Read The Golden Sword for Free Online

seen the deadly Parset lash, the huija, upon any of the men. Readying the threx for racing, they traveled light.
    “I, also, would hate to see the sword go again to the Menetphers,” Hael agreed. “But. I think you still miss the point of the board.”
    “The point, as I see, it, is that Besha is insufferable. She is more lofty than her station. I would be as loath to see her triumph as I would the Menetphers.”
    Chayin gestured to the jiask, who unstoppered one of the bladders he had brought and handed it to his cahndor. He drank deeply and handed the drink to Hael.
    “Still,” Had said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, “Guanden should run. Besha will be only more difficult , if you leave her behind. Perhaps something will occur at Frullo that will remind her of her place. But neither you nor I, such as it would pleasure us, can be the one to do so. Doubtless her insolent manner will attract some other jiask, someone not of the Nemarsi. Let us cast again.” Hael pointed to the board, to the pieces Chayin still held in his hand.
    “Marshon!” snapped the cahndor. The jiask jumped to his feet. His blue eyes were startling in his sun-weathered face. I saw he was younger than I had thought. He wore only breech and sword belt, and his ribs showed clear under his binnirin-colored skin.
    “Marshon, take this crell and get her cleaned and fed and return her to me. And have a meal brought to us.” Chayin dropped his gaze to the game and threw the bone pieces.
    Marshon the jiask was leaning over me, obscuring the board, and I did not see how the throw fell out.
    “There is nowhere for you to run,” said the jiask, looking me up and down, “and no use in you causing yourself trouble. I will unbind you, and we will walk to the pool. I would not have to wash you like an infant.”
    I nodded, and he removed the rope that bound my hands in back of me. Then he led me through the tylas to the deep, wide pool, cool in their shadows. The young jiask reached among the vegetation and broke from its stalk the fruit of a large succulent.
    “This will take the dirt from you,” he said. “Watch.” And I watched while he thrust the plant beneath the water, swirled it around, then snapped it in half lengthwise and rubbed the exposed whitish pulp against his skin. I tried the strange whitish plant upon my arm. It slid across my skin, and where it had been, I was shades lighter. Convinced, I lathered and rubbed and dunked and lathered again, until the water was murky with silt and suds. Moving deeper, I worked the strange, fruity gel from the plant into my hair. When that was done, I lay upon my back and floated still upon the pool’s surface. My abraded feet throbbed my heart’s rhythm.
    I turned the game’s fall in my mind. I wished I had been there to see the play. Chayin’s next throw would have designated the pieces to be used, as well as showing the result of surrendering the woman from the prime mover’s square to the ebvrasea of overriding purpose. Then the pieces would have been assigned, placed on the board, and the dice cast. And cast, and cast. And through the dice and the pieces and the two players’ abilities would have come the probabilities inherent in the approaching time. One, eventually, would win, capturing the other’s pieces. How this win was accomplished, and upon what squares the drama unfolded, would greatly influence how the cahndor and the Day-Keeper pursued their goal. The power of yris-tera is very great. Sometimes I have wondered whether it is not too great, whether the game does not condition the time, rather then predict it.
    I sighed to myself. The first two throws had seemed to speak directly to me. Hael had hinted that he, too, saw me upon the board. I could make no sense of the mid-level, nor why the Day-Keeper had chosen to move the woman there.
    “Enough, crell! There will be nothing to eat but bones.”
    I opened my eyes and regarded the jiask. I climbed dripping upon the