Steal the Dragon (Sianim 02) by Patricia Briggs

Author:Patricia Briggs [Briggs, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-02-10T07:00:00+00:00

Rialla moved her frog to an empty square on the board, and shook her head.

"No. That happens sometimes in Ynstrah and some of the provinces in the Alliance where they depend on slave labor in their agriculture. Occasionally they'll hamstring a runaway here, but only one of the less valuable slaves—more to serve as an example than to keep the slave they've crippled from running again. A dancer is too valuable to damage that way."

She smiled dryly at Tris. "That's not to say that he'll let me go unpunished. The Master has an aptitude for creative retribution."

Tris was staring at the game, but Rialla had the feeling that he wasn't really seeing it. He finally moved a piece and looked up. "Are you sure that you want to go back?

You're paying an awfully high price for a chance at vengeance."

Rialla nodded, moving the frog again. "It'll be worth it if it works. If it doesn't…"

she shrugged. "There are other reasons as well. You told me that you've traveled.

Have you ever been on the other side of the Great Swamp?''

Tris shook his head.

Rialla shifted on the bed, trying to find a comfortable position for her leg. "Did you ever wonder why Sianim is so anxious to stop the fighting between Reth and Darran?"

He raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "I should have. It is hardly in Sianim's best interest to prevent wars."

"Exactly. When the Spy master called me in to persuade me to accompany Laeth here, he explained his reasoning. Apparently there is a good possibility that there will be an invasion coming from the eastern side of the Great Swamp."

"There are always wars among humans," commented Tris. "I would have thought that Sianim, with its mercenary hoards, would be delighted at the thought of another one."

Sometimes Tris had a way of making the word "human" sound like a name that gutter-bred children called each other to start a fight. Since he seemed not to hold her humanness against her, Rialla let it pass unremarked.

"I would have thought so too," she agreed readily. "But this isn't just any invading force. It's an army that has conquered all the nations in the East in something less than a decade. The leader of the armies is a man who calls himself the Voice of Altis. He claims to be a prophet of the god Altis, and the religious revival is spreading faster than his armies. The Spymaster thinks that the only way to resist the invasion will be to unite all the Western countries against him; and he has a nasty habit of being right."

"So he supports the alliance of Reth and Darran," said Tris.

Rialla nodded and continued, "None of this would have much bearing on what I'm going to be doing at Winterseine's hold, except for one thing. The people of the East apparently do not believe in magic; it's been so long since they've had wizards that they've long since dismissed the existence of magic as a child's fable.

"The 'miracles'

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