{"id":967,"date":"2010-12-17T16:21:57","date_gmt":"2010-12-17T22:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/?p=967"},"modified":"2010-12-17T16:21:57","modified_gmt":"2010-12-17T22:21:57","slug":"kings-snippet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/?p=967","title":{"rendered":"Kings Snippet"},"content":{"rendered":"

You folks are owed some snippets, and you have my apologies for falling short in the snippet department this year.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Those who haven’t read Oath of Fealty<\/em><\/a> are welcome to peek past the “more” warning, but you will find spoilers.\u00a0\u00a0 (Those completely unfamiliar with the Paksworld universe will benefit from a quick side trip to the Paksworld website<\/a>, which has maps<\/a> and names and other useful stuff.)<\/p>\n

Today’s snippet is from Kings of the North<\/em>, partway through Chapter One.<\/p>\n

Who: Kieri, the king<\/p>\n

Where: the ossuary under the palace complex in Chaya<\/p>\n

When: Midsummer Day.\u00a0\u00a0 The king visits the ossuary at both Winter and Summer solstices–alone–to report to the bones and listen to their wisdom (if any.) \u00a0 In Summer by day, as long as the Suncandle burns,\u00a0 and in Winter by night, in the dark.\u00a0 Sometimes nothing happens.\u00a0 Sometimes…<\/p>\n

+++++++++<\/p>\n

As if physical hands touched his face, he felt something–a warmth on his right cheek, a coolness on his left.\u00a0 Something of his father–the merest hint of a man’s firm, warm hand on his sword-side, the merest hint of a woman’s softer, cooler hand on his heart-side.\u00a0 His heart stuttered a moment, then beat on.\u00a0 He could not speak aloud; he asked the question in his mind.\u00a0 Are you…father?\u00a0 Sister?<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n

What…do you want?<\/span> From his father’s hand–he could not think it otherwise–came a sense of love, support, peace.\u00a0 He could almost smell that dim remembered smell, from times his father had picked him up and held him close.\u00a0 From his sister’s hand, something different: affection, wistfulness, and–stronger as he listened–anger.\u00a0 Then, sudden and strong: betrayal and warning.<\/p>\n

Kieri scarcely breathed.\u00a0 Betrayal?\u00a0 Danger?\u00a0 Who?<\/span><\/p>\n

They lie.\u00a0 She–<\/span> But that was interrupted; his right cheek seemed to feel more pressure.<\/p>\n

Not now.\u00a0 No shadows this day.<\/span><\/p>\n

The sensation faded, his father’s faster than his sister’s, leaving the certainty that he had more to learn from them.\u00a0 The final word from his father felt like duty<\/span>…from his sister, like judgment<\/span>.<\/p>\n

+++++++<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You folks are owed some snippets, and you have my apologies for falling short in the snippet department this year.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Those who haven’t read Oath of Fealty are welcome to peek past the “more” warning, but you will find spoilers.\u00a0\u00a0 (Those completely unfamiliar with the Paksworld universe will benefit from a quick side trip to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,115],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kings-of-the-north","category-snippet","tag-snippet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":968,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions\/968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}