Rise of a Hero (The Farsala Trilogy) by Hilari Bell

Author:Hilari Bell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
Published: 2008-06-23T00:00:00+00:00

SORAYA DIDN’T GO to see him during the days Calfaer lay in the surgeon’s building. She didn’t need to, and she knew he didn’t need her, or anyone here any longer.

Had they planned it together, he and Barmael, that first night Calfaer approached him? How convenient it was, that there were no other Brasnians in the camp to say that there was no such thing as ‘ill-wishing’ in their culture. Still, Calfaer had paid a high price for his homecoming. Soraya was happy for him, though she knew she would miss his company.

On the morning when the cart train in which Calfaer would travel was ready to set off, Soraya went to bid him farewell.

It was already a breathlessly hot day, with a brassy taste in the air that Soraya knew meant clouds were gathering over the sea. The first of the summer thunderstorms would arrive late today. Soraya hoped the cart train would have reached shelter by then, for Calfaer was in no condition for a drenching.

He hobbled out of the surgeon’s building, walking on his own, though he moved as slowly and stiffly as an old man, and the carter had to help him into the cart.

Soraya waited till his breathing eased before she approached. “I came to wish you well,” she said. “Though I know you’ll be well, where you’re going.”

“I will indeed,” said Calfaer. His face was tight and pale with pain, but the satisfaction had changed to an incandescent joy, as clear to Soraya’s senses as a shout of triumph. “Though I’ll miss you, my girl. Be . . . Take care.”

Be careful. How much of Soraya’s story had he guessed? It didn’t matter, for she knew he would never tell anyone.

A clerk hauled a chest of documents up to the cart. “Io, it’s hot already! What’s it going to be like this afternoon, if it’s this hot now?”

It might well be raining, at least by evening.

The carter snorted. “It’d be less hot if you just brought the scrolls I need, instead of lugging the whole chest around.”

“Think I don’t know that? But it’s even hotter in the record room. The candles are melting! Well, they’re getting squishy. And the windows there are so cursed small you can barely see to read, even in broad daylight. Besides, most of these are yours anyway. I hope you’ve got a document box.”

The carter had to move several bundles to extract the document box from under his seat, but eventually he got it out and the clerk unlocked the chest and started sorting scrolls—dispatches, supply requests, accounts. Soraya would have spoken with Calfaer, but he was watching the clerk with a curious intensity.

“And travel orders for the slave,” the clerk finished. “He’s going all the way to L’dron, so you’ll have to pass him off to another cart train in the capital, but it’s all here, with proper authorization.” He handed over a final scroll, and some of the tension eased out of Calfaer’s shoulders.

“Did you doubt?” a soft voice behind Soraya rumbled.

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