Shines Now, and Heretofore by Rachel Neumeier

Author:Rachel Neumeier
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Redemption, Epic Fantasy
Publisher: Rachel Neumeier
Published: 2022-05-20T00:00:00+00:00

7

They left Kandun five days later, Kuomat and Alet and their two companies together, riding west and south toward Kinabana, down exactly the same road Kuomat and his people had been forced to climb so short a time before. It seemed much longer.

Kuomat was glad to leave Kandun, yet at the same time, as the distance between their company and the town increased, he almost thought he could feel the leash of fealty stretching out and out behind him, a constraint that tightened rather than eased with every step his horse took. This was an odd perception. He could not remember anything of the sort from his past life. He was not entirely certain what caused the feeling now. Loyalty to Nolas-e Emelan Terusai? This seemed unlikely. Regardless of his oath, everything he was, everything he had ever been, rebelled against that notion.

Not that he intended to forsake his oath. Indeed, no. He had never expected to step back into the world. He had believed he would live and die an outlaw. But already, even so swiftly as this, he knew he could not have returned to that life. Aside from every other consideration, Kuomat had to acknowledge, if only privately, in the quiet of his own mind and heart, that he was glad simply to have stepped back into the world. Glad to have stepped back into the company of ordinary, decent folk, for all he had never and likely would never entirely belong to that company himself.

A captaincy in a noble house; he would never have looked for that to lie ahead in any road he took. Yet it would do. Authority enough to content his pride—that was an amusing thought, but true. Useful work, work that for the first time in many years made him put forward all his attention and care. Also welcome: better food, comfortable furniture—even a clean, straw-filled mattress, though Kuomat had not yet had any opportunity to sleep on it. Kuomat would be well enough pleased when Captain Seben finally eased his manner so far as to rescind his command regarding the bed. No more disgusting pranks had occurred; Seben’s boys had prudently kept their distance since the evening Kuomat had overseen their humble apologies to Meraseh and Talai.

The senior captain had beaten Kuomat each day, exactly as threatened. Yet, though each incident left Kuomat biting back anger and nausea, never since the first day had Seben dealt out more than a single beating between one dawn and the next, nor carried out that punishment before the witness of any other person. Only once had he dealt more than five blows. That had come at a moment when Kuomat had answered the senior captain with more sharp insolence than usual and therefore could not claim the punishment was unjust. No, as the days passed, Seben was plainly losing his taste for the exercise as he grudgingly acknowledged Kuomat’s competence. Not a trusting man, the senior captain, nor inclined to change his mind easily,

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