BY SCHISM RENT ASUNDER – snippet 64:
Lock Island turned to the short, almost pudgy looking officer standing on his other side. Baron Seamount had lost the first two fingers of his left hand to an accidental explosion years before, but the mishap hadn't dimmed his passion for loud explosions one bit. Nor had it affected his sharp, incisive intelligence. Some people had been fooled by Seamount's relatively unprepossessing appearance, but Lock Island knew exactly how capable the brain behind that . . . unimpressive façade really was. And how valuable.
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TIME SPIKE – snippet 16:
A second later, Jerry was back, waving for them to follow him.
The three of them moved quick and quiet.
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TIME SPIKE – snippet 15:
Chapter 13
Stephen McQuade didn’t expect the rifle butt slammed into his lower back. He fell to his knees, gasping in pain. He’d been floating in and out of consciousness for hours. Maybe days. It was hard for him to decide. He had been beaten too many times to be sure of anything.
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BY SCHISM RENT ASUNDER – snippet 63:
.V.
Marine Training Ground,
Helen Island,
Kingdom of Charis
Golden-tongued bugles sounded, and the five hundred men in the dark blue tunics and light blue breeches of the Royal Charisian Marines responded almost instantly. The compact battalion column split smoothly into its five component companies, each of which marched rapidly outward from the original column, then wheeled and formed neatly into a three-deep line.
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BY SCHISM RENT ASUNDER – snippet 62:
The archbishop paused, and Merlin pursed his lips thoughtfully. What Staynair was describing was quite different from the vast majority of monastic communities Merlin had studied since awakening in Nimue's Cave. Most Safeholdian monasteries and convents were very definitely the property of one or another of the great orders, and those orders were zealous about defending their ownership. Once one got beyond the borders of the Temple Lands, the competition between orders was seldom as fierce as it was inside the precincts of the Temple and the city of Zion. But it always existed, and their monasteries, convents, manors, and estates represented more than simple tokens in the competition. Those institutions were the sinews and wealth which made that competition possible.
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TIME SPIKE – snippet 14:
Chapter 12
“Hulbert’s hunting party left a little before sunup,” Lieutenant Joe Schuler said. “The first of the methane toilets are now online, so we’ll find out soon enough if they work. The construction of the first greenhouse will be finished sometime today, and we now have a working well. It’s only nineteen feet deep, but it’s good water.”
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TIME SPIKE – snippet 11:
Chapter 10
Anyone not on duty was crowded into the administrative building’s second floor briefing room. Over two hundred men and women stood shoulder-to-shoulder to hear what had happened to them, and what they could do about it. Forty-two from the night shift, and over a hundred and thirty from afternoons. Forty guards had not been able to make it. They were the temporary crew standing watch so the others could attend the meeting. Kathleen had made arrangements to tape the proceedings, so that once their shift ended they could hear and see what had taken place.
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BY SCHISM RENT ASUNDER – snippet 61:
The space inside the outer wall turned out to be larger than Merlin would have estimated from the outside. It was considerably deeper, and it wasn't the cobbled square or packed dirt courtyard he would have expected from the general dilapidation of the surrounding neighborhood. Instead, he found himself surrounded by greenery, ancient lichen-covered walls, and the liquid, waterfall-music magic of ornamental fish ponds. Wyverns and terrestrial songbirds perched in the branches of dwarf fruit trees which appeared to be almost as ancient as the monastary itself, and their soft whistles and chirps made a soothing contrast to the city noises outside the wall.
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