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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] when he realized that he had been the one forced to break eye contact. He shook his head slightly to clear it, then realized the Nomad leader had been silent for some time, his list completed. He was standing there staring at the Sauron leader with a look of amusement. Hel was startled by the dryness in his mouth. He had to swallow before he spoke. "... Acceptable. All seems to be in order." "Silva. Her name is Silva." Knowing the answer, he asked anyway. "What do you mean? Whose name?" "She is for you." He looked sharply over at the woman. She was staring at him intently, a look that cut through to the desire that had been growing steadily over the past hour. He slowly turned his head back toward the Nomad. Before the denial could form on his lips, the Nomad spoke again. "She is my daughter." His nostrils flared as he drew a sharp breath. He reached out, gathered a fistful of robe, and lifted the Nomad up to eye level. In a dangerously quiet voice, he said, "An explanation appears to be in order, here." The Nomad leader seemed undisturbed by the treatment and the accompanying unspoken threat. "There have been hostilities, ill will, bloodshed, between our people for too long. As the leader of our council of tribes, I have decided to try to put an end to it. I have convinced my brothers that if we present our best to you, you and your people may come to realize our true intentions. As a token of my feeling toward this goal, I have given over my daughter to the Tribute Maidens, hoping she would be worthy for you. Do you find her . . . satisfactory?" Diettinger stared at the Nomad, groping for his name. K . . . Kar? . . . Karn! He realized he had been bobbing him up and down, as if testing the Nomad's weight before throwing him. He opened his fist abruptly and was slightly disappointed when the Nomad didn't collapse. "Tribe Leader Karn, your tribute is accepted. Take your people and animals and get out. And Karn?" The Nomad cocked his head expectantly. "Next time, send someone else to present the lists. Your attitude leaves something to be desired." "In some people's opinion, sir, it contains something to be desired. May your days be filled with interest." The First Soldier of the last bastion of the Sauron Empire stood staring at the back of the departing Nomad, wondering why he had not had him killed. He could not for the life of him come up with an answer. There had never been any question, really, of his not taking her to wife. The death of his father in a landslide in theHighPassregion had been painfully unexpected, more because of his sudden unprepared rise to leadership at the relatively young age of seventeen T-years than to any actual grief. When he thought of his father at all, he merely felt a bit embarrassed that he had failed to die a warrior's death. His mother had been dead for most of his life, and his father had claimed he was too busy to worry about taking another one now. Hel knew the real reason was that he would have had to choose a local. Deep in his cups one night, his father had confessed revulsion at the prospect of, as he put it, "humanizing cattle" with a Sauron child. Therefore, Hel was the only heir to the first leaders of Haven. When that leadership fell on his barely adult shoulders, he knew, at least, two things. He would have to father an heir, and he would have to do so with a Havenite. There were two reasons for this. The first was simple genetics. Long study sessions with successive Page 139 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Breedmasters over the years had aquainted him with the rather precarious situation he and his people were in. Breeding for the attributes of a Soldier was a chancy business to begin with, and although it had succeeded to an extraordinary degree with the Sauron Soldier, the price was high. Deformities and obvious non-Sauron traits could be, and were, dealt with in the Breedmaster's domain. The child was normally never seen by the mother. The less obvious variances could only appear through regular genetic testing. This was easy enough on Sauron itself, where a gene pool of billions served as a leveling of the effects to begin with. Not so on Haven. Even the best made equipment, Sauron made equipment, wears out over the years. Although the current Breedmaster was at least two hundred years advanced medically over anything else on Haven, this was due more to procedure and training rather than to technology. The ability to do a genetic scan at birth had vanished before Hel had been born. This moved inbreeding from a clinical possibility to an active menace. His grandfather had had the foresight to realize this. Thus had begun the Tribute Maidens. The idea was a leavening of the Sauron gene pool with the better of the non-Sauron stock. After all, as his first teacher had put it, "Even Sauron evolved from cattle." Hel had always, then, considered it a duty to the race for him to take a Havenite bride when the appropriate time came. The second, and greater, reason had to do with his newly acquired followers. Though given all appropriate courtesy due his rank, he knew he had yet to prove himself, in battle or in progeny. Fathering an impressive child, a soldier, by a non-Sauron, would show not only that he was an adult and a Sauron, but that he was independent of his father and capable of choosing a path that the old man was known to disapprove of. Like any good Soldier, Hel Diettinger knew his duty, and knew he would be able to perform it despite [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |