Sunday, May 10, 2015

Dreams of Steel - Part 9

It just occurred to me that "Tahedo" is probably a state or form of martial arts - possibly some sort of form that uses a power like ki/qi.  I had just assumed it was a place name for some reason.


-----------------


In front of the brass mirror, while his razor passed over his temples, Kratos noticed that the bags under his eyes looked more swollen than other days.  He filled his chest with air and straightened his shoulders, and noted with satisfaction how the fibers of his muscles rippled lively.  He was still full of vigor.  In the training room he touched the breastplates of the others every time he tried and made all but Aperión kneel, because he never risked testing his steel against him.  But those bags, the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes, and his right shoulder, which in the mornings grated like an old door, all sang softly in his ear a woeful tirade.  His days of plenty were dried up like autumn leaves.  Soon he’d be left bald like a poplar tree in the rain.  And the truth was that in the Tahedo, when he uttered the formula of the Mirtahitéi, the second acceleration, his body took hours to recover from the strain.  As for the third...  He would not dare to invoke it unless his life were on the line.

Time, it was a matter of time:  time that passes, time that slips, time that does not arrive on time...

Should he pass up his opportunity to get the Sword of Fire?  According to the ancient rule he had the right to present himself before the Pinakles, as his right arm boasted the golden armband with nine marks that made him one of the greatest Tahedoráns of Tramórea.  But Aperión had left it quite clear that he would not allow any of the three grand masters to leave Mígranz to contend for the possession of Zemal.  Before that they would have to publicly swear him allegiance and fealty.  Ghiem had pretended to do so with enthusiasm.  Siharmas resisted, but he had already confessed to Kratos that they were overwhelming him and he might eventually give in.  All eyes were fixed on Kratos himself.  How long would it take him to surrender and swear allegiance, that was the question.


-----------------


The next section appears to have some mild (?) sexual overtones.  As a warning, I'm a pretty conservative person and will not translate anything that gets too graphic.  I mean, I usually just skim over sex scenes when reading in English, there is no way that I'll spend three hours pouring over the text for each post just to satisfy the curiosity of a handful of internet readers.  Go buy the ebook and send it through Google Translate if you are that interested.

That said, the next section looks fairly clean, so I don't think this will be a problem.

No comments:

Post a Comment