The Hadra by Diana Rivers

Author:Diana Rivers
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781555833190
Publisher: Bella Books
Published: 2015-06-01T03:00:00+00:00

Soft as a dove,

Sleep, my sweet baby,

In comfort and love.

One by one, the other women rose and joined in the singing. They did not go in single file this time but walked out together with the two clans intermixed, the old ones leaning on the younger ones, all singing that lovely lullaby. Gradually the Hadra joined in. Together our voices rose and fell, swelled and diminished, women’s voices weaving over and through each other until it was one great sound like the sighing and moaning of the sea. The old stone walls of the ruined shelter above us seemed to echo with our song.

At last Norn stood up and said wearily, “Let it be as my woman says. I have never heard her speak before on such matters. Let it be as she says. She has shaken me to my soul.” He was shaking his head as he sat back down. Almost as if to himself, he added, “I thought all the games had been played out long ago. Perhaps, after all, there is something new in this world.”

With rage contorting his face, Garrell leapt to his feet, shouting, “You killed my father, old man! Do you expect me to forget that so easily?”

“And you killed my son, with all his bright shining life ahead of him. I will never forget it, not as long as I live. But will it bring him back if I kill you? Will your mother’s tears ease my heart?” Norn was shaking his head again. “Oh, how I am weary of all this. Garrell, we are being offered an honorable way to end this feud between us. I say let us take it while we can. We may not get another chance. Besides, our women are rebelling. They are telling us that if we keep on fighting, we do so alone.”

Garrell spit with contempt. “Will you let women’s words lead you like some snot-nosed child?”

“I have already answered, let it be as my woman says. You had better heed your own wife’s words before some greater sorrow comes to you from this.”

Suddenly, Lorren’s voice was heard above the others. “Tell us, Garrell, which will it be, peace this day or will you go on killing each other till none of you are left?”

At almost the same moment, Friana called out, “Garrell, please…I meant every word I said.”

Garrell was surrounded by a group of young men, the same ones we had encountered with him on the road the day before. Some of them were muttering angrily and one leaned toward him and said with contempt, “Will you let your will be bent by this cowardly Shokarn traitor in the guise of a Wanderer? He has lost his own battle and been disgraced, stripped of rank and uniform by his people. Now he has come crawling here to us with his plots and his plans. Why should we listen to him?”

Lorren did not flush with anger as I expected him to, but before Garrell could respond he asked quickly, “Garrell, if you have a better plan, say it now and we will all listen.

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