(Click here for links to other chapters.) When I leave the keep later in the day, I find Jes still looking happily at the leaden grey sky.  I walk over intending to find out, this time, why he wants snow so much, but before I reach him, the Guild Master of the leather workers runs … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 23

(Click here for links to other chapters.) I find father in front of mother’s fire, both of them staring at it as if they have decided I should not be part of whatever conversation I’ve interrupted. I tell them about the rumors I’ve picked up, and stop there.  For a moment, a very short moment, … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 22

(Click here for links to other chapters.) It is two more days before  Sister Mays and the priests are ready to remove the words.  They have spent the two days debating removing the words one at a time, or immersing him in a bath, to remove all at once.  One at a time won when … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 21

(Click here for links to other chapters.) Three days later and everyone from father to the guards to the cooks in the kitchen are getting more and more nervous, despite the fact that I am healthy and un-assassinated.  Jes is practically living in the corridor outside Kymr’s cell, to be available whenever he has a … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 20

(Click here for links to other chapters.) I find Jes looking in the barred door of the wolfman’s cell.  “I have never seen anything like this,” he tells me before I ask. Our guest/prisoner/patient looks at us without comprehension, and for the first time I wonder if his lack of response is because he doesn’t … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 19

(Click here for links to other chapters.) I arrive early to the council meeting expecting, correctly, father would also be early rather than have an audience as he is helped in.  He confirms my decision and the guards now have resident priests. There is little to discuss once the Lord Advisors arrive.  Father has decided … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 18

(Click here for links to other chapters.) It’s late when Mynar finally returns.  He comes into my room uninvited and joins me before my fireplace.  He stares moodily at the small flame and says nothing until I shoo my ladies out and tell them I don’t need them for the rest of the night. “So … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 17

(Click here for links to other chapters.) Thunder answers to his name now, comes when I call.  (I ignore the possibility that he recognizes the sugar cubes in my hand rather than his name.)  I hear footsteps behind me as I’m petting Thunder, and expect the horse master with another lecture.  Instead it’s Lord Ekal.  … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 16

(Click here for links to other chapters.) Another thing fables get wrong, they end when the monster is slain, and ignore the clean‑up afterwards. The demon parts are burned to ashes in three separate fires, put into three separate weighted boxes and sent out on three different fishing boats to be dropped in the ocean.  … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 15

(Click here for links to other chapters.) Warriors surround the building.  Nale, the merchant, gladly gives me his copy of the keys. “You go now,” I tell him.  “You have done your part.”  He looks at me gratefully.  I have eased his conscious enough to let him leave without feeling a coward.  And I haven’t … Continue reading Spire: Chapter 14 — part 2