THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN CONNECTION – snippet 23:
As they headed toward the forest, moving slowly because of Eddie and Lannie, Denise decided things weren’t so bad. Perhaps oddly, the fact that Drugeth’s cohorts seemed just as familiar and relaxed in their use of up-time shotguns as Drugeth himself did with a sword, was somehow re-assuring.
Whatever else they were, enemies of the USE or not, they obviously weren’t wild-eyed desperadoes. Everything about them was experienced, controlled, disciplined—or self-disciplined, in the case of Drugeth.
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BY SCHISM RENT ASUNDER – snippet 24:
"I wouldn't say they're going 'well,'" Howsmyn said more soberly. "Not given what we're up against. But I'd have to say they're going better than I ever anticipated they might. The biggest problem from the perspective of the new artillery, actually, is the competition for the rifles. Not only do they both use up enormous quantities of iron and steel, but they require a lot of the same skilled labor. We're training new people as quickly as we can, but it's still a problem."
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WHEN THE TIDE RISES – snippet 22:
CHAPTER 10: Morning City on Pelosi
Adele reached the entrance to the fenced area where the marquee for tonight's fete was set up. The event was a barbeque: whole animals were being roasted over beds of coals in the central park of Morning City. Lanterns of colored paper hung from the branches of trees, while guards in the livery of the Great Houses–as Pelosi defined them–patrolled the fence that kept out the riffraff. The onlookers outside were ragged, but they seemed glad just to watch.
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BY SCHISM RENT ASUNDER – snippet 23:
"How are you coming with the production problems on the iron guns?" he asked Howsmyn.
"Actually, we haven't had anywhere near as many of those as I'd been afraid we might." Howsmyn shrugged. "Not on the cast iron ones, that is. I'm not saying it's as easy with the iron as with the bronze, but our bell-founding techniques have converted remarkably well. I'm starting to experiment with wrought iron, too, but that's incredibly expensive at the moment. It uses an enormous amount more coke, and the furnace time for the repeated firings drives up the cost even more. And then we have to hammer the slag out of the blooms, and even with the new, heavier drop-hammers, that takes an incredible amount of time, which drives costs up still higher. If I can find a way to do all that more efficiently. . . ."
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WHEN THE TIDE RISES – snippet 21:
Morning City on Pelosi
"Don't look so glum, Woetjans," said Daniel as the crowd in holiday clothing cheered the procession. "We certainly can't complain that they're not friendly, can we?"
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THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN CONNECTION – snippet 22:
The Drugeth fellow gave Noelle a sorrowful smile. “I will not dispute your characterization of the individuals in questions. But I am afraid I cannot respond as you wish to either of your requests. Not only may I not assist you, I am afraid I shall have to detain you myself.”
He slid the sword back into its scabbard. The motion was swift, easy, practiced. He hadn’t even looked at the sword and scabbard as he did it, just letting his left thumb and forefinger guide the blade into the opening. The fact that he’d chosen to sheathe the weapon while explaining what he was going to do just emphasized his complete confidence that nobody would think to dispute the matter.
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BY SCHISM RENT ASUNDER – snippet 22:
Rhaiyan Mychail was perfectly well aware that even here in Charis, altogether too many wealthy merchants and manufactory owners had absolutely no regard for their employees as fellow human beings. He and Howsmyn both detested that view. Indeed, Mychail had been an outspoken critic of that sort of thinking literally for decades, and he felt reasonably confident that that was one of the reasons King Haarahld had approached him and Howsmyn when he needed to create the manufacturing basis for his new navy.
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THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN CONNECTION – snippet 21:
Chapter 10. The sword
By the time Denise got done hauling Lannie out of the wreck, she was exhausted. Getting Keenan out hadn’t been too bad, even though he’d been in the cramped rear of the cockpit. But Keenan had just been dazed and bruised, not pinned by some of the equipment that had been broken loose and all but completely unconscious.
Denise was strong for a girl her age and build, but the fact remained that the age was almost-sixteen and while the build was great for making girls jealous and boys drool—not that she appreciated either one—it wasn’t that good for frantically trying to free a normal-sized man from wreckage and haul him out by bodily force. Not for the first time in her life, she wished she’d inherited more of her dad’s bulk and muscle and less of her mother’s appearance.
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WHEN THE TIDE RISES – snippet 20:
CHAPTER 9: Above Pelosi
Adele was vaguely aware of the bustle as the Princess Cecile prepared to extract from the Matrix, but she continued to pore over information she'd winnowed from the files of Torregrossa Brothers. The less she thought about the details of star travel, the happier–the less unhappy–she was.
"Extraction!" the intercom said enthusiastically. Adele felt her body turn inside-out as the light around her changed. The communications screen that she'd imbedded in the upper left quadrant of her display changed from a pearly blur to a web of color-coded traffic; she expanded it to the upper two-thirds of the total volume, shrinking everything else to a pair of bars across the bottom.
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BY SCHISM RENT ASUNDER – snippet 21:
.III.
Ehdwyrd Howsmyn's foundry,
Delthak,
Earldom of High Rock,
Kingdom of Charis
"And how has your day been?" Rhaiyan Mychail asked genially as he stepped into Ehdwyrd Howsmyn's office.
"Hectic," Howsmyn said with a grin, standing to clasp forearms with his longtime business associate. "On the other hand, there could be a lot worse reasons for putting up with all of the headaches."
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