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Different Kind of Courage [Darkover Series]
by Mercedes Lackey
Category: Fantasy/Science Fiction
Description: It takes a lot of courage to be a Free Amazon, but does that mean you absolutely must be a swordswoman?
eBook Publisher: Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust, 1985 Free Amazons of Darkover
eBookwise Release Date: June 2006
 
81 Reader Ratings:
Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [29 KB]
Words: 5879
Reading time: 16-23 min.
She'd not thought beyond taking shelter with them; she'd never had much to do with Free Amazons before. She'd heard tales, of course, some flattering, most not; and had tended to dismiss most of them as midsummer moonshine. The one thing she had been certain of was that no woman or girl who had taken her Oath need ever fear a man's overruling again. The little world beyond the Guild House doors had taken her completely by surprise. There, it seemed, women were free to be as strong, as clever, as self-sufficient as any man. They were free to order their own lives completely subject only to the few rules of the Guild. Rafi had been dazzled--she'd never dreamed that such a thing could have existed. She found something else within those walls as well. The Sisters of the Guild cared for one another. She stopped, leaning against a tree, too blinded by tears to continue pretending to hunt for wood. She'd had such hopes that here, at last, she'd find something she could do right for a change She'd wanted to belong, to find her place in that camaraderie. After seeing the care, and yes, the love these women had for one another, she knew there was nothing else in the world she wanted more. But she'd failed in the Guild, just as she'd failed everywhere else. She couldn't have guessed, of course, that the sole trade of the women at Helmscrag Guild House was the sale of their abilities as fighters, guards, and guides. Of the eleven women at the tiny Guild House, only the Guild Mother herself never undertook such missions. Unfortunately for Rafi, her woeful lack of physical abilities was as great as her lack of beauty. As a child she'd always been last chosen in games--in fact her presence on a side guaranteed an automatic handicap--and last as a dancing partner. Learning even to defend herself had been an insurmountable task.
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