Sunday Snippet: Many different paths to death
In today’s Sunday Snippet, we’re with Taz and Hiro, the two warriors sentenced to spend eternity on different planes, unless they manage to meet at the exact moment one of them dies. Over many lifetimes, they become experts at making death a drawn-out production to give each other a chance, but that isn’t as easy as it sounds…

Water splashed over the prow of the boat and the cold made me gasp. The craft rocked in the suddenly roiling waters, forcing me to brace myself against the sides. The Gu-Chian was too wide for bridges for most of its course, and swollen to capacity during the rainy season. My little boat had drifted with the current, but now it was picking up speed.
I scanned the expanse of water for obstructions and searched the banks for a clue for the growing pace. There was nothing. Just water with the occasional ripple, a wide stretch of meadow on either bank, and then woods beyond. As the wind blew the rain clouds towards the south, the sky overhead lightened from dark grey to the palest of blues—and then I saw it: a thin haze veiling the horizon, like a layer of mist on the water.
The falls that marked the border between Hestorand and neighbouring Sakkad were fearsome, regardless which side one observed them from. The Gu-Chian’s glassy waters rushed over the edge of a dizzying drop in foaming swirls and eddies until they hammered against the rocks in a wide, deep cauldron where the torrent whisked water into a mix of foam and spray.
And I was headed for the roaring chaos in a small wooden craft without oars or a rudder.
“The falls, Hiro.” My voice was oddly breathless. “The Gu-Chian Falls! Gods, that one never occurred to me. How do you rate my chances of arriving in Sakkad in one piece?”
I crawled into the bow and peered over the edge. The river’s surface reflected the pale blue of the skies. A handspan deeper, the water was murky, heavy with silt and small stones. There’d be larger stones, too, dragged along the riverbed by the force of the current. They’d smash the boat to splinters long before it reached the bottom of the falls. And me with it, unless I wanted to try swimming.
“The gods gave us our minds, so we can change them,” I told Hiro. Only hours earlier, I’d been disappointed that Hestorand’s queen was denying me the death I’d prepared myself for. Now, faced with another chance, I found myself reluctant to give up my life.
I tested the current with the dagger and my fingertips and judged it too strong to swim, bruised and battered as I was.
“Unless I want to throw myself into the driver and drown before I reach the falls, I’ll have to stay with the boat. And hope you’ll make it before I’m dashed against the rocks. I’ll tell you one thing, Hiro: when you prepare yourself to die by fire, being faced with a watery death is… disconcerting.”
Today’s Sunday Snippet story, Repeat Offence, is available from
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