Antha sat near Lerran’s desk with her feet up on the tabletop as he spoke with her. Her sandals were covered in dirt, and it was already collecting on the edge of his desk. He had offered her wine from his pitcher, but she drank from a small flask held in her muscular arms. Her short brown hair hung back.
“So, why did he do it?” she asked. Continue reading Lerran 17
The brown river water slid by the sides of their raft, shadowed on either side by aggressively extending palm or bark-nut trees. In the shadows beneath them grew an assortment of rubber trees and squat oil palms, and the water’s edges were lined with reeds and foliage, as well as water-lilies larger than a man’s face. Aralim rested with his feet up and watched the slow flowing water slide past him. The unending buzz of insects in the rainforest’s canopy was as hypnotic as it was painfully monotonous. Continue reading Aralim 11
For a few days after the Massacre of Sheld, the city seemed stunned. No shouts could be heard from the streets, no fights broke out in taverns, and a muted fog rose during the mornings. Before the sun had even evaporated it on the 2nd, Lerran finally received Captain Vagond of the City Watch. He had first spoken with that old man after they marched out of Worker’s Rise—he with wounded Isar leaning on his shoulder and Paksis with their unconscious captive thrown over hers. The City Watch had likely made the right decision in guarding the perimeter instead of sending in more men to die, but Captain Vagond had still seemed like a lazy, corrupt official. Continue reading Lerran 16
“Again,” Tagg barked, and Vaenuth lifted her wooden sword with groaning muscles. They stood on a cleared area of the barge that took four steps to cross; the wooden beams were smoothed and sanded, and sealed with sap and horse collagen. It was not a large area to fight, but it was a reliable one. Continue reading Vaenuth 23
Lerran’s back hurt. He was hunched, with a lock-pick and a hook, trying to get past the pins in his father’s lock. If he did, the mysterious safe in his father’s office would be his. It was midday, humid, and he was sweating. Continue reading Lerran 15
A few days passed after the vision entered Miresh’s dreams, and they finally reached Maykren. Aralim and his fellows had awoken late the day after, when a merchant with a two wheeled cart and a small dusty mule had trotting along the road above their little camp. The merchant, a small dark-skinned man with not a single strand of hair on him, smiled to them and asked if they’d like to travel to the city with him. Continue reading Aralim 10
Stinky and sore, Aralim walked along the blistering rock road. Though they had descended from the worst of the cliffs into an overgrown foothill region, the rocky terrain was more open and unprotected than the jungles north of them would be. The sun burnt down and crisped their skin red or grey. Despite their months aboard His Fifth Vision, neither Miresh nor Aralim were accustomed to this measure or intensity of sunlight and their white skin baked. Continue reading Aralim 9
After she had acquired a job for her caravan from a Selected of the Third Court of Rema, Vaenuth hired another ten workers using notice boards and taverns around the city; then she set to planning her trip. Knowing Banno’s potential objections to her ruthlessness, she had to decide to leave him in charge of her caravan in her stead. Hulean, the only member who could teleport—travelling without expense or significant danger—would be joining her mission team after two months, in the distant city of Sheld. Continue reading Vaenuth 22
It had been a long week, settling into his new office, and Lerran was almost ready for a break. As Gadra was speaking, he was looking at his new desk, once battering ram, and its random scratches. He would need to get it sanded and polished, he decided. They had already repaired the doors of Gharo’s old office. Continue reading Lerran 14
It was raining when Vaenuth woke up. A week had passed since her successful meeting with Ovoe the Keeper. While she knew—and had been told by everyone she spoke with about it—that she should be cautious, even scared, of the master spy and politician, he had succeeded in easing her worries and put her heart at rest. He was going to help her, in either case, and Vaenuth felt elated. Continue reading Vaenuth 21