(She pulled the dead man in the way, his flesh taking the sword blow, and ripped the corpse’s pistol free. She aimed a shot at the lictor in the doorway and - a ripple in the air , then her bones began to rattle)
Angharad Tredegar killed the glimpse and let out a shuddering breath. The corner of her eyes stung, her veins felt like there were heated shards of metal shoved in the...
2025-01-24 05:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post“It doesn’t matter,” Maryam snarled. “It doesn’t matter.”
Hooks spoke not a word, only staring at her seemingly stuck halfway between terror and astonishment. That made it worse, in a way. Maryam’s nav still held her and she could feel every fluttering thought, like bird wings against her fingers. She looked at the pale girl in the pale dress, and though she tried n...
2025-01-17 05:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostIt took an embarrassing amount of time to wiggle all the way to Izel so Tristan could get his hands on the man’s knife and cut free of the rope around his hands and feet.
Once the last of it fell he pulled upright and groaned, rolling his shoulders. The beating from Kiran hadn’t hurt anywhere important – more because of the Skiritai’s restraint than any skill of Tristan’s – bu...
2025-01-03 05:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe lamps guttered out one after another. Like a curtain being pulled, dark fell over the private archives.
Maryam stood alone on the roof before the face of three gods and the absence of a fourth. She did not long have to wait for her enemy to arrive – Hooks formed out of the gloom almost eagerly, like a mouse so hungry it would squeeze through the cracks in the wall to claw at the gra...
2024-12-27 05:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostFour twenty-seven. Tristan closed the brass face of the watch.
It was easy, that was the worst part. Tristan had always hated the way some philosophers wept at the difficulty of taking a life. Killing was easy, if you did it right, and often cheap. Death was nothing special: thousands died every day in the most mundane of ways without there being a plot afoot. Gods, a man could die eating...
2024-12-20 05:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostIt was infuriating that he’d not immediately gone to her when he arrived, and thus only fitting he suffer the consequences of this slight. Maryam kicked his ankle: boot tip right on the bone, and not skimping on the swing either.
“Ow, ow ow Maryam what in the Manes-”
The second thing she did was hug Tristan’s scrawny frame until his ribs were nigh creaking. The Sacromontan w...
2024-12-06 05:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostIt was not a difficult climb, skill-wise, but that did not make it any less taxing.
Though the scaffold-tower hugging the western wall of Tratheke had been built with care and precision, it was still made of wood. While the materials made it easy for Tristan to pull himself up with hammer and bolt, bringing up his rope with him as he did, the whole edifice felt like a reed about to fall o...
2024-11-22 05:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostOn the fourth morning of his captivity, Tristan Abrascal began the plan.
It was quiet, despite Rhea’s attempt to welch. All it took was beginning to raise his voice while speaking of cards in sleeves and she folded, leaving him to disappear into the crowd and then past it. The thief lay back against the warehouse wall, eyes on the cramped tables where hostages were tearing through break...
2024-11-15 05:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostOn the second day of his captivity, Tristan woke to the sensation of someone briskly jabbing him in the ribs. He startled awake, eyes stinging, and found a dark-haired woman in a padded brown surcoat staring down at him. The butt of her spear was raised but a few inches above his ribs, ready to strike. Marcella again, joy.
“What do you want?” he groaned out.
"Good morning, Ferra...
2024-11-08 05:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostAngharad went dressed in men’s clothes: hose and a doublet under a long coat with a tricorn pulled down as far as she could, her hair bundled up. There was no hiding the walking stick, but being let into Lord Gule of Bezan’s mansion through the servant entrance ought to keep most eyes off her.
As the ambassador of the Kingdom of Malan the older noble had been assigned large and luxuri...
2024-11-01 04:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostHello!
My fiancee is currently giving birth, so we're going on the six week break I mentioned in the earlier post.
(https://www.patreon.com/user?u=3523924)
Everything's going well with the labour, no need to worry, and it's about when we were told it'd happen.
Looking at practicals for you pa...
2024-09-02 00:23:12 +0000 UTC View Post“Huh,” Maryam said when the tale was done, honestly a little impressed. “That’s not just a fumble, it’s a disastrous fumble.”
“I am not unaware,” Song replied through gritted teeth.
Oh, she hadn’t liked that.
“A calamitous fumble,” Maryam continued.
The teeth grit harder, but not hard enough. Another log must be tossed into the fire.
“Perhap...
2024-08-30 04:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe orphanage opening had not been a joyous thing.
Such institutions were not, Angharad learned, paid for by the Lord Rector or the local ruling lord but by whoever cared to offer coin to them. It was a very disorganized method, which she thought was sure to allow some of the orphaned to slip through the cracks. No wonder crime had such a grip on the capital, with these ‘basileias’ sp...
2024-08-23 04:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostIt was for the best.
By morning tomorrow Maryam would arrive at Black House, and with the signifier’s return the secret Song had kept would finally out. Evander Palliades would be told of the coup brewing beneath his feet and, inevitably, that Song had kept silent on the matter even when looking him in the eye. She was not sure what she expected from that yet, but a sense of betrayal on...
2024-08-16 04:59:59 +0000 UTC View PostIt was not a pleasant surprise to be woken up in the middle of the night and the quality of the ensuing surprises had only since worsened.
“If we go to Captain Wen right now,” Angharad said, “we could have them all in graves by morning.”
Song hissed, trying to push away Maryam as the other woman dabbed at her bruises with a wet cloth. Half of their captain’s face was swoll...
2024-08-02 04:03:03 +0000 UTC View PostThey skipped Black House’s communal breakfast, instead bothering the servants for simpler fare served directly in Song’s room. There were only two chairs in there, so Maryam brought her own before locking the door behind her. By common accord – and to Angharad’s relief - the three of them finished breaking their fast before getting into the report about her activities in the country. 2024-07-26 04:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
The thing about being the lowest rung on the ladder was that everyone stepped on you.
It was Tristan’s fourth day as a Kassa traveling man, which meant he was still swallowing an awful lot of boot: there hadn’t been a single trip across the city where he wasn’t the one hanging onto the back of the carriage and he’d thrice been volunteered to clean vomit or horseshit. The pay, to b...
2024-07-19 04:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostHello there!
Since we're approaching the end of the second book in the Pale Light series, "Good Treasons", I'm bringing up the usual end break. For those of you new to the Patreon, I usually take a month-long break between books to get a breather and put all my ducks in a row for the next one.
This time, however, it's going to have to be a little different. My fiancée is pregn...
2024-07-13 21:32:07 +0000 UTC View PostMistakes had been made.
“A satyrian, Lady Angharad!” Cleon Eirenos exclaimed for the fourth time, eyes bright as stars. “Between that and the robbers, it was an encounter worthy of song.”
She hadn’t even killed the thing, she mutinously thought. So why was half of Chalcia convinced she had saved them from being murdered in the night by a tower-sized satyrian leadi...
2024-07-05 21:19:34 +0000 UTC View PostBy the end of the first day, Angharad would have been willing to fight another gray mirror for the prize of never again having to ride a coach.
It was no reflection on the coachman, a grizzled old woman who knew the country roads like the back of her hand and drove to Chalcia – the town nearest to the Eirenos estate – at least twice a week. It was the roads themselves that were devil...
2024-06-28 04:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostCome night, Tratheke looked like a sea of lights.
Black House was not so tall that the view from the roof garden was not cut into by higher edifices still, but the spread offered to Song’s eyes was still a striking sight. The gas lamps of the capital lit up the dark like a thousand fireflies, their burning glow reflected on green glass and brass, and above it all towered the Collegium. ...
2024-06-21 04:05:45 +0000 UTC View Post