Burdens Of The Dead – Snippet 25
Chapter 18
Venice
It was wonderful having Benito back, Marco found. He hadn’t realized quite how easily he bonded with his half-brother. He knew how much he’d missed him, of course; almost every hour he’d found himself wondering how Benito would react to something, or what Benito would have said. But Benito and Maria stepped back into their lives as if, somehow, they’d never left, or had only stepped out for a pole around the canals.
Noah’s Boy – Snippet 20
* * *
Kyrie heard Tom shout, but didn’t have time to give it much thought, because Conan came running out of the storage room, banging the door behind him. She guessed, as she turned to take orders for coffee and sandwiches from the people seated on folding chairs, that Tom had finally lost patience with Conan and shouted at him.
Burdens Of The Dead – Snippet 24
Chapter 17
The Black Sea
“I suppose,” said Admiral Lemnossa, looking at the sails on the horizon, “We’re lucky to have avoided them for this long. I hoped that jig out to sea would avoid them entirely while they searched the coastline for us. Still, we’re not more than a day’s sailing from Herculea. It’s to be hoped that we might see some Byzantine vessels if we get in sight of the port. Not a very large hope, I admit. In the meanwhile we’ll sail in as close a company as can be managed. I leave you to the thankless task of getting them into some kind of formation, Henri. And get the cannon loaded and the men armed. It’ll be a fight. I’m going to sit here, and do some thinking and praying. That’s a fair number of galleys out there.”
Noah’s Boy – Snippet 19
Chapter 12
Bea liked the cabin. She’d been expecting something bare, perhaps with bathroom facilities outside. She’d never seen much point in that sort of thing. As far as she was concerned, humans had spent thousands of years getting away from the icky and stinky parts of nature, and it would be an insult to their efforts for her to go back and live like a savage. She liked indoor bathrooms and heated showers.
Burdens Of The Dead – Snippet 23
She needed to know more. She had exerted her will on him, and he had answered. But it meant little to her. Where was Ferrara? And he seemed to have no ideas of the worship or sacrifice that a god required. Was owed.
Burdens Of The Dead – Snippet 22
He was a creature with bone within him, of course. Steel knife or no, she could kill him without effort — but that would rather defeat her purpose. She allowed him to approach, and he peered into her corner, into her shadow.
He seemed rather taken aback to see her there with her dogs. He plainly recognized those. “Lady. I…”
Noah’s Boy – Snippet 18
There was a shuffle, shuffle sound from the other side and then the sound of the lock sliding. Tom opened the door, while telling himself that they really needed to get rid of the deadbolt on the inside of the storage room. And they would have, by now, if it weren’t for the fact that the storage room was where he and Kyrie and other shifters in their confidence retreated to change clothes, or to put clothes on, when their clothes had been lost to an unfortunate shifting episode. It was also where they retreated when they absolutely must discuss something the non-shifting employees couldn’t know.
Burdens Of The Dead – Snippet 21
PART II October, 1540 A.D.
Chapter 16
Constantinople
The dogs of Hekate lived, as she did, in a place between, where time has little meaning. She walked the world at the crossroads, her dogs at her side. There were many crossroads and she could choose to walk any of the roads away from them. She only ever took one way — to the place between, which is not below but is down. The place between there is neither life nor death. The place where everything and nothing is possible, the place of shadows. The place where there is nothing to long for. No want.
Noah’s Boy – Snippet 17
* * *
“You know,” Tom said. “If you’d told me I would send a young and innocent girl off with Rafiel like that, just a day ago, I’d have told you that you were insane.”
“We have no proof that she’s innocent,” Kyrie said.
Burdens Of The Dead – Snippet 20
The admiral took a deep breath. He was an old man, and there was much in the way of punishment that the Venetian senate could mete out to him. On the other hand less than they could do to a young and ambitious captain. And Lemnossa could see the scars of combat on the Genoese vessels. They’d lost comrades, been lucky, and come crawling to an old enemy. “You can sail under our flag,” he said gruffly, wondering why he did this.
