When Thom opened his eyes, the sky was concave over him, as it had been when as children he and Alanna lay on their backs in the grass. So it was now. The once-solid, undeserved wood of his coffin almost threatened to give way when he sat up, digging skeletal fingers hard into the sides.
and I knowHe hauled himself out of the long, narrow box; it ( Read more... )

it was silence that begot them
There is a kind of Halloween in Tortall: older, stronger, and more dangerous. Which makes tonight an anniversary. Tonight, a few years ago, somewhere else in the city, an old woman tested the protection, the barriers on this spell; and was -- slightly the worse for it.
the purpose of their waysThom is thinking of it ( Read more... )

He dreams of her, sometimes. Often ( Read more... )

To-night when you have left them you drift down empty ghosting hallways. Following your own vanished footsteps you raise your hand to his door and let it rest there questioning.

In your head it pounds like a battered anvil shatters in entropic grace at last. Shall I.

Shan't I.

I.There are doors in all your dreams, doors between this world and ( Read more... )

Thom slams into his room, the color in his cheeks blossoming violent and red like the blood on his shirt. He pulls the shirt over his head and twists it worryingly. Hands skinny and staining too ( Read more... )

I'm going to kill the maids, you say. I'll turn them all into fish.

Oh, says the voice behind you (in your head). But you did that last week . . . and isn't it dull.Your fingertip ghosts in spirals around the fat column of wax, drifting down. Candles. What's the use of candles? you don't need them to see by ( Read more... )

A voice pushes through the silence, "Move."

Another, slowly, "Huh?"

Soft laughter, and then, "You're making my arm fall asleep."

An attempt at a thoughtful pause. " -- huh."

"MoveA yawn, a brief failed attempt at movement and the boy gives up, sliding back against him. Lucifer can all but hear the ghost of an impertinent smile as Thom makes a ( Read more... )

The door slams behind Thom; he crashes straight into Lucifer, who stands looking down at him, tall and powerful and very much awake now ( Read more... )

He hears sobbing dimly in the night: a girl crying. Assuming it's his sister, he puts his arm around her, mumbling something indeterminate and reassuring ( Read more... )

You can't get warm. Always, always you were the fire-boy, like the rat-girl said. Burning up inside and out. It was so easy.

You don't need to get warm. You're dead.

You can't walk properly. Can't move without trembling. Can't sit still without shaking. It's like learning to walk, but when you did that it was easy. It was so easy.

You don't need to ( Read more... )