Light Of Eidon by Karen Hancock

Author:Karen Hancock [Hancock, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Baker Book Group
Published: 2003-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

21

Abramm slid his ivory archer three spaces on the diagonal and forced Katahn’s shield bearer into the game board’s central pit, exposing the Esurhite’s king to attack. Then he looked up. “I believe you are besieged, sir.” He spoke in fluent Tahg now, thanks to eighteen months of Shettai’s private tutelage.

Katahn scowled at the board. “Khrell’s Fire! How did you do that?” Abramm had captured or cut off every one of his pieces, leaving Katahn’s king with nowhere to go. It was a gambit he’d only recently thought up— daring and risky but, if one’s opponent wasn’t anticipating it, devastatingly effective. He’d won in six moves.

Katahn continued to study the board in disbelief as Abramm leaned back on his pillows, glancing around for the first time since the game had begun. The spacious top-story, four-chamber suite was one of only six in the entire amphitheater. Darkened, bead-curtained doorways stood to right and left, beside clusters of intricately beaded skulls. At his back, the cool night air wafted in from an open window overlooking the city. Directly across from him, ceiling-high potted palms framed a colorful mosaic of the goddess Laevion breathing life back into the stitched-together pieces of Khrell’s dismembered body.

When Abramm had returned to his quarters following his impromptu evening matches, his Sorite slave had stripped off his ruined costume, washed away the blood, sweat, and paint, and dressed him in fine black woolen trousers with a silk undershirt and stiff, knee-length tunic of violet brocade. He was then brought up to Katahn’s quarters, where food and wine and nubile, half-clad young women awaited his pleasure.

Left alone with them, he had nibbled the spiced meat and oranges they offered, chewed soft bread, and sipped fine wine. He had listened to them sing and watched them dance to the music of pipe, drum, and kit’el, their curves sliding provocatively in and out of their veils, their dark eyes watching him with seductive intensity.

Though the intent of it all seemed clear enough, it still left him baffled. Brogai custom forbade the indulgence of one’s lusts on the eve of battle, and tomorrow he faced the biggest battle of his life. He could not afford to be sick or muzzy headed.

Few men untouched by the fire of Khrell had ever stood against a Broho and lived. But there were those few—men who had resisted Broho magics, who could not be Commanded, who had shaken off the Veil of Fear. He intended to be one of them. Intended, if he had to die, at least to go out with honor, fighting to his last breath. . . . Tonight, of all nights, then, he must abstain.

And Katahn offers him his daughters?

The Brogai Gamer had arrived an hour ago with the uurka board and, seeing the mostly untouched food, had reproved him mildly for his abstinence. Then they’d plunged into the game and the matter was forgotten.

The girls had removed the spiced meat and bread. Now all that remained was a basket of fruit, a plate of golden, crescent pastries, and a bowl of green, honeyed cumlaats.

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