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Set a Thief [Darkover series]
by Mercedes Lackey
Category: Fantasy/Science Fiction
Description: The Compact prohibits any weapon "beyond the arms' reach of the one who uses it." So, are arrows lawful? Varzil may not like it, but Tayksa n'ha Elayna thinks this is a valid question. And he needs her help; someone is trying to kill him.
eBook Publisher: Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust, 1991 Renunciates of Darkover
eBookwise Release Date: August 2006
 
67 Reader Ratings:
Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [27 KB]
Words: 4985
Reading time: 14-19 min.
Tayksa sighed, kept her head down over her leatherwork, and hoped forlornly that she wouldn't get pulled into this particular argument with her Renunciate sisters. "Bows don't kill people," Leanna said stubbornly, her jaw set at an angle that betokened trouble with anyone brave enough to nay-say her. "People kill people." That's an oversimplification if I ever heard one, Tayksa thought, but she also remembered that Leanna was newly-oathed, a rawboned shepherd from the hills below the Hellers, and mightily partial to not risking her hide hand-to-hand with a wolf or a catman. Her folk hadn't even seen a fraction of the warfare that had been tearing land and people apart until the Comyn Lord Varzil--now called "the Good"--had begun putting a stop to it by conquering the quarreling factions himself. She hasn't seen clingfire, Avarra save us, Tayksa thought bitterly, recalling all too well the sight of those of the Sisterhood who had gotten a taste of the evil stuff at a venue much closer than "sight." Much less deathdust. On the other hand, she has a point. How in the seventh hell are shepherds going to protect their flocks, or farmers their families? They don't have time to learn swordwork; they've crops to get in. Huh. Come to that, it's only the rich and high-born that have the time to learn sword and knife--them, and those like us, that make their livings at it. And besides-- "If you take bows away from the common folk they'll be helpless to defend themselves--if you make it a crime to have a bow, then only criminals will have them," Leanna continued, her voice rising, saying the very words that had been in Tayksa's mind. "Would you mind telling me what good that will do you?"
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