"Shirley Meier & S. M. Stirling - Fifth Millenium 05 - Shadow's Son" - читать интересную книгу автора (Meier Shirley)

ShadowтАЩs Son
Fifth Millenium, Book 5
Shirley Meier, S.M. Stirling and Karen Wehrstein

Acknowledgments
Our first inclination is to thank each other, but weтАЩre all getting paid for this, so ...
For critical help and support, thanks to the rest of the Bunch of Seven, who at the time were: Janet
Stirling, Louise Hypher, Mandy Slater and Julie Czerneda. Also to Dave Edmund and Dave Kirby.
For letting us stay at the cottage in Muskoka, again: Margaret Layton and Dave Kirby.
For inspiration: Way Lem (who recently moved to Muskoka), Fred Foreman (who helped pioneer
Muskoka), A. Pajitnov and V. Gerasimov (the creators of Tetris), Mike Oldfield, and the usual host of
others.
For helping perfect strangers at the mere mention of the name Fred Foreman, in the spirit of
Muskoka: Gail Dempsey.
And a particularly large second thank you to Janet Stirling, for doing the dishes and putting up with
three oversensitive, compulsive/obsessive, cranky, caffeine-gulping writers instead of the usual one.

Book I: Summons

I
The address was written with an Arkan pen, leaving none of the sputters and blots a quill would
leave. Megan Whitlock picked up the sealed envelope from the pile on her lap-desk. News IтАЩve waited
for? No, probably more of the usual pieces of glass and luxury items have risen again, with the
Arkan-Yeoli war drawn out so much longer than anyone expected ...тАЭтАФthe usual information that came
across the desk of the proprietor of a great merchant house.
She put the packet down, stretched, and strolled to the gallery that overlooked the atrium, its roof of
glass and translucent agate letting in soft winter light, and leaned over the heavy oak railing. Megan was
short, even for a Zak, a race shorter on average by a good head and a half than most others, with pale
skin, a thin, faded white horizontal scar across the top of one cheek and the side of her nose. Her
mid-calf-long hair was black with an ice-white streak at one temple, woven into elaborate braids which
held the long mass neatly away from the heart-shaped face and out of her black eyes. The fingers of her
hands tapped the honey-colored wood, her gray steel claws making a clicking sound.
SheтАЩd been working all day; time for a break. Below, ShkaiтАЩra sword-danced, the drill that began
with the Nine Cuts; beginning slow, her movements flowing into each other with a delicate grace
incongruous in a woman her size. She was near six feet, in Zak measure 178 schentiam, a good two
heads taller than most Zak. Her copper-blond hair was tied back in Kommanza warrior braids, bouncing
on muscular shoulders slicked with sweat. The hawklike features too were unusual in FтАЩtalezon; now they
wore a look of introspection, lips parted in a slight smile.
I married a woman from across the Lannic, Megan thought, smiling to herself as she breathed in
the sweet cinnamon-scented oil burning in the lamps that hung from the iron strapping of the roof. IтАЩm
used to how she looks, but IтАЩm still not used to her being my wife; or Rilla; or Shyll being my
husband either.
Nearby Sova, now fourteen and already considerably taller than Megan, tumbled with the puppies on
the flagstones, giggling, ash-blond hair pulling loose of its braids. Full-grown, the girl would be as tall as
ShkaiтАЩra, and not less muscular if the Kommanza had her way; now she was all feet and hands and
tangled limbs, her breasts finally rounded. The pups, Dee and Dah, were bigger than the girl now, though
not full-grown; greathounds not only outsized common dogs by double, but grew faster in their first
months.
Megan had never expected to adopt a Thane, one of her peopleтАЩs oldest enemies; but then not much
in her quest up the River Brezhan a year and a half before, to regain the Slaf Hikarme from Habiku