The White Dragon by Laura Resnick

Author:Laura Resnick
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780312890568
Publisher: Blonde Trifecta
Published: 2003-12-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

It's lucky to be smart,

but it's smarter to be lucky.

—Zimran shah Emeldari

Tansen established his temporary headquarters inside Zilar's famous Kintish temple. It was noisy, since a dozen Guardians were busily destroying everything inside the temple which related to the Three. But it was convenient, since it stood in the center of Zilar.

As the sun set over Sileria, people gathered around the enchanted Guardian fires blazing throughout Zilar. Sharing food and wine and laughter, they exchanged stories of the war—tales which often grew taller in the telling—and shared their sorrows as well as their victories. Inside the old temple, glowing lantern-light flickered off the richly elaborate mosaics depicting Kintish gods, idols, and myths, elegant and mysterious figures that danced in the shifting light almost as if they had come back to life to celebrate along with the Silerians.

Tansen had issued instructions that anyone present in Zilar who was a clan leader or who commanded a rebel group should come speak with him. As twilight turned into night, he discussed with these men, singly and in groups, plans for opposing the Society in their villages and cities. These men had come from all over Sileria, from as far away as Liron and Adalian in some cases, and were eager to return home and celebrate Sileria's freedom with their own families and clans.

Some of them, Tansen saw, understood what was coming. They acknowledged and accepted the hardships they were bound to face as they challenged the Society in its attempt to fill the power void left by the Valdani. Others, Tansen knew, were just riding high on victory and wine, flushed with excitement and triumph. They would sober up soon enough, in more ways than one, and quiver in their boots when they realized what Tansen had asked of them. It was a good thing he'd made them swear a bloodvow while their spirits were still bold.

As Josarian had once observed, once men had sworn a bloodvow, they could be relentless, fearless, even brutal in pursuit of its fulfillment. Now, with fresh cuts on their palms and fresh vows in their hearts, the honor of all these men—and more than a few women, too—depended on them heeding their commitment, no matter what the cost.

There were ways in which organizing opposition to the Society was easier than starting the rebellion had been. During the time Josarian had waged war against the Valdani, rebels throughout Sileria had gradually created bases of operation and chains of command. Now Tansen's task was to redirect these established systems, created for the rebellion, toward their new enemy.

The waterlords not only commanded life's most essential resource, but also many well-trained killers. The assassins, like their masters, knew the structure and methods which supported the rebellion, because they had been part of it. They spoke the common language and various dialects of Sileria, they were born to its customs, and they knew its terrain as well as Tansen himself did. They had relatives and bloodpact relations among the very people now pledged to wage war against them.

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