Read Online Valour's Choice by Tanya Huff - Free Book Online Page A

decided instead just to answer his question, responding to his teasing smile with as bland an expression as she could manage.
    “Yes, sir.”
    * * *
    Outside the high walls of the landing field, huge, fernlike trees not only made it impossible to see more than a few meters from the road but explained why the city had been so difficult to spot from space. Torin only hoped that the defense satellites were as good as tech thought they were because should the Others break through, take Silsvah, and attempt to enslave the Silsviss, it would be a nasty job taking all these overgrown bits of it back.
    Not that the Silsviss would be particularly easy to enslave, she acknowledged, listening to the soft rhythm of claws impacting with pavement.
    They hadn’t gone far when the burned concrete smell of the landing began to clear from her nose and Torin got her first unimpeded whiff of Silsvah. It reminded her of hot summer afternoons spent turning the compost pile, of anaerobic bacteria, and of scrubbing the algae out of the water troughs. It reminded her of one of the many reasons she’d left the farm.
    The crowds lining the roads hissed and pointed and occasionally clusters of them would break into high-pitched ululating cries. It didn’t sound friendly, but Torin was willing to allow that Ret Aslar knew his people better than she did— H’san cheering for the home team sounded like they were being skinned alive. Although some of the platoon were looking just a bit twitchy by the time the parade came to a stop at the edge of a wide plaza, they managed to form up without incident.
    Taking her place at the rear, behind the three sergeants, Torin made a note of rigid shoulders and flattened hair and hoped that whatever was about to happen wouldn’t take long.
    They were facing an enormous colonnaded building set off from the plaza by a set of steps broad enough to be used as a graduated dais. The two groups of diplomats stood between their military escorts and the stairs. The media occupied the outer edges of the first two sections and standing on the top were those Silsviss too high ranking to be bothered with a trip to the landing field. A male and three females, judging by size alone, or a large male and three smaller males, or two smaller males and a female, or two females and a smaller male or... Now this is a species that could use a little pink and blue. The actual genders were of no immediate importance, Torin just liked to know. They wore robes—the first she’d seen—of some pale, diaphanous fabric that glittered in the sunlight and all four exuded nearly visible arrogance.
    At least half the media seemed to be pointing their recording devices upward, and everyone seemed to be waiting for something to happen.
    The big male at the top of the stairs stepped forward.
    Inflated a brilliant yellow throat pouch.
    And roared.
    Shit! Torin couldn’t hear anything over the pounding of her heart, but she saw at least three weapons snap up into firing position and her own muscles trembled with an instinctive need to respond. Lieutenant Jarret stepping forward brought her back to herself, and she marched around to take up his vacated position, thankful for the chance to move. This, at least, had been covered in the briefing.
    “At some point in the ceremony we’ll be asked for our battle honors.” Lieutenant Jarret had gazed earnestly at his sergeants as he passed on the bare details of the day. “ Staff Sergeant Kerr will take the platoon while I answer.”
    If it turned out that the lieutenant had known just what form that question would take and hadn’t told her, Torin planned on kicking his aristocratic derriere right back to Ventris Station where he could repeat the course on keeping his NCOs informed.
    Standing on the first step, he raised his head and began. “We are of Sh’quo Company...”
    He clearly knew he couldn’t match volume for volume so he played with tone, answering the heat of the Silsviss challenge with