Naamah's Blessing by Jacqueline Carey

Author:Jacqueline Carey
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9780446576055
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2011-05-31T10:00:00+00:00

FORTY-FIVE

In the wake of our first battle, once the worst of the aftermath had been dealt with, I found I had a rebellion on my hands.

Alain Guillard, the hotheaded Azzallese baron’s son who had bunked in one of the wardroom’s cabins aboard Naamah’s Dove with us, was arguing that we should turn back; and he’d convinced at least three others.

“This was madness from the beginning!” he railed. “What in Elua’s name were we thinking, any of us?”

“I was thinking I abandoned some of my dearest friends and the Dauphin of Terre d’Ange to their fate!” Denis de Toluard retorted with unexpected force. “And that I’d been given a chance to redeem myself!”

“That’s your burden, Denis,” Alain said in a remorseless tone. “I didn’t.”

“Be glad I carry it!” Denis shouted at him. “It gives me nightmares until I can’t sleep at night!” He jerked his chin at the waiting common grave dug into the earth and the line of D’Angeline dead nearby, stripped of their armor. “If it didn’t, we’d all be like them!”

“And so we all will sooner or later!” Alain shouted back at him. He gestured savagely in my direction. “She doesn’t know where she’s going, Denis! None of us do!” With an effort, he wrestled himself under control. “We’ve been on the road for months, and we’re not even in sight of these fabled jungles. Now we’re supposed to rely on people like to slaughter us in our sleep to assure us we’re on the right track?” He shook his head. “We’re only days away from the borders of the Nahuatl Empire. If we turn back now, we stand a chance of surviving this.”

His allies murmured in agreement, and others looked uncertain.

“Don’t let him get the upper hand, my lady,” Septimus Rousse murmured in my ear. “If you do, he’ll never relinquish it.”

Bao nodded. “He’s right, Moirin.”

I took a deep breath. “My lord Guillard speaks the truth! I don’t know where we’re bound. The task is harder, and the journey longer, than I knew.”

“That is not what I had in mind,” Bao muttered.

I ignored him. “But I do know that Thierry de la Courcel lives, and I know it is my oath-sworn duty to attempt to rescue him.” The spark of my diadh-anam blazed steadily in my breast, lending me strength. I pointed at Alain Guillard. “You volunteered for this, my lord. All of you did. You begged for the chance to accompany us. Will you turn back now, just because it is hard?”

A few men chuckled.

Alain glared at me. “Do you think it is easy for one of Azza’s scions to admit he made a mistake?”

“No,” I said softly. “I don’t.” I glanced at the D’Angeline dead lined up beside the open grave, at Clemente DuBois, his slit throat gaping, his empty blue eyes gazing at the sky. He would never make another nervous jest.

Stooping beside his body, I closed his eyelids gently.

I straightened. “If anyone wishes to turn back, now is the time,” I announced. “My lord Guillard is right.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.