Free Hawkmoon (The Hawkmoon Chronicles) by Unknown Page B

be home in six months.
     
    They sent her to his room a month after he started training. Massage and whatever he desired.  They were good to their slaves here but a slave was still a slave. She  waited for him, sitting on the edge of the bed   The day was warm and she was tired .She lay down and closed her eyes. The room was in darkness when she woke Someone had covered her with a blanket. As she passed the common room he was poring over maps with the tribesman.
    Last week, as  she was passing the training ground she heard him laugh.  . They talked about him in the kitchen. He  never  made demands. He was appreciative of the smallest service….
    They said he had lost all memory of his former life. Undoing the clasp at her shoulder she  let the  dress slip  to the floor.  His  arms and shoulders were marked  with scars and bruising. The night  was warm.. .
    A soft knock came on the door . It opened and a blond  head came round ; Anna, one of the house slaves. Ilse put a finger to her lips. The girl  smiled and closed the door.
    She traced her fingers   from the base of his neck to the hollow of his spine. He murmured stretching  an arm across her.  She turned her back  against his chest, her bottom nestling against his stomach.. Lifting her head from the pillow he put the other arm through and  drew her to him. He slept and, after a time she drifted..
    She came awake to sounds of people going by in the corridor. It was morning. He was awake, looking at her.
    “I dreamt I was sleeping with a beautiful girl.”
    “No one knows your true name. What are you called?”
    “I am Hawkmoon.”

 
     
                                                                    Fever.
     
    Mira considered her travelling companion. From the look of him he had been finding it hard in the forest.
    “Have you anymore?”
    She passed him walnuts and the last of the fruit.” We are not stopping until evening. Can you cook?”
    “I am quite the chef”.
    “You won’t have much to practice your culinary skills with. From now until we part company you will make camp and tend to the animals.”
    “Agreed, my lady.  There is food to be found  in the swamp; despite its pestilential air. I know of a grub that lives in the trunk of fallen trees.”
    “How do you cook it?”
    “It is best eaten alive”… Mira wrinkled her nose.
    “Hunger is a great sauce, my lady. May I enquire as to your destination?”
    “I am bound for the Royal City .You are a native of  the Parish?
    “Indeed I am, my lady, although I have not seen its borders for some years”
    “It is unusual to see a Halfman so far from the Parish. They are  known as a people who like to stay close to home”.
     
    The Parish, is a flat strip of country  close by  Shaleen’s Gate. Bordered to the west by Silvlerlode and to the south by the river Ob, its inhabitants are a quiet folk who, while they keep their secrets have a passion for minding other people’s business. In latter times  they  lived to the north of the Inland Sea where they suffered at the hands the Wampyrhii…. They were at  the point of extinction when Hawkmoon came with the Rangers . It was  Summer  in the High North  with  long days and short nights.  The vampires fought  to hold on to their  slaves.  The mission had not been sanctioned by  those in authority.  Seventeen men and eleven women died. They were refused burial. It marked the end of Hawkmoon’s official membership of the Free Company. 
    Chandra  refused them leave to settle and Hawkmoon went to Silverlode where he made a petition to their Queen who made a land grant  near the Gate .  No one could have foreseen the consequences of  her generosity..
     
    “We dislike that phrase. While we lack the physical stature of  the men we are valiant when called upon…Might I enquire how you knew me? Most people take me for a minor  elf.”
    “We had a