Eternal Sky 01 - Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear

Author:Elizabeth Bear [Bear, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2012-03-26T22:00:00+00:00

The Qersnyk harlot paced and swore in her velvet captivity. Al-Sepehr caused drink to be brought to her, delicate ices against the heat. At first she hurled everything at the servants and raged. But al-Sepehr knew that any hawk can be gentled by hunger, and he persevered.

At last, driven by thirst, she drank a little tea with mint in it, and sugar. And having drunk, it was easier to eat the next time. And so he worked to tame her, bite by bite.

She had a delicate stomach, which frustrated him. He must dine with her to tame her, and so he made time in his schedule. But the foods she could tolerate—and keep inside her—were only the blandest offerings. Those ices, such fruits as were in season at the advent of summer’s heat, plain yogurt, and pearls of wheat flour rolled small between the hands and steamed.

He heard reports of her behavior when he was not with her. She was watched at every moment: It was good practice for his young assassins to spy on her without her knowledge, and if she thought herself alone, she might let slip something useful. Al-Sepehr valued the harlot for what she contained, not what she was—and one of the things she contained was information. She was safe; she was immured in her cushioned mews until such time as al-Sepehr required her. It would serve.

He was the only visitor she was permitted, and that, too, wore at her. At last, in desperation, she spoke with him. Not at length and of no more than trivialities. Or what must seem to her trivialities, but there were chips and bits in what she said that al-Sepehr could put to use.

While he was not attending the woman, he spent a great deal of time on communication. Not with the stones in his pockets, for those were a finite resource and best reserved for emergencies. It was not as if virgin twins bloomed from the desert every time it rained, after all. Instead, al-Sepehr penned letters, coded and intentionally cryptic. These, he entrusted for delivery to the offspring of the rukh.

The young could fly in their first year but were not at that stage much larger than eagles. From a distance they could be mistaken for eagles, but eagles did not have snowy crests tipped blood-red. The immature rukh grew slowly. Even al-Sepehr did not know how long it would take them to reach the size of their mother, the adult that had carried the Qersnyk harlot to Ala-Din from the outermost east.

Or how long it would take to reach the size of even her smaller mate, which al-Sepehr kept mewed up like the girl. It was through the male’s captivity that al-Sepehr assured the obedience of the female.

The rukh’s children brought him letters in return, which was how he learned of the successful destruction of Qeshqer, and also the safe flight of that damned Qersnyk warlord’s son to Tsarepheth in Rasa.

That last was not bad news, exactly.

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