Zshurii's Song (Snippet 8)

A story fragment from the Eastsong Cycle

(Read Zshurii’s Song, Snippet 7)

Rhecah, for her part, seemed to be spoiling for a fight. “Don’t fret thyselves, sisters!” Tumbleweed neighed, as if for emphasis, and to Zshurii’s irritation, Cactus echoed him. “There ain’t a soul manning the walls of that slaughter pen,” Rhecah called out. “The judges heard we were coming, and now their yak-brained army is busy knitting them dry underclothes.”

Scattered whoops and nervous laughs greeted the steppe-folk warrior’s jeers. But Zshurii took no heart from her friend’s ranch-hand crudity. If anything, the slender fibers of her courage felt more fragile than ever, compared to the likes of Rhecah, or Arawah, or Commander Anntica.

The battles she’d already fought and survived should be making this easier. But there was no reasoning with the dread lurking in her soul.