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“Listen to me,” Arianna whispered. “None of them seem bad. But they are not what they seem. It’s that thinking that killed Loom, Flor. Don’t trust him. He will turn on you and kill you in a second if it suits him.” Florence swallowed. She knew Arianna had real memories of the time before the Dragons, when the Five Guilds were free and the world was run by the Vicar tribunal; when Fenthri didn’t have to be marked—when they were free to study and learn as they wanted. There was a terrifying lust for that time in Ari’s heart. “Do you understand?” “I do.” Florence nodded.
Dragon magic, inherently, couldn’t be used to manipulate anything tangible. But the moment the Alchemists and Rivets had expanded the refining process for steel, the whole world turned differently. Everything focused on the importance of gold: steel refined a final time with the presence of reagents—Dragon organs and blood.
It was easy to assess the Rider’s physical prowess, as the woman hardly wore clothes. Her breasts were wrapped with a sash tied from shoulder to waist. Her midsection was on display for the world, the same bright vermilion as the rest of her. More wrappings around her legs disappeared under a short skirt made of fur that left little to curiosity other than wondering what animal had died for her to have it.
The Dragon laughed. “You smell like Dragon.” He inhaled deeply, his eyes fluttering closed. Florence toed a step away before they opened again. The Dragon’s eyes drifted to Ari’s bag, so recently occupied by reagents. “At least, that does. . .” Florence finally got a grip on her pistol as another implosion rang out from afar. “But whatever you had there wasn’t his. Yet you still have that pungent scent of House Xin on you.” The Dragon inhaled deeply. “Little organ trader, tell me, you wouldn’t happen to know of the Dragon we’re seeking, would you?”
I love that nobody in this book is stupid. The all seem intelligent enough to survive this world.
making the long planks sag in the middle.
from he moment he
She was equal parts intolerable, brash, harsh, improper, and—worst of all—unfashionable. But there was a counterweight to her heart.
“I need this boon, Flor, because there is something he can give me. I will never be free until I finish what I made myself for. And, as much as I abhor the fact, it’s something he can provide.”
“Then the bill is void,” Arianna answered as though the fact was obvious. “So why make the money paper?” It seemed ill advised. “What else would it be made of?” “Metal?” Like on Nova. Arianna paused her counting and looked at him like he was stupid. Cvareh was many things, but he was not stupid and the look made him bristle. “We have more important things to use our metals for than money.”
Cvareh ground his teeth together at the use of his name without any titles. He could learn to live with the slight from Arianna, who hated everything, and Florence, who meant well but didn’t know anything. But these were Dragons. This was intentional. It was personal.
A dull thunk reverberated up through the Rider’s body and into Cvareh’s hand as a dagger plunged into the man’s heart. Cvareh felt Ari’s magic pulse through the Rider; the dagger twisted, pulverizing the heart before it retracted into her waiting palm. It was the first time he had ever been relieved to see one of those blades. “You idiot,” Arianna muttered, before she started on one of the other Riders.
Tracking the muzzle of the gun over the Rider that was still engaged with Cvareh, Florence planted her feet and pulled the trigger. It was a smaller version of the canister she’d given Arianna on her mission at the refinery—small enough that it required no extra magic besides what Arianna had stored in the gun with a flare of Alchemical runes. A beam of pure magic shot straight and true, punching a hole through the shoulder of the Rider that loomed over a bloody Cvareh. She stumbled, dazed. Arianna knew that look: glazed, dull eyes sent reeling from a sudden surge of foreign magic. She’d
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Good worldbuilding of le magic
They had no canisters on them that could sufficiently destroy a Dragon’s heart. Their chest cavities were practically made of diamond. And even if they did, it would need to be Arianna shooting it in order to give the canister enough magic to be lethal.
More good world building
It was true what they said about Dragons, that their bones were twice as dense as the average Fenthri’s.
Gold glinted on them, magic enabling journeys by air.
Like kallestone
Arianna set her second line flying toward a crane that loomed high above the docks. The cable clipped to itself, locking with magic. As soon as the new line was fastened, the first unwound and retreated back to its spool. Changing lines and cabling with her winch-box was mindlessly simple. Her hands knew how to move, her magic operating on instinct. She soared through the night unhindered. No barrier, no watchmen, could keep her out. The wind howled in her ears and her nose singed with the smell of the sea. She was weightless as she soared high above the port. She was well out of the glow of
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cruise around 27,800 peca an hour—or 27.8 veca an hour.
Good worldbuilding.. Systems of measurement continued to be explained.. Despite me not caring for this specific piece of wrldbldng
breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it ran with a refined engine. Most of the regular runners were outfitted with engines that could run on magic or steam to help save on coal. There would always be room for another Chimera on board a magically-propelled vessel.
Good wrldbldng
Not one vessel had headed for Ter.2.3, the main port of the Alchemists’ territory, in nearly a year. Arianna hunted like a Dragon on a blood scent through the port authority’s records for evidence of even one vessel headed for Ter.2.3. Sure, it was a far voyage and likely to only be made once every few weeks, even months. But to have none, in or out? That made no sense.
Good conflict
Yes, the Five Guilds of Loom were a connected system, a chain in which every Guild formed a link. So why was one being cut off?
Before the first Fenthri broke through the clouds, the Dragons had called the seemingly impenetrable barrier the Gods’ Line, as it separated their world from the next. Boco, the bird-like creatures they used to fly between the islands of Nova, lost control of their wings as they neared the speeding winds that always wove through the clouds. Every Dragon who tried to descend on the back of a Boco fell violently through the line and was never seen again. Certain death by falling into the afterlife had made attempts to descend unappealing. And for hundreds of years, no Dragons tried. When the
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Good worldbuilding
Gravity was her friend. It fought vertigo and, in free-fall, she didn’t need to exhaust magic on keeping herself airborne. That magic was better spent holding a thin corona around her and the vessel to protect herself from the winds. Her fingers froze; her braid felt like it would rip from her scalp. Magic cracked, reaching a crescendo as she pushed through, parting the clouds and opening Loom to her like an abysmal present.
Wrldblding
He curled his fingers into fists to keep his talons from unsheathing out of instinct when she threatened his home. “Why?” “For what you have done to Loom.” “What we have done?” he balked. “We have given you magic, we have gifted you with progress. We have imposed logical systems of government, a hierarchy in which everyone knows their place and how they fit.” She began to laugh, though he failed to see how what he said was funny. Arianna grasped her stomach and her shoulders trembled with barely containable, malicious mirth. “You—you gifted us, with progress?” She shook her head. “Dragon,
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When she took another step, Cvareh’s hand closed around her wrist before he could think to arrest it. He stopped her. Why did he stop her? Frustration knitted his brow. This woman was going to drive him mad long before they ever saw the Alchemists’ Guild. She had her prejudices and Cvareh knew that she would keep them no matter what he said, but that didn’t stop him from speaking. “You’re right, Arianna. You don’t know anything.” “Unhand me,” she snarled. “I listened to you.” He released her. “Now listen to me.” Miraculously, she stayed. Perhaps it would’ve been better if she’d left. “The
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“We are people, not worlds. And you commit the faults you blame me for. You judge me for the actions of my entire race. You see me as a Dragon before you see me as a man. You ignore my good will and attempts at peace, only looking for banners of war between my words. And when you find none, you invent them, so that I better fit your expectations.”
Badass.
It was pure power. It was the essence of life. More than anything, it was her. He invaded her through her magic, pillaging and rummaging through every dark corner. He could smell the tang of regret harrowing her behind every shadowed awning of her memories. He could hear the echoes of longing crying out through the lonely hallways of her daily consciousness. He could feel the heat from the flames that consumed her waking moments whole, a pyre in the lighthouse of her wayward morality that burned for one thing alone: vengeance.
“I’ll trust you with it, then.” The words were cumbersome. Her lips didn’t want to form them, but Arianna discovered that something could be right and uncomfortable at the same time.
And then it hit her. Leona screamed as she realized she’d been thwarted again. This Chimera was making a fool of her. The woman was two steps ahead, preempting Leona’s every movement. Leona thought House Xin exhausted the depths of her hatred. But no, this was a rage unlike anything she’d ever felt. It was bitter and rough and raw, and coursed through her like swallowed rocks.
