The Invisible Chains - Part 2: Bonds of Fear

The Invisible Chains - Part 2: Bonds of Fear by Andrew Ashling

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Authors: Andrew Ashling
Tags: Fantasy, Romance MM, erotic MM
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    direction, the north. That’s the front. So the back is the inland or
    the south. He obviously means sabotage. He means Tenaxos and his
    cronies.”
    “The one who thinks his sword will shatter Anaxantis’s? The one
    he doesn’t fear?”
    Emelasuntha shrugged.
    “Not the foggiest. However, we’ll find out. Please, read the next
    two sentences out loud for me will you.”
    She handed over the parchment and closed her eyes.
    “I dread the one who comes under cover of the night, when it is
    dark and everything appears black. Shields nor armor will protect
    me then, I fear.”
    “Again, please, but slower.”
    Sobrathi read the sentences again and looked at her friend, who
    still sat with her eyes closed. After a few minutes a broad smile
    appeared on the face of the queen.
    “Did you get it? What does he mean?”
    Again, Emelasuntha laughed out loud.
    “He means what he says. Literally.”
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    Andrew Ashling
    “Stop teasing me and tell me already.”
    “Didn’t it occur to you that the sentences sounded a bit...
    contrived, swollen even? ‘The night, when it is dark and everything
    appears black.’ Isn’t it a bit superfluous to mention that in the night
    it is dark? Isn’t it even more unnecessary to add that when it is night
    and thus dark, everything appears black?”
    “Now that you mention it...”
    “The next sentence is not exactly incorrect, but it sounds a bit
    pompous, wouldn’t you say? ‘Shields nor armor will protect me then,
    I fear.’ You know, his old teacher would write in red ink ‘Suggestion:
    No shield nor armor’ or something to that effect next to it, the Great
    Mother bless his grammatically correct, parchment heart. Anaxantis
    was a good student and he knows better. He has to mean something
    by it.”
    “Well?” Sobrathi insisted impatiently.
    “But it is staring you in the face,” the queen chortled. “It almost
    literally jumps off the page.”
    “You’re driving me crazy, you know,” Sobrathi said, beginning to
    lose her patience.
    “All right,” Emelasuntha said, giving in, but still laughing. “The
    sentences seem contorted because they are. And they are because he
    wanted two words next to each other. You almost don’t see it because
    they are separated by a period, but—”
    “Black Shields,” Sobrathi exclaimed. “Blah blah blah appears
    black. Shields nor armor blah blah blah I fear. He fears the enemy
    coming from behind, his father, will send the Black Shields to the
    Northern Marches and that they will come under cover.”
    “Very good. Very, very good, Sobrathi.” The queen smiled. “And he
    wants to hear from us soon. He wants to. know as soon as possible
    Bonds of Fear
    99
    if Tenaxos is planning to send the Black Shields to the Northern
    Marches.”
    Sobrathi whistled, and if it sounded exactly like the shrill sound
    the Tektiranga regularly produced, that was because he had taught
    it to her.
    “Wasn’t there something very fishy going on, the last time the
    Mukthars attacked?” she asked.
    “Fishy? Two weeks old, lying in the sun and rotting fish kind of
    fishy, you mean. It stank to high heaven. The Tribe wasn’t as well
    implanted then as it is now, you’ll remember, and I was still finding
    my bearings. Still, we found out that for some reason or other
    Tenaxos didn’t want to confront the barbarians. The Goddesses may
    know why. Anyway, what we do know is that he sent a special royal
    envoy to the then lord governor, a count or duke or something, and
    made him abort all action against the Mukthars.”
    “Whatever for?”
    “As I said, I’ve no idea. At the time it didn’t seem too important.
    What was it after all? Nothing more than a border skirmish. What we
    did find out however is that he sent a captain of the Black Shields.”
    “Just a captain?”
    “Just a captain? Captain is the highest grade in the Black
    Shields. A captain of the Black Shields outranks a general, even a
    commander-general, of the regular army any

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