Read Cry of the Newborn for Free Online

soil to stop it leaching elsewhere.'
    Lucius made to reply but a loud and angry child's voice cut across the orchard. Hesther raised her eyebrows.
    'Come on,' she said. 'Time to go before the children freeze to death.'
    Hesther hurried back towards the cart. All the Ascendants were gathered near the mule's head. The animal looked on mournfully while they argued. But it wasn't about the apple. She heard snatches of accusation and taunt. Quite without warning, Gorian's hand, ungloved, whipped out. She heard the slap like a whip crack in the crisp air. Ossacer screamed and fell to the ground.
    'Gorian!' she bellowed. 'Come here.'
    'But—'
    'Right now!'
    He dragged himself over reluctantly, she speeding her pace to meet him. She grabbed the errant hand.
    'He said I couldn't ever do it,' said Gorian, almost beside himself with infantile rage.
    'Do what, exactly?'
    'Feel the tree.'
    'And what had you said to him already?' 'Nothing.'
    'I don't believe you,' she said, exasperated and irritable with cold. 'He never starts it, does he? Now you listen to me, Gorian. You never, never hit your brothers or sister. You never, never hit anyone. And if I ever see or hear of you hitting someone again, I will stop you learning.'
    He tried to retreat, his eyes suddenly frightened, his face crumbling towards tears. She held his hand firm.
    'Do you understand me?' He nodded, his eyes welling up. 'Then learn to behave yourself. Now go and say sorry to Ossacer and get on the cart. I don't want to hear you until we get back to the villa.'
    She let him go and stood, sighing.
    'Little boy temper,' said Lucius. 'He's just cold.'
    Hesther shook her head. 'I'm sure you're right.'
    Herine had to keep her expression deliberately neutral and her body outwardly relaxed. From either side of the Prima Chamber, shouts were exchanged and papers waved. Men and women stood to point and accuse. Their ire was directed at Marshal Defender Thomal Yuran of Atreska. The Conquord's latest member was already a controversial figure with his country simmering on the edge of civil strife. And Herine's announcement of planning for future campaigns had brought him angrily to his feet.
    She waited and watched while he shouted back at his abusers or looked to her for an order for silence. Something he should already have learned she would not give. It was his words that had provoked this brief outrage and it was he who was riding the tiger. Eventually, the din subsided enough for Herine to raise a languid hand. All bar Yuran took their seats. He stood proud, his large brown eyes blazing from beneath his greying hair. He looked uncomfortable in a formal toga, clothing not indigenous to Atreska.
    'Marshal Yuran, it was lax of me not to welcome you officially to the Prima Chamber of the Estorean Conquord. My apologies. Welcome.'
    Ironic cheers and applause. The atmosphere relaxed and a brief smile crossed the Marshal's face. Next to him, his Estorean consul spoke some encouraging words.
    'Thank you, my Advocate,' he said.
    'It was also perhaps lax of me not to brief you earlier of our intentions although I must say that the same information has not brought my esteemed Marshals of Gestern and Gosland to their feet in protest.'
    'With all due respect, my Advocate, the positions of Gestern and Gosland are not as ours. We have j ust gained accession to the Con quord, following a bitter campaign against it. A campaign in which legions from all our former neighbours were sent against us. There are those in my country whose memories will be long and whose loyalty will be hard to gain.'
    He paused as another ripple of chatter ran around the chamber.
    'My honoured members of the Prima Chamber,' he continued. 'I apologise for the nature of my earlier outburst but not for its subject. Atreska and its citizens are only just beginning to accept the sight of the Conquord crest and its legions in every corner of their once independent kingdom. They are only just accepting me as a Marshal Defender