Read Analog Science Fiction And Fact - June 2014 for Free Online Page B

fell and Teo leapt atop him. They seized each other's knife hand by the wrists.
    Kal threw a leg straddle and the two rolled across the grass flailing. The watching legionnaires gathered round in a circle shouting encouragement to both fighters until a call from the herald bade them open up for the First's view.
    "Blood for blood," whispered Kal. "Ya know what I gotta do."
    Teo had entwined his legs with Kal's so that the two of them seemed almost a single organism. He nodded and relaxed his grip on Kal's knife arm slightly. The blade touched his shoulder and ran like a line of fire down his arm. The blood ran hot.
    "Break," he said to Kal; but Kal hesitated. A deeper slice would cut Teo's bicep, maiming him. It was a sore temptation to a weak man.
    Teo led him not into temptation by executing a shrug-and-roll, escaping from the hold and whipping his knife to Kal's throat simultaneously with Kal's mirror move.
    "Well, now, Rabbit," said the Serp. "Looks like a tie."
    The next day, Teodorq and Kal, along with Sammi o' th' Eagles, were brought into the great hall before the kospathin. The prince spoke in the ironman
yashiq
and the Wisdom translated not only into
plavver
but also into a passable
sprock.
    "He's pretty sharp for an old man," Kal said under his breath. "Still gripes me how he was picking up the
sprock
while he was teaching me
bo-yashiq."
    A tall yellow-haired man with pale eyes struck the floor with his staff and said something Wisdom Sharèe Mikahali translated as, "Hear now the justice of Aya Herpstone, kospathin of Cliffside Keep."
    "Proverbial is his justice," cried the sidemen lining the hall. Teodorq suspected that anyone disagreeing with that proverb had long-since ceased to line the hall, but the cry had a ceremonial sound to it, like when the shamans sang upon the ancestors and the Folk responded with ancient lines.
    "Be it known that in a display of skill and bravery, the Men of the West have engaged in a fight to the death..."
    "Hey," muttered Sammi. "Leave me out of it."
    "... And while We of Cliffside Keep admire such pointless bravery, the offense over which they quarrel touches not on the honor of Cliffside Keep, House Tiger, or the Little Father of the North, and therefore We declare it null, void, and of no merit within Our holdings or those of the Little Father and his other children. We take all such offense on Our own head in mercy, and will regard any further attempt by Karakalan Vikeramof or Theodore Nagaramof to strike at one another, either directly or through such an intermediary as Sam Iggleson, as an offense against Our Mercy and against Our Own Person, to be punished as dogs are, at one grade above the Spike."
    Teodorq wondered if that was one grade better or worse than being impaled and decided that it was better not to ask. The lord evidently had other fates in mind for them than mere entertainment. He regarded Kal and Sammi from the corners of his eyes. The Serp glowered; Sammi seemed thoughtful.
    "Further, given that they have revealed themselves as fell fighters, it is Our desire that these three men be enrolled in our Foreign Legion and sent to scout Our enemies."
    It was a subtle move, a mere flick of the eyes, but the First glanced toward the Wisdom when he said that, and that was when Teodorq decided who the real chieftain of Cliffside Keep was. The kospathin was to all appearance himself a fell fighter. His muscles came from swinging that long sword from horseback; and his scars proved he did it well, for they were bold enough that anyone less expert would have died in the fight that won them. But the clever mind rules the hale body and, as the bowmaster calls the shots on a hunt, the chief minister aimed his lord at targets that he chose.
    After the speech, they were walked through a fearsome oath calling upon numerous gods whose natures were unclear but whose threatened retributions were not. Even Kal went a little pale at the penalties foretold. They were, after all, on these