The Curse of Steel
In one fateful day, Kráva comes into possession of a sword of legendary power, and is claimed by the gods as a hero. She soon learns that there are problems she can't just cut her way through. Not to mention that the lives of the gods' favored are often exciting, glorious, and very short ...
Chapter 1
Deep in the night, Kráva sensed a presence. She snapped awake, one hand already gripping the knife beside her on the pallet. ...
Chapter 2
Morning found Kráva sitting outdoors, sitting on a low bench with her back to a round-house wall.Anyone watching her would se ...
Chapter 3
Múrvira, king of the Ravatheni tribe, was a liar.Kráva was not at all certain how she knew this. She had never met the man ...
Chapter 4
The Wolf-clan’s chieftain had seen many summers. He had silver hair, a long beard, and eyes that had gone weak with time. ...
Chapter 5
Three of them slipped out of the gate of Taimar Velkari a little before midnight, each of them leading a pair of horses. Kráv ...
Chapter 6
Kráva yelped in startlement, and drew Tarankláva out of sheer reflex. Strangely, neither Drúthan nor Lóka stirred at ...
Chapter 7
Drúthan stirred when the morning sun shone in his face. He rose, going to the stream to splash water over his head and refill ...
Chapter 8
“Lóka! Lóka!”The vaita came at Kráva’s call, slowly since he was shepherding three children across th ...
Chapter 9
The skátoi began their attack in the deep night. Sky Father’s star and the moon shone brightly down from their stations ...
Chapter 10
Kráva managed to catch about two hours of sleep, once the skátoi had been put to flight. At sunrise, she rose to a quick m ...
Chapter 11
They set out for Verkanta later in the morning, three hundred of them or more, keeping to a leisurely pace that footmen could fo ...
Chapter 12
That evening, the company made camp near an outlying village of the Wolf-clan. The villagers had seen none of the skátoi, and ...
Chapter 13
The next day, Lóka seemed his usual self once more, waving away Kráva’s attempt to apologize once more. He spent mos ...
Chapter 14
More rain came on the following day, enough to turn the road into a sea of mud and dampen everyone’s spirits. Travel was s ...
Chapter 15
Out in the countryside, and in the hill-forts, most Tremára lived in round-houses: a single floor built on a circular plan, w ...
Chapter 16
The royal residence was Mednákalë, a grand mead-hall, widely known as the largest and finest in all the Tremára lands. ...
Chapter 17
For a few days, a guarded peace held in Verkanta. Kráva made excuses to avoid the king's hall, not wanting to be the object o ...
Chapter 18
Two evenings later, the Sun-clan climbed the long path up the hill of Verkanta, to reach the front doors of Mednákalë. Res ...
Chapter 19
After all that, the feast itself felt almost like anticlimax. Kráva sat at her place at the Sun-clan’s table, and smile ...
Chapter 20
Morning came, and with it the dull pain that came of far too much beer and wine the night before. Kráva rose from her cold co ...
Chapter 21
Verkanta’s drill field was a wide space in the southern quarter of the town, kept empty of buildings, open to the sun and ...
Chapter 22
Kráva floated toward consciousness out of a deep sleep, somehow certain that someone had called her name. She woke, still wra ...
Chapter 23
Kráva woke briefly when they raised her off the ground, onto a makeshift stretcher made of cloaks folded over two spears. She ...
Chapter 24
In the morning, Kráva rose with the sun. She submitted to the examination of a healer-vaita, who removed most of her bandages ...
Chapter 25
While the king prepared to fight, Drúthan leaned close to Kráva. “Are you sure about this? Isn’t this just wha ...
Chapter 26
Shouts of anger and outrage, shouts of vehement support, half a dozen long-standing disputes breaking out all at once. Chaos.&ld ...
Chapter 27
The escape from Verkanta was not quite as simple as Kráva hoped, but she and her company did manage to find horses and suppli ...
Chapter 28
“Kráva.” Rána came forward, not quite within range of Tarankláva, and stared up at her. “Is it true? ...
Chapter 29
Kráva pulled up and dismounted from her chariot in front of the chieftain’s hall, surrounded by clansmen eager for news ...
Chapter 30
The enemy began their assault in the late afternoon, after a few straggling bands of skátoi arrived from the sack of outlying ...
