Page 21 (1/1)

‘As little as they possibly can,’ the warrior woman said in a sardonic tone ‘Over the years, they’ve foisted just about everything off on us We have to grow the food, hunt thefat and arguing with each other about so they call "philosophy" - most of which is pure nonsense’

‘Isn’t your sword just a little slender?’ the horseh to cut through any kind of ar on somebody’s armor?’ Trenicia asked scornfully ‘The important part of h an enes in an enemy’s belly or head My enemy always seeh her a few tiht ith other women?’ Zelana asked with a certain surprise

‘We almost have to,’ Trenicia replied ‘The men of Akalla don’t really knohich end of a sword is which There was an argument on the Isle a few years back about as really the queen We don’t have to argue any rees that I aive the orders’ She smiled a sunny sort of smile ‘Isn’t that just lovely?’ she asked theo turn cold all over There was a savagery just below her surface that was very frightening

Dahlaine h to hear their quiet talk

‘Have you told any of these mercenaries about that second invasion that turned up in Ashad’s dream?’ Dahlaine asked quietly

‘Not as yet,’ Veltan replied ‘I can’t for the life ofhi that I’ll be able to deal with it on ood at dealing inds and tides, and she could probably freeze any approaching fleet in place for the next few centuries’

‘I wouldn’t set that in stone, Veltan,’ Dahlaine cautioned ‘Ashad’s dream definitely put that second invasion ashore in the southern part of your Domain’

‘That doesn’t necessarily lock it in place, Dahlaine,’ Veltan disagreed ‘Eleria’s dreaan and all his bow stepped in and prevented that dreaht there on the spot As I understand it, these dreas rather than absolute certainties’

‘Well, maybe,’ Dahlaine conceded, ‘but keep your eyes and ears open’

‘This rounded shank fits right over the tip of the spear-shaft, O day when the two of theo’s door-yard ‘Then I whack it a few times with my hammer to sort of lock the spear-point in place’

‘That probably would work better than just lashing a knife to the tip of the pole,’ Oht,’ he said, ‘and so sort of came to me’

‘Another one of those pops of yours?’ Rabbit asked with a sly grin

‘Well, sort of It seeht be more effective’

‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen a spear with o went into his tool shed and picked up his wooden hay-rake ‘We use this tool to clear away the straw after we’ve harvested our wheat,’ he said, holding the rake out to Rabbit ‘If the points were sticking straight out instead of angling doouldn’t that be le point?’

Rabbit squinted, absently tapping his ha, Oreed ‘An ordinary spear only has one point, because you’re only trying to kill one eneot that venom we used back in the ravine, you could kill three or four snake-men with one poke Let’s try it and see what the Cap’n and Commander Narasan think about it If your people are all lined up the way you told us they’d be, that’d put a whole lot of poisoned points out to the front’

‘Who ca the points of your war-tools in venobow - or maybe it was One-Who-Heals - I’ snake-ood he is with that bow of his’

‘Did he ever tell you just why he hated the snake- with one of the men from his tribe back in Lattash, and he toldtosnake-ht about Let’s hammer out one of those rake-point spears and see what the Cap’n and Narasan think about it If it works even half as good as it seems to me that it will, I think they’ll really like the idea Every time you turn around, you seeo smiled faintly ‘It’s probably because I’m just a bit lazy, Rabbit Maybe someday I’ll come up with a tool that’ll do all my work for me Then I’ll be able to stay in bed until noon’

‘Now that’s the tool I’ve been looking for since the first day when I had to go to work,’ Rabbit said with a broad grin

Keselo turned the large o the back of it ‘You have to slide your left arrip on the bar That makes the shield a sort of extension of your arm, and you can block the strokes of your ene a spear The creatures we caainst in the ravine didn’t have any weapons except their fangs and stingers, but the shields held theh so that they couldn’t reach us I talked this over with Rabbit earlier this reed with me that wooden shields would work as well as metal ones, since the snake-ather up enough metal to hter and easier to carry than iron or bronze’

‘And if the shield was made of wood, Rabbit could probably attach a spear-point to the ested