Omnibus - Harvest Moon by Mercedes Lackey

Author:Mercedes Lackey
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2010-01-27T02:00:00+00:00

“I absolutely forbid it.”

Sergeant Kassan was not, as Teela had implied, happy. His eyes were a shade of unpleasant orange, but even if Caitlin hadn’t given warning, Kaylin would have known he was in a foul mood. The office was a lot quieter than it had been the previous day. But the silence was different. People were grimmer. The conversations that occurred were hushed, but not in a furtive way; there was no laughter. There were no smiles.

“Word got here before we did,” Teela said to Tain.

He shrugged. “I told you the Quartermaster was going to give you a hassle. She’s thirteen, Teela. He hates to equip half the Hawks on a good day, and they’re the Imperial version of legal.”

“The Quartermaster mirrored,” the Sergeant added. “And it took five minutes to talk him off the ceiling. He has no intention of arming a child.”

The child in question bristled, but managed to keep quiet, even though she knew how to wield a dagger.

“We didn’t intend for him to arm her,” Teela explained. “But some sort of rudimentary armor—”

“Which she would have no use for anywhere she’s going?”

Teela grimaced. It looked lovely. “I don’t know how much Lord Grammayre told you, but…she was helpful, Marcus. She was even, in my opinion, necessary. No, she didn’t have to fight a mage, and no, she’s not expected to storm a blockade, but she didn’t have to do either.”

“What, exactly, are you claiming she did?”

“She saw something that the mage missed.”

“Probably the nose in front of his damn face.” The Sergeant followed this with something that had a lot of r’s in it. “I don’t care if she saw the end of the world, Teela. I forbid it. She is not going on-site with you.”

“What is she going to do instead? Shuffle paper? File? You know if she touches the files, Caitlin’s going to pull all her hair out, and human hair doesn’t grow back so easily. They won’t take her in Missing Persons—she’s too young, and the visitors who come there are already spooked enough they want authority figures.” She leaned over his desk, somehow avoiding the piles of paper there. “She’ll be with us. Nothing we’re likely to encounter is going through two Barrani to get to a child.”

“Did I give the impression there was room for argument?”

“No, sir.”

“Then why are you still here?”

Teela nodded sharply and stepped away from the desk.

Kaylin, silent until this moment, stepped forward. She couldn’t lean over the desk without sending the papers flying, and didn’t try—instead, she walked around its side to stand to the right of the chair the Sergeant was now filling. He watched her, his eyes bronze, his brows scrunched over them in recognizable confusion. “Yes?”

“I want to go with them.”

One brow rose, changing the lines of his facial fur. “And some people want to jump off high buildings.”

“Yes, but they want to die. Or try flying, which is about the same thing if you don’t have wings. I don’t want to die.”

“Then you don’t want to tag along with Barrani.

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