Read Michelle West - The Sun Sword 03 - The Shining Court for Free Online Page A

be."
    "We've had this argument before."
    "It is not an argument, Jewel. I merely state fact."
    "I like your jaw enough to ask you to stop stating fact, okay?"
    It wasn't entirely impossible that she'd lose her temper and slug him, although she almost never did anymore. House training had taken her temper away from her in bits and pieces and forced her to hide it in the strangest places.
    "Very well," Avandar said, not at all bothered by the threat. "Your dream."
    "It involves you, so pay attention."
    That got their attention. She didn't really want it. "I've been having the dreams again."
    Carver snorted. "So tell us something we couldn't guess."
    "You know the drill. Three dreams. Three nights."
    "You've had 'em longer than three nights, Jay. It's been— what—at least a week. I think tonight's the
eighth
night. If it's the same dream, that's some wyrd, all right."
    "It's the same dream."
    "What is it?" from Teller.
    "I'm alone. I'm traveling alone. I think I'm the scout at the head of an army, but whenever I turn around, there's only one man behind me."
    "Who?"
    She raised her head. "He's wearing armor. But it's so bloody it looks like red steel. He's carrying a sword that's jagged and curved, a great sword—but he holds it in one hand. I know that I wouldn't even be able to lift it. A great helm hides his face, but not his eyes—his eyes—"
    She could hear the scritch of Teller's quill against paper as she paused to draw breath.
    "In his wake, as if he's a tide, there are just
so many
dead. I can only see them truly in the shadow he casts, but everything is there. It's as if he's just walked through all of history leaving a corpse behind for every year that's passed. Children. Women. Men in the strangest armor I've ever seen.
    "He—"
    Silence. They were waiting. She hated that they were waiting, but she appreciated that they could. "I've never done anything really important without you," she said quietly. Her voice was the dream's voice, but her words were her own. She saw Carver and Angel glance side to side; saw Finch frown. Arann wasn't with them; Daine looked—because he was smart—to Teller.
    Teller continued to write.
    "I realize that he only walks when I walk. That if I stand in place, his shadow doesn't grow any longer. So I stop."
    "Then," she said softly, "I hear horses. Or something that sounds like horses. They come from where I've been heading. I look up, and I see her."
    Silence. Edged now, sharp with things unsaid.
    They waited while the oil burned.
    "She is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life. Her skin is fair and unblemished, her hair is long and pale and fine."
    Teller frowned. "
Long and pale and fine, like a blade's edge, she pierced their hearts and led them, led them all, the fine chase, the dark road
."
    They all turned, even Jewel.
    "It's the poem. Shurtlev's 'Winter Hunt.' You remember it."
    "I… remember it." Jewel closed her eyes. "But this… woman… She is mounted on—on a creature that was once human. At least I assume it was; it has a human face." Her eyes almost snapped open; she was denying the clarity of vision; replacing it with the familiarity of friendship.
    "I want to run. But she's already seen me. She knows who I am. She
knew
who I was, even though I've said nothing. She lifts a horn to her lips and blows it; they appear at her side."
    "They?"
    "Her host."
    "Jewel."
    She turned to look at Avandar, who had only barely learned not to interrupt her.
    "When you say host, what do you mean? This… hunt… Teller is correct. It is described in Shurtlev's 'Winter Hunt,' and it may be—"
    "Thousands."
    "Pardon?"
    "Thousands. She's emptied her court."
    "How do you know this?"
    "It's my damn dream," she snapped back irritably. "How the Hells do I know anything in a dream?" But she choked back the rest of what was only hysteria trying to find expression. "She—gods, she was so beautiful—she says, 'We've come for the Hunt; the hunting has never been so good.' And