(eng) Miles Cameron - Traitor Son 01 by The Red Knight

Author:The Red Knight [Knight, The Red]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Lissen Carak—the Abbess

The Abbess watched the captain’s sortie head east along the road, moving so fast that they were gone from sight before she recovered her eagle.

I have certainly given away my station to every gentleman here, she thought. She wondered if the siege would leave her any secrets at all.

Parcival, her magnificent Ferlander eagle, was killing his way through the flocks of wild birds like a tiger let loose in a sheepfold. But she could see the big old bird was tiring, and she began to cast her lure. Just to be sure.

She whirled it carefully over her head, and Parcival saw it, turned at the flash of Tyrian red, and abandoned his pursuit of his defeated enemies. He came to her like a unicorn to a maiden—shyly at first, and finally eager to be caught.

His weight was far too much for her, but young Theodora helped her, and got a faceful of wings for her trouble as the creature bated and bated again, unused to his mistress having a helper. But she got the jesses slipped over his talons, and Theodora put the hood on him, and he calmed, while the Abbess said, “There’s my brave knight. There’s my fine warrior—you poor old thing.” The eagle was tired, grumpy and very pleased with himself, all at the same time.

Theodora stroked his back and wings and he straightened up.

“Give him a morsel of chicken, dear,” the Abbess said. She smiled at the novice. “It’s just like having a man, child. Never give him what he wants—only give him what you want. If he eats too much we’ll never get him into the air again.”

Theodora looked out from the height of the tower. The plain and the river were far below them, and the eagle’s sudden stoop from this height had shattered the lesser birds.

Amicia appeared from the hospital with a message from Sister Miram. The Abbess looked at it and nodded. “Tell Miram to use anything she needs. No sense in hoarding.”

Amicia’s eyes were elsewhere. “They’re gone,” Amicia said. “The enemy’s spies. Even the wyverns. I can feel it.”

Theodora was startled that a novice would speak directly to the Abbess.

The Abbess seemed untroubled. “You are very perceptive,” the Abbess said. “But there’s something I don’t like about this.” She walked to the edge of the tower and looked down. Just below her, a pack of nuns stood on the broad platform of the gatehouse and watched the end of the rout below and the disappearing column of dust that marked the captain’s sortie.

One nun left the wall, her skirts held in her hands as she ran. The Abbess wondered idly why Sister Bryanne was in such a hurry until she saw the priest. He was on the wall, alone, and praying loudly for the destruction of the enemy.

That was well enough, she supposed. Father Henry was a festering boil—his hatred for the captain and his attempts to discipline her nuns were heading them for a confrontation.

But the siege was pushing the routine away, and she worried that it would never return.

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