Chapter 5.4

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"Aye said, why did ye lie to me?" Elise demanded, angry.

I was back in the world of the breathing, my concentration broken. I shook my head to clear it, then turned to my lady.

She stood beside my open trunk, holding the Silent Monk’s robe in one hand and the iron crucifix in the other. "Ye said ye weren’t a Silent Monk – but look what I see here? Ye’ve turned Christian on me, haven’t ye?"

Ison laughed out loud.

I shook my head. "Another packed my trunk, and he used the robe and cross to protect my harp." Yet even as I shaped the words, I realized how strange that excuse sounded.

"And I see ye speaking as a Monk!" Angrily she shook the robe, and a scrap of tree bark rolled out. "Yer men tricked me, saying ye were a secret Bard – but now I see I’ve been used, the way you Christians always use women. Know, then, that my sister is a Warlocker, and my mother was a sword-woman, and I know enough of their arts to give you pain for pain."

"He’s no monk," Jason assured her, with a chuckle.

"I don’t think he’s even a Christian," Charles said.

"Then why was he hiding this?"

I reached down and picked up the scrap of bark. It had writing on it. "Use this to pass through the teeth of danger. May God protect you as one of his own, as all children of Man surely are."
I showed the note to Elise. She stared at it, then passed it to Charles, who slowly read the words out loud. "I guess it’s some sort of gift," he added.

Indeed. And I realized what the Monk of my vision had been trying to tell me.

BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

Author's Note and apology:

I intended for this to be updated five times a week, or at least more often than VG Cats. (VG Cats is a sometmes rude but ofttimes hilarious webcomic that parodies gaming, movies, and pop culture.) However, this is a crunch week. I am trying to prepare my panels at Millennicon 23 , and finish polishing my WIP, Bastard in the Promised Land, before handing it out ot readers. I'm in "the zone." However, I would like to encourage anyone who is interested in this story to go to Dead Fish Press (see icon on right) and download, for free, the first three chapters of By Blade and Cloth. If you like what you read, you can buy the entire book (180,000 words, so you'll get your pennies' worth) at Dead Fish Press.

Thank you for reading, and Gerard and Elise will be back next week!

Chapter 5.3

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I started with scales, but as my mind shook free, the marching notes drifted into short melodies and chords. With the spin-dice as an accompaniment, I began to weave a tune, a net for memories. Unburdened by bitterness, I lived again those summers where Sharp and I wandered together, collecting experiences and stories, leaning of life. We slept in fields beneath the stars, and in barns while it rained. We traded songs and stories for meals in road-side taverns. Once again I smelled the wood smoke and roasting meat, heard the thunk of mugs and the rattle of dice, and saw the crowd dancing to my tunes. Sharp would grin at me, a perpetually dirty face with bright eyes, then sneak our secret tune into his melodies whenever a particularly attractive girl walked by.

We’d made a pact never to play that tune without the presence of the other, and I had not even thought of it for almost ten years. I wondered if he had also forgotten it.
From the world of memories I stepped into the spirit world, which reflects our own in the same way that a glass-still pond reflects the sky. I saw Lord Reinard, standing alone, waiting for his bride. He looked across a pond to where a woman seemed to stand, but his way was blocked by Lord Guerney. I looked at the woman, and realized that she had no form, no features. Perhaps she was pregnant, or perhaps it was just the way her veils drifted around her figure. I could not see for certain.

Indeed, I realized. Unless I knew for certain, I could report nothing to my lord. Nothing that would convince him to leave this ill-fated union alone.

So, how to see the hidden woman? She kept herself within the ladies’ tower. If I hid myself in skirts, perhaps I could enter – but with my strong chin and deep-set eyes, I doubted I would keep the disguise for long. And with it, certain useful parts of my anatomy.

I now saw a Silent Monk before me, his hands moving in a complicated pattern. What was he saying? I didn’t know those gestures. I leaned forward, the better to concentrate, as he started again, then he seemed to say –

Technical troubles

Due to technical troubles, my attention is elsewhere today.

Sorry.

Helen