raemon.  Of them all, Raemon was ever the most restless, pushing the gods to teach man more, to teach him faster.  More and more his voice was ruled against in their councils, for he wished things that seemed more than unwise—dangerous and ill-intentioned.  In those days, the gods appeared often to men, and when Raemon, forever reaching beyond his bounds, proposed to take a wife from amongst them, the council ruled in outrage against such unthinkable sacrilege.  It grew into a fierce and angry debate, until the council was driven to such shocked fury at his intemperance that they charged him never to appear to man again.”
    “ Raemon left them in a storm of anger, and appearing to those of his people loyal to him, led them from their homes to disappear into the wilderness.  Now, the settlement of man was called Ethlond, and though the first chords of strife had been struck, it continued to thrive, full of peace and beauty and only faintly touched by sadness.  For years, the people looked for the lost ones gone with Raemon, but never found a single sign of them…until…”
    “ War came.  Driven by resentment, pride, revenge, and worst of all, ambition, Raemon had trained those loyal to him to take by force what had once been freely theirs.  They fell on the grandsons and granddaughters of those who had once been their neighbors, and great was the innocent blood spilled that day, for always it has been their way to kill heedlessly, with no thought of honor or mercy.”
    “ The gods were deeply saddened.  It was to avoid war that they had wished to keep simple the lives of men.  Many years had they searched in vain for Raemon, hoping to make amends, but when they met him that day they found no hope of reconciliation.  Enmity had come to the world.  With sad and heavy hearts, feeling they had no choice, the gods taught Ethlond to