Shirley Meier's Blog, page 66

READER POLL

Do you guys want to see Joras wake up?  
Does Joras stay a vegetable until he dies?
Or does he die quickly?
You tell me!

376 - Four Beads

"Ilesias, your teacher and classmates will be coming soon and you still have to have your breakfast." It was early, but Ili was up, ready to keep hunting for his pet."But Gan, Jia's still missing!"A knock at the suite door.  "Who is it?"  I went to answer it.  One of the Marble Palace servants stood outside, with Jia wound around his gloves and pulling on the silver barring on the man's belt.

375 - Most Honoured Mother

"MINIS!" Kaneka. "Get her!  Get Inensa!" Thank the… I lunged down fingers reaching my broken shoulder twitched as I strained. She was sinking faster and I couldn't reach her, my air burst out of my lungs in an eruption of bubbles. I couldn't… her hair, her braid had come loose coiled up and, shedding pins and I seized it though it bit me, kicked for the surface, for the firelight glowing above

374 - The Scent of Bitter Myrrh

She led me toward the one cliff, between the water and the backs of the other tents.  I vaguely WONDERED  where they were trying to retreat to.  The sounds of fighting were fading behind us, either because the wind was rising and the water was lapping higher, or because Kaneka and the others were winning. I was vaguely impressed that even as badly outnumber as they were the Mahid had fought as

373 - Mother, Don't Kill Me

I was about to vomit down Joras's back from all the jolting in my gut.  I couldn't even tense against his shoulder driving into my stomach, my hair now plastered across my face.  I saw the dart appear in his hip and could only hang there and wait for what came next.He stumbled.  We fell forward as he was continuing to try and run and landed hard, tangled together. I couldn't see what I hit or

372 - "JORAS! RUN!"

My hand flew up toward the dart to pull it out but began slowing down around waist height. Joras stopped where he stood in front of me.  I found myself staring at one plait of his braided hair, the shine of the moonlight on it.  I hadn't fallen.  I stood, like a stump in the middle of the road.A word drifted up into my mind like a bubble rising up through oil. It popped through the skin that

371 - Meeting on the Road

The moon had just cleared the cypresses. Things were about to become less chaotic.  I and 3rd Amitzas stood in the deepest shadows, right on the edge of forest dark. I despised this wilderness and considered allowing myself to long for a more orderly city.The Spark of the Sun's Ray is returning.  From my vantage point I could see the road down the hill.  My vantage disappeared around that bend

370 - The Women Talk About Difficult Things

Kyriala fanned herself thoughtfully and smiled up at a tiny bright, bright blue bird hovering before a pink flower three times as big as it was.  The Most Splendid and Regal Wings aviary reached all the way to the glass dome above, full of flowering trees and vines of all sorts, looking like a forest lifted from the tropical islands. Laisa stood over by a triangular glass wall that let one

369 - That Pile of Evil Dog Poops

 
"Kaita cannot come to look after you, Ilesias.  She is still working for the Etzen.  And your schooling… you will not be able to walk down every day, to Grass Alley, unfortunately."  Gannara was signing chalk.  He'd been at the house when I got home and he and Ailadas were sitting in the front room.  There was a solas in armour waiting by the door.  And he -- Ailadas-- had just told me I was

368 - Muunas be with Us

I am still Mahid. I looked at the rule-straight cut ends of Minis's hair across his shoulders as I followed him. I should think of him in honour, I should exalt him, but he said Minis, just Minis like friends, like… family.

He called me family. He said… and had proved to me that we were family. I was his third cousin, through the First's Wife, who was the Scorched Bastard Son of the Ten's