Jelleneth paused with her fist raised and then slowly lowered it again, stepping away from the door. The silence from the other side of it meant that Seldorin was in one of his meditative trances, not a good time to disturb him, and what was there to say anyway? She couldn't stay. No words of his would change that.

"Won't be here more than a few ( Read more... )

The tea had long since gone cold and still no end in sight. Jelleneth let her gaze wander to the window and studied the play of light and shadow on the grass as Lord Sunstrike's monologue continued. Every now and again she would nod, or utter a small grunt of assent, otherwise she simply let the words pass over her. It's not as though it made any ( Read more... )

The room was quiet now, but far from peaceful. Seldorin had spent himself, for the moment, with screaming and now lay, ashen against the pillows, eyes open and staring, gaunt form trembling, lips moving without sound. Once satisfied that the thrashing had ceased, Netha slipped an arm under his shoulders and lifted him up, pressing the glass to his ( Read more... )

Netha threw herself to the ground under the ancient oak in an exaggerated gesture of frustration and then sat sulking and thinking of childhood and its inevitable end. She had known for some months that the day was quick approaching when she would be forced to chose her own path in the world, and had also long since decided what that path would ( Read more... )

The cherries on Magistrix Velasera’s tree had reached that perfect ruby shade of ripeness that would make them pop across the tongue; tart when the skin broke, sweet as the juice flowed. Netha had been watching their color darken over four slow days and now judged them to finally be at their peak.
     She had scaled the high wall between the ( Read more... )