The Shadow of Tyr
Page 48
‘And what of people like me? I was tied into a slave’s existence until you came along. Now I’m the High General of Tyrans! Ocrastes’ balls, Ligea, there are thousands of us out there who would bend down and kiss your feet in gratitude. You’ve suffered, it’s true, and so have others. But the vast majority of us who survived, we know it was worth it.’ He waggled his forefinger at her. ‘And I’d say that, even if I was stone-cold dead, with Bator Korbus’ lance through my arse!’
She stared at him, her mouth open. There was a long silence. And then she began to laugh. He glared at her. She covered her mouth, but couldn’t stop, until finally his mouth twitched, and he joined in.
‘Goddessdamn, Gev,’ she said at last. ‘You are so good for me. I had thought I’d never laugh again.’ She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, knowing the tears contained more than just mirth. She added, suddenly sober, ‘Do you know what the irony of all this is? It was Brand who taught me to feel compassion. And what I learned was what killed him. I should have slain Favonius while I had the chance, in Kardiastan. I should have wiped the damned Stalwarts off the face of the land. And I didn’t. I had the opportunity to kill Rathrox, hesitated—and lost the chance. And so, years later, Brand died.’
‘Compassion is never wrong, Ligea. And Brand would be the first to say it.’ He waved a hand out over the vista of the city. ‘Would you bring back the Cages and jam-pack them with everyone who might just possibly cause you trouble in the future, the way the Exaltarchy and the Brotherhood used to? That’s no way to govern! Cruelty may give you short-term victories, but they don’t last. And what comes in the wake of tyranny is always worse than what follows compassion. Always.’ He gave a bark of laughter. ‘And I never dreamed I would ever say that! Gevenan of Inge speaking of the benefits of compassion? Melete’s tits, old age is making a milk-and-water weakling of me.’
‘You’re not old, not you.’ And he was right. Or she had to believe he was right. No, both of those things. She sighed. ‘I don’t know what I shall do without you.’ She wanted desperately to ask him to stay. Vortexdamn, she needed him! How could she run this recalcitrant land without a general she could trust by her side? But she wouldn’t ask. He had a right to his own life. Sweet Elysium, Brand, she thought, that’s your doing, you Altani barbarian. There was a time when a thought like that would never have occurred to me. She blinked away more tears.
He feigned surprise. ‘Without me? Me?’ He rubbed a hand over his head, and she noted his hair was thinning. And it was grey, too. ‘You know, I don’t know about this going home business. I’m a lousy sailor. And it’s an awful long way over land. To ride all that distance, for a man of my age? My knees hurt.’ He pulled a wry face. ‘Let’s face it, Ligea, my wife married again and my boys were raised by another man, my daughter married a Tyranian legionnaire who settled in Inge—I know all that already. What’s there for me to go back to? Besides,’ he added, offhand, ‘we still have some more Jackals to track down, don’t we? They have to be plucked out and squashed. Now’s our chance, while they are headless…’
She smiled, and felt once more the stirring of excitement, the pull of danger.
Some things never changed.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks to those who helped bring this book to its published state; and no, I never tire of thanking the same people, because I owe them so much!
My agent, Dot Lumley; Voyager associate publisher, Stephanie Smith, and all the team at Harper Collins Australia; copy editor Kim Swivel; cover artist Shane Parker; mapmaker Perdy Phillips; and beta readers Alena Sanusi, Mark Timmony, Trudi Canavan, Donna Hanson. And two very special authors who helped me in many, many ways with this particular book: Karen Miller and Russell Kirkpatrick. Without their generosity of time and thoughtful assessment, The Shadow of Tyr would be less than it is. Thanks guys.
About the Author
Glenda is an Australian who now lives in Malaysia, where she works on the two great loves of her life: writing fantasy and the conservation of rainforest avifauna. She has also lived in Tunisia and Austria, and has at different times worked as a housemaid, library assistant, schoolteacher, university tutor, medical correspondence course editor, field ornithologist and designer of nature interpretive centres. Along the way she has taught English to students as diverse as Korean kindergarten kids and Japanese teenagers living in Malaysia, Viennese adults in Austria and engineering students in Tunis. If she has any spare time (which is not often), she goes birdwatching; if she has any spare cash (not nearly often enough), she visits her daughters in Scotland and Virginia and her family in Western Australia.
Visit Glenda Larke at:
www.glendalarke.blogspot.com
www.glendalarke.com
For information about Glenda Larke and her books, plus all the latest science fiction news, visit:
‘Voyager Online’: www.voyageronline.com.au
the website for lovers of science fiction and fantasy.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
Other books by Glenda Larke
ISLES OF GLORY TRILOGY
The Aware (1)
Gilfeather (2)
The Tainted (3)
THE MIRAGE MAKERS
Heart of the Mirage (1)
Writing as Glenda Noramly
Havenstar
The Mirage Makers
Glenda Larke
Heart of the Mirage
Book One
The Exaltarch rules the Tyranian Empire through force and a network of spies known as the Brotherhood. In Kardiastan, Tyrans has forced out the Magor ruling class and imposed their own leaders.
Ligea Gayed, one of the top agents of the Brotherhood, is ordered to find a Kardiastan rebel leader and bring him to justice. A straightforward enough assignment for her, but all Ligea finds is mystery upon mystery. The rebels seem able to come and go at will and any attempt to pursue them across the desert ends in disaster.
Ligea has to face her own demons and her own violent past to discover the secrets of Kardiastan…
The Isles of Glory Trilogy
Glenda Larke
The Aware
Book One
‘I almost regretted having Awareness. Without it, I wouldn’t have noticed a thing; I would have been as oblivious to the danger as everyone else.’
Blaze Halfbreed doesn’t like Gorthan Spit, but she’s being paid to find an enslaved Cirkasian woman. A woman needed by the Keepers to further their political ambitions.
When Blaze sees dunmagic running over the floor in the taproon of The Drunken Plaice, she knows trouble is not far away. Could it be in the form of the three tall, very handsome men at other tables? Just what is their business here?
Her search for the Cirkasian takes Blaze deep into Gorthan Spit, and she is horrified to unravel a threat to all the Isles of Glory…and a more immediate threat to her own life.
Could the key to it all lie with an ancient legend of vanished islands?
Gilfeather
Book Two
‘I first met Blaze and Flame the day before I murdered my wife…I wouldn’t be recounting any of this, except Blaze insists I must. She says it’s important that you Kellish people understand the Isles…’
Branded a murderer and banished by his people, Gilfeather is unwittingly caught up in Blaze and Flame’s dangerous quest. He’d much rather be going home to the Roof of the World.
Blaze and Flame have fled Gorthan Spit and are searching for in the Isles of Glory…
As they hunt their quarry, problems multiply. Is there something wrong with Flame…can she be trusted?
The Tainted
Book Three
‘I plunged into the darkness…When I emerged, I was on the other side of death, in a life about which I understood nothing. I was Ruarth Windrider and I was human.’
The balance of power in the Isles of Glory is threatened by the growing strength of the Keeper Isles. The alien gh
emphs are forced to take sides, ending generations of neutrality. And it seems that Ruarth Windrider’s difficulties have only just begun—Flame is not at all happy to see him, and Blaze Halfbreed has disappeared.
Again this backdrop of upheaval, the selver-herder Gilfeather and the patriarch Tor Ryder strive to find a way to destroy magic…all magic.
And in Kells, Anyara Teron dreams of voyages of discovery…
Voyager online
for travellers of the imagination
Booklovers of science fiction and fantasy have a new destination! Voyager Online has the latest science fiction and fantasy releases, previews of upcoming titles, book extracts, author information and weekly competitions. It also features exclusive contributions from some of the world’s top sci-fi and fantasy authors.
There’s a message board where you can discuss books, authors and anything about sci-fi and fantasy with other fans, a place for you to read and submit book reviews, and there are special offers and competitions for members.
So why not visit Voyager Online today at:
www.voyageronline.com.au
Copyright
Voyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia
First published in Australia in 2007
This edition published in 2010
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
www.harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Glenda Larke 2007
The right of Glenda Larke to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
25 Ryde Road, Pymble, Sydney NSW 2073, Australia
31 View Road, Glenfield, Auckland 10, New Zealand
77–85 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8JB, United Kingdom
2 Bloor Street East, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 1A8, Canada
10 East 53rd Street, New York NY 10022, United States of America
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Larke, Glenda.
The shadow of tyr.
ISBN 978 0 7322 8199 1 (pbk.)
ISBN 978 0 7304 4390 2 (epub)
I. Title. (Series : Larke, Glenda. Mirage Makers ; bk. 2).
A823.3
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com