Book Notes: The Sharing Knife, Vol. 4: Horizon, by Lois McMaster Bujold
Ch. 1
As they reached a turn in the stairs and reversed direction, Fawn’s little hand gripped Berry’s in a gesture of encouragement. Berry’s workhardened fingers looked unusually cold and pale. Dag had seen Berry face down raging shoals, snagging sandbars, rough rivermen, sly goodsdealers, murderous bandits, knife fights, heartbreak, and hangings, high water and low as the riverfolk put it, with unflagging courage. Any who would dare chuckle at her pre-wedding nerves...had never faced a wedding ceremony themselves, Dag decided.
--
He considered his own wedding cord wound around his upper arm, concealed beneath his jacket sleeve, braided by Fawn’s own hands and containing a thread of her live ground, proof of their union to anyone with groundsense. She wore its twin on her left wrist, peeping like a hair bracelet from her shirt cuff, humming with a bit of Dag’s ground in turn. Not that any Lakewalker camp wouldn’t seize on a wedding as an excuse for a party, and not that the tent-kin on both sides didn’t mix in till you were ready to wrap some spare cords around their necks and twist, but in the end, the marriage was solely between two people, tracking its traces in their inward selves. Even if the couple should be cast among strangers, the cords silently spoke their witness for them.
Ch. 2
“Sometimes you have to give up on the surprise part. Remember your birthday, when I gave you one sweater sleeve? ”
Dag smiled a little and touched the finished garment, which he was wearing now against the damp chill seeping back into the boat as the bustle of dinner wore off. “Indeed, Spark. Thing is, you already knew you could finish that promise. You didn’t have to stop and invent knitting, first.”
“All right, now you have to say,” said Whit, leaning back. “You can’t trail that sort of bait across the water and then just haul in your line.”
Ch. 5
Dag had wakened at first light, with all of the uncertainties that had chased one another around in his head last night ready for more laps.
Ch. 8
“Did your, ah, courtships not prosper?” Dag inquired genially, taking his seat again. He really didn’t see how they could have failed. “Which one were you sweet on, again? I couldn’t hardly tell.”
Fawn picked up her needles and plunked down in the padded chair opposite, but didn’t start knitting again. Arkady had set down his quill and rested his chin in his hand, spread fingers hiding his smirk, listening shamelessly.
“Tavia,” sighed Barr. He waved his arms in the air. “Tavia, Tavia, Tavia. Hair so soft. The rest of her”—optimistically large hand motions above his chest—“so soft, too. A man wouldn’t get sliced up by her hip bones like that blond icicle Remo’s drooling after, not that it does him any good, either.” The arms fell listlessly to the rug.
“And the trouble with all this is . . . ? ” prodded Fawn.
“Tavia’s gone sweet on Remo. Why? Why? I like her way better than he ever would. I bet I could make her happier, too. I’m an ever-so-muchcheerier fellow. Irony, ah, irony.”
“I gather from this that Remo is, er, sweet on Neeta?” Dag inquired.
“I shouldn’t think she would find him repulsive.” He wasn’t sure whether to hope to learn Neeta was sweet on Barr, or not. A truly creative patroller with a big enough blanket might do something with that array. He elected not to mention the thought. One mustn’t shock the youngsters.
--
“Remo’s taking forever,” said Barr at last. “I think I’ll go wash up in the lake.”
“But the water’ll be cold!” said Fawn.
“Good,” said Barr savagely, convulsed to his feet, and lurched out.
Arkady muffled a snicker, then let his hand fall to the table. “I suppose if we’re going to laugh at them we should do it now, and not in their faces.”
Ch. 11
She wondered just how refreshed he found himself this morning, and considered lifting the quilt to check.
--
“Planting ideas? ” Fawn tested the notion in her mind. “Only works if you’re going to stay and water and weed them. And pick off the caterpillars.”
“Huh.” He dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “It’s never simple, is it, Spark? ”
Ch. 13
Fawn was grateful for the Lakewalkers making an alligator patrol before bed. All they stirred up was a family of scurrying animals that looked to be the unlikely offspring of a possum mating with a turtle. Dag, accused, denied that ancient or recent Lakewalker magery had anything to do with the armor-plated possums. When the boys poked them with sticks they rolled up like pill bugs, inspiring a brief round of creature-ball till they unrolled and scampered indignantly away.
--
“I hope you don’t mind me volunteering you, sir.”
“No . . .” A shrewd pause. “All in all, that was well done.” From Arkady, who was quite capable of prefacing his milder critiques with You gormless, ham-handed half-wit! this was true praise.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
5,000 Question Survey - 0201-0250
201. Put these creatures in order from what you would least like to be reincarnated as (1), to what you would most like to be reincarnated as (10) assuming reincarnation ended up existing AND you were given a choice.
dolphin
male human
female human
oak tree
wild dog
house dog
rock
caterpillar
manta ray
vulture
202. What do you feel unworthy of?
Love.
203. Would you rather be remembered for having done something for humanity or being a really nice person?
Having done something for humanity.
204. Which do you value more: science or intuition?
Science!
205. Your best friend and your significant other are in the hospital at the same time with the same ailment. Who do you visit first?
My best friend is my significant other, and my other best friend is someone we want to be our significant other. But I'd visit the one whose ailment was more severe first.
206. Does the universe revolve around human beings?
Of course not.
207. If you are no longer a virgin, do you wish you still were?
Not at this point. My fourth anniversary will be in June!
208. Who is your favorite poet of those who are alive right now?
Fizzy.
209. What is your favorite song from the 90's?
"Hey Jealousy" by the Gin Blossoms.
210. If you were in alphabet soup what letter would you be?
Probably H. :P
211. Do you believe in fairies, ghosts, aliens, angels, dwarves, elves, etc.?
No. Of course not. Well, except dwarves. Dwarfism is an actual medical condition.
212. What makes you want to be someone’s friend?
Interestingness, open-mindedness, kindness.
213. Do you troll around the Internet harassing people anonymously for fun?
No, of course not. Where's the fun in that?
214. Have you ever seen the movie A Man Who Fell to Earth?
Nope.
215. What is your favorite line from a movie?
"Assimilate this!"
-Worf, from Star Trek: First Contact. :)
216. What's your favorite video game?
At the moment, Plants vs. Zombies. But Tetris will be forever in my heart.
217. Have you ever taken something that wasn't yours?
Yes.
218. What is one phrase people say that irritates you?
"All y'all." People, "y'all" is fucking plural already! It is not singular. The only time one should be using the phrase "all y'all" is when saying "fuck all y'all."
219. You allow strangers to read your diary, but would you let your parents read it?
I allow strangers to read my public posts. My public posts are the things I don't mind my parents seeing.
220. Hot steamy bubble bath or quick in and out shower?
Ideally, the former. Nearly always, the latter.
221. Are you allergic to anything?
Dust, dust mites, and bug poop, and probably some other stuff. Some yarn fibers make me itchy when I crochet with them.
222. What is your favorite Terminator movie?
I've never seen any of them from beginning to end, so I don't have one.
223. What is your favorite fast food?
Arby's!
224. What would someone have to do to get you to never speak to him or her again?
They'd have to be unrepentantly and honestly bigoted. Fuck that noise.
225. Would (or have) you ever whip someone or be whipped by someone in bed?
No, but biting is fun as long as it's not too hard. ;)
226. Have you ever said 'I hate everyone' and really meant it literally?
In that moment, yes. But after the initial flash of anger at whatever it was, my mind starts reminding me of all the exceptions.
227. Why do some people want to get more money than they could ever spend?
Financial security? Greed? The power that comes with that kind of money? I'm not a mind reader.
228. Have you ever won a carnival fish?
Yes. When I was little. I named her Lucille. But my dad put tap water in her new bowl and she didn't survive the night. :(
229. Did it live more than a week?
Nope.
230. What's the best sounding accent a person can have?
SCOTTISH. :D (Australian a close second. XD)
231. What's the most boring thing you've ever read?
The Making of the Monroe Doctrine. Snore...
232. Do you prefer buttons or touch screens?
Depends on what I'm using them for.
233. Do you think there is a lot of similarity between the Harry Potter books and the Lord of the Rings series?
Yes.
234. Would you consider yourself to be naive?
In many ways yes, in many ways no. Depends on the subject.
235. Which of your friends is most likely to go to jail?
Like I'm gonna put that in a public post! *scoffs*
236. What is the smallest amount of money that could be in a public toilet that would make you reach in and grab it?
If there's no waste in the bowl, and the bowl were clean, I'd go for it. And wash my hands at least twice. If there's waste in the bowl, not a chance.
237. Would you ever wear real fur?
Sure. I wear leather and eat meat, why not?
238. Arachnophobia or Eight Legged Freaks?
Neither!
239. What are your feelings about police officers?
I grew up around cops. I like them generally. I know that 99% of them have an honest desire to protect and serve. I detest the other 1% all the more because of the bad name they give the rest, making their jobs that much harder.
240. what is your favorite line from a song?
"The sky resembles a backlit canopy with holes punched in it."
-Incubus, "I Wish You Were Here"
241. Is fifty dollars a lot of money?
It is to me.
242. Do you like the band Front 242 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_242)?
The genre seems okay. Didn't bother to listen to any of the music.
243. Would you rather have fame, money, or self-satisfaction?
I have clinical depression. I don't think I could be self-satisfied if I won the Nobel Prize. I'll go with money.
244. What's your middle name?
L------.
245. What is the absolute limit, the craziest thing you would do for a million dollars?
Hell if I know.
246. Are you good, evil or neutral?
Neutral with percentages of good and evil, just like everyone else.
247. Should ebonics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebonics) be considered a language?
Who cares?
248. What color is your bedroom?
Off white.
What color would you like it to be?
That same off-white. I don't want to have to prime it again once we're ready to PCS.
249. When are you planning to move to a new home?
Next PCS.
250. If you added up the cost of everything in the room with you, approximately what would it come out to be?
...not much.
dolphin
male human
female human
oak tree
wild dog
house dog
rock
caterpillar
manta ray
vulture
202. What do you feel unworthy of?
Love.
203. Would you rather be remembered for having done something for humanity or being a really nice person?
Having done something for humanity.
204. Which do you value more: science or intuition?
Science!
205. Your best friend and your significant other are in the hospital at the same time with the same ailment. Who do you visit first?
My best friend is my significant other, and my other best friend is someone we want to be our significant other. But I'd visit the one whose ailment was more severe first.
206. Does the universe revolve around human beings?
Of course not.
207. If you are no longer a virgin, do you wish you still were?
Not at this point. My fourth anniversary will be in June!
208. Who is your favorite poet of those who are alive right now?
Fizzy.
209. What is your favorite song from the 90's?
"Hey Jealousy" by the Gin Blossoms.
210. If you were in alphabet soup what letter would you be?
Probably H. :P
211. Do you believe in fairies, ghosts, aliens, angels, dwarves, elves, etc.?
No. Of course not. Well, except dwarves. Dwarfism is an actual medical condition.
212. What makes you want to be someone’s friend?
Interestingness, open-mindedness, kindness.
213. Do you troll around the Internet harassing people anonymously for fun?
No, of course not. Where's the fun in that?
214. Have you ever seen the movie A Man Who Fell to Earth?
Nope.
215. What is your favorite line from a movie?
"Assimilate this!"
-Worf, from Star Trek: First Contact. :)
216. What's your favorite video game?
At the moment, Plants vs. Zombies. But Tetris will be forever in my heart.
217. Have you ever taken something that wasn't yours?
Yes.
218. What is one phrase people say that irritates you?
"All y'all." People, "y'all" is fucking plural already! It is not singular. The only time one should be using the phrase "all y'all" is when saying "fuck all y'all."
219. You allow strangers to read your diary, but would you let your parents read it?
I allow strangers to read my public posts. My public posts are the things I don't mind my parents seeing.
220. Hot steamy bubble bath or quick in and out shower?
Ideally, the former. Nearly always, the latter.
221. Are you allergic to anything?
Dust, dust mites, and bug poop, and probably some other stuff. Some yarn fibers make me itchy when I crochet with them.
222. What is your favorite Terminator movie?
I've never seen any of them from beginning to end, so I don't have one.
223. What is your favorite fast food?
Arby's!
224. What would someone have to do to get you to never speak to him or her again?
They'd have to be unrepentantly and honestly bigoted. Fuck that noise.
225. Would (or have) you ever whip someone or be whipped by someone in bed?
No, but biting is fun as long as it's not too hard. ;)
226. Have you ever said 'I hate everyone' and really meant it literally?
In that moment, yes. But after the initial flash of anger at whatever it was, my mind starts reminding me of all the exceptions.
227. Why do some people want to get more money than they could ever spend?
Financial security? Greed? The power that comes with that kind of money? I'm not a mind reader.
228. Have you ever won a carnival fish?
Yes. When I was little. I named her Lucille. But my dad put tap water in her new bowl and she didn't survive the night. :(
229. Did it live more than a week?
Nope.
230. What's the best sounding accent a person can have?
SCOTTISH. :D (Australian a close second. XD)
231. What's the most boring thing you've ever read?
The Making of the Monroe Doctrine. Snore...
232. Do you prefer buttons or touch screens?
Depends on what I'm using them for.
233. Do you think there is a lot of similarity between the Harry Potter books and the Lord of the Rings series?
Yes.
234. Would you consider yourself to be naive?
In many ways yes, in many ways no. Depends on the subject.
235. Which of your friends is most likely to go to jail?
Like I'm gonna put that in a public post! *scoffs*
236. What is the smallest amount of money that could be in a public toilet that would make you reach in and grab it?
If there's no waste in the bowl, and the bowl were clean, I'd go for it. And wash my hands at least twice. If there's waste in the bowl, not a chance.
237. Would you ever wear real fur?
Sure. I wear leather and eat meat, why not?
238. Arachnophobia or Eight Legged Freaks?
Neither!
239. What are your feelings about police officers?
I grew up around cops. I like them generally. I know that 99% of them have an honest desire to protect and serve. I detest the other 1% all the more because of the bad name they give the rest, making their jobs that much harder.
240. what is your favorite line from a song?
"The sky resembles a backlit canopy with holes punched in it."
-Incubus, "I Wish You Were Here"
241. Is fifty dollars a lot of money?
It is to me.
242. Do you like the band Front 242 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_242)?
The genre seems okay. Didn't bother to listen to any of the music.
243. Would you rather have fame, money, or self-satisfaction?
I have clinical depression. I don't think I could be self-satisfied if I won the Nobel Prize. I'll go with money.
244. What's your middle name?
L------.
245. What is the absolute limit, the craziest thing you would do for a million dollars?
Hell if I know.
246. Are you good, evil or neutral?
Neutral with percentages of good and evil, just like everyone else.
247. Should ebonics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebonics) be considered a language?
Who cares?
248. What color is your bedroom?
Off white.
What color would you like it to be?
That same off-white. I don't want to have to prime it again once we're ready to PCS.
249. When are you planning to move to a new home?
Next PCS.
250. If you added up the cost of everything in the room with you, approximately what would it come out to be?
...not much.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Book Notes: The Sharing Knife Vol. 3: Passage, by Lois McMaster Bujold
Ch. 1
Whit was skinny and angular, his hands and feet a trifle too big for his body. Still growing into himself even past age twenty, as the length of wrist sticking from the sleeve of his homespun shirt testified. Or perhaps, with no younger brother to hand them down to, he was just condemned to wear out his older clothes.
Ch. 2
“And there’s another thing,” she added severely, although her hand strayed to map his jaw. “Camping in the evening, have you thought how fast it would blight the mood to have him sitting there on the other side of the fire, leering and cracking jokes?”
Dag shrugged. “Camp privacy’s not a new problem for patrollers.”
“Collecting firewood, bathing in the river, scouting for squirrels? So you told me. There’s a whole code, but Whit doesn’t know it.”
“Then I’ll just have to teach him Lakewalker.”
“Yeah? Best bring your hickory stick, for rapping on his skull.”
“I’ve trained denser young patrollers.”
“There are denser young patrollers?” She leaned back, so her eyes would bring his face into focus, likely. “How do they walk upright?”
Ch. 3
“Well, you’re just a girl, after all.”
Fawn merely grimaced. In his own way, she supposed Whit was trying. Very trying.
--
Whit inhaled. “Folks don’t know this. They say Lakewalkers are cannibals. That you rob graves. Eat your dead to make magic.”
Dag said gently, “But now you know better.”
“Um. Yeah.” Whit brightened. “So, that’s one farmer boy who’s learned something, huh?”
“One down.” Dag sighed. “Thousands to go. It’s a start.”
Ch. 4
The valley of the Grace spread out below them in the gold-blue autumn light. The river seemed to have put on her party dress, her banks and bending hillsides a swirl of color: scarlet and purple-red, glowing yellow, bright brown. The water reflected the azure of the sky, save where it broke into a sparkling shoal, necklace to the dress. Brooches of boats slid upon the water—a distant keel, a broad, blunt ferry—with a girdle of flatboats pulled up along the farther shore. Fawn was dimly aware of Whit, trotting up panting to see whatever there was to see. She was more aware of Dag, watching her face. She wasn’t sure if he was seeing just the river valley reflected there, or something more, but his mouth softened in an ease that handed her joy back to her, to be passed back to him again, redoubled.
Ch. 6
Fawn sat up in anticipation as they topped a rise and the line of flatboats tied to the trees beyond Possum Landing came into view. They were as unlike the Lakewalkers’ graceful, sharp-prowed narrow boats as they could be, looking like shacks stuck on box crates, really. Ungainly. Some even had small fireplaces with stone chimneys, out of which smoke trickled. It was as if someone’s village had suddenly decided to run off to sea, and Fawn grinned at the vision of an escaped house waddling away from its astonished owners. People ran away from home all the time; why shouldn’t the reverse be true?
Ch. 9
He rolled over and stared at the tiny pricks of light coming through the holes in their blanket-tent, held up by the ragged roots. “You do have a way of stirring up the silt in my brain, Spark.”
“You saying I cloud your thinking?”
“Or that you get to the bottom of things that haven’t been disturbed in far too long.”
Fawn grinned. “Now, who’s going to be the first one to say something rude and silly about the bottom of things?”
“I was always a volunteerin’ sort of fellow,” Dag murmured, and kissed his way down her bare body. And then there was some very nice rudeness indeed, and giggling, and tickling, and another hour went away.
Ch. 12
He lowered his stubby bow and studied the results. Well, they had all ended up somewhere within the outer circle. Not a tidy heart-shot, but that straw bale sure wasn’t getting away. He rather regretted not being able to spell out D + F in quivering feather shafts. He could imagine them spelling a trailing sort of argh! maybe, if he squinted a lot, which was almost as good.
--
“You really got Remo going tonight. If only we could get him to quit confusing farmers with their livestock, I think he’d be a decent sort.”
“Is he that bad? He doesn’t mean ill.”
“I didn’t think he did. He’s just…full of Lakewalkerish habits.”
“Or he was, before he got tipped out of his cradle. I ’spect our river trip isn’t quite the rebellion he thought he was signing up for.”
She snickered, her breath warm in the hollow of his skin.
Dag said more slowly, “He was just an ordinary patroller, before his knife got broken. But if ordinary folks can’t fix the world, it’s not going to get fixed. There are no lords here. The gods are absent.”
“You know, it sounds real attractive at first, but I’m not sure I’d want lords and gods fixing the world. Because I think they’d fix it for them. Not necessarily for me.”
“There’s a point, Spark,” he whispered.
She nodded, and her eyes drifted shut. His stayed open for rather a long while.
Ch. 16
At breakfast, Fawn discovered that like most fine young animals, [Lakewalker patroller] Barr was cuter when he was dry and fluffy.
--
“There,” he said at last, straightening. “He’s got his paddle back.”
“Is that the end of him?” Fawn asked hopefully.
Dag smiled down at her. “Well, there’s this. He’s a Lakewalker boy away from home for the first time, all alone. He’s not going upstream by himself, that’s for sure. His only choice is to keep going down, like us. So we’ll see.”
She frowned at him in doubt. “Do you want him to come back?”
“I don’t like losing patrollers.”
“You kept Remo. That’s one.”
“I don’t like losing two patrollers ’bout twice as much as I don’t like losing one.”
Ch. 17
“M-a-a-a,” bleated the confused sheep, its hooves slipping and splashing in the mud and stones of the bank.
“You shut up, too,” Fawn whispered fiercely. “Now, lift!”
A grunt, a swing, and the last sheep was rocked over the thwart to join its two companions. Twelve cloven feet thumped and clattered, echoing on the planks of the boat’s bottom. Round yellow eyes rolled in long white faces. Fawn leaped to thrust back the front legs of one trying to struggle out again, soaking her shoes.
“We better get in and start rowing,” she said. “You don’t think they’ll try and jump out when we’re out on the water, do you?”
“They might. And probably get their fleece waterlogged and drown, to boot. Sheep are stupider than chickens.”
“Whit, nothing’s stupider than chickens.”
“Well, that’s true,” he conceded. “Almost as stupid as chickens, then.”
--
“Nice boat ride?”
“Uh-huh,” said Fawn, staring up in defiance.
“Whit, Barr…you look a mite sheepish, one could say.”
“No, we only smell it,” muttered Whit.
“It wasn’t my doing!” Barr blurted.
Dag’s lips twisted up. “This time, Barr, I believe you.”
He leaned down to give them each a hand up in turn, and oversee the skiff properly tied.
Whit said uneasily, “Are you going to turn us in?”
“Who to? They weren’t my sheep.” He added after a moment, “Or yours.”
Barr breathed stealthy relief, and Dag shepherded Fawn firmly to bed.
He actually kept his face straight until he had a pillow stuffed over it. The chortles that then leaked through had Fawn poking him. “Stop that!”
It took a while till he quieted down.
Ch. 18
"[...] The Wolf Ridge malice I didn’t see close-up, just heard about from the survivors of the actual attack on the lair. The Raintree malice I saw eye-to-eye. That malice opened up one of the best ground-veilers in my company as easy as you’d gut a trout.”
“How can you even take down a malice that strong?” asked Remo.
“Gang up on it. Go after it all at once with a lot of patrollers with a lot of knives, and hope one gets through. Worked at Wolf Ridge, worked the same at Raintree.” He added after moment, “Well-veiled patrollers. So let’s go around again.”
After a couple more circuits, Barr remarked, “So, are you saying if I stayed this lousy at my ground-veiling, I’d never be chosen for one of those suicide-rushes?”
“In Luthlia, we’d set you out for bait,” Dag said.
Remo sniggered. Barr grimaced at him.
--
A successful hunter like Chicory might well possess a rudimentary groundsense like Aunt Nattie’s, if some passing Lakewalker had climbed his family tree a few generations back.
Ch. 21
“I have to question Crane,” Dag repeated. He nodded to the patrollers. “You two had best sit in. A quorum of sorts.”
“I want to hear that tale, too,” said Fawn.
He shook his head. “It’s like to be nasty, Spark. I would spare you if I could.”
“But you can’t,” she pointed out, which made him wince. Feeling pressed by his dismay, she struggled to explain. “Dag…I’ll never be a fighter. I’m too little. My legs are too short to outrun most fellows. The only equal weapon I’ll ever have is my wits. But without knowing things, my wits are like a bow with no arrows. Don’t leave me disarmed.”
--
An even stranger look lingered in Crane’s face, as if it shocked him to find there was something still in the world for him to want—and it was in his enemy’s hand to give or withhold. Wonder grew in Fawn, winding with her horror. She’d expected Crane to say, Blight you all, and let the malices take the world. Not Yes, I beg for some last share in this.
As if testing his fortune in disbelief, Crane growled blackly, “We made better sport in the cave. Would it give you a thrill, big man, to kill me with your own hand?”
Dag’s gaze flicked down. “I already did. All we’re doing now is debating the funeral arrangements.”
Ch. 23
Dag’s ground had to be in the most awful mess just now, come to think. Like a house the day after some big shindig where all the neighbors and kinfolks came, and ate and danced and drank and fought till all hours and your least favorite cousin threw up on the floor. You couldn’t hardly expect to get any work done till you’d cleaned up the place again all tidy, and you couldn’t tackle that till the hangover passed off.
Upon reflection, Fawn was profoundly thankful that Dag showed no weakness for drink. Patrollers in their cups had to make the most morose drunks in the world.
Whit was skinny and angular, his hands and feet a trifle too big for his body. Still growing into himself even past age twenty, as the length of wrist sticking from the sleeve of his homespun shirt testified. Or perhaps, with no younger brother to hand them down to, he was just condemned to wear out his older clothes.
Ch. 2
“And there’s another thing,” she added severely, although her hand strayed to map his jaw. “Camping in the evening, have you thought how fast it would blight the mood to have him sitting there on the other side of the fire, leering and cracking jokes?”
Dag shrugged. “Camp privacy’s not a new problem for patrollers.”
“Collecting firewood, bathing in the river, scouting for squirrels? So you told me. There’s a whole code, but Whit doesn’t know it.”
“Then I’ll just have to teach him Lakewalker.”
“Yeah? Best bring your hickory stick, for rapping on his skull.”
“I’ve trained denser young patrollers.”
“There are denser young patrollers?” She leaned back, so her eyes would bring his face into focus, likely. “How do they walk upright?”
Ch. 3
“Well, you’re just a girl, after all.”
Fawn merely grimaced. In his own way, she supposed Whit was trying. Very trying.
--
Whit inhaled. “Folks don’t know this. They say Lakewalkers are cannibals. That you rob graves. Eat your dead to make magic.”
Dag said gently, “But now you know better.”
“Um. Yeah.” Whit brightened. “So, that’s one farmer boy who’s learned something, huh?”
“One down.” Dag sighed. “Thousands to go. It’s a start.”
Ch. 4
The valley of the Grace spread out below them in the gold-blue autumn light. The river seemed to have put on her party dress, her banks and bending hillsides a swirl of color: scarlet and purple-red, glowing yellow, bright brown. The water reflected the azure of the sky, save where it broke into a sparkling shoal, necklace to the dress. Brooches of boats slid upon the water—a distant keel, a broad, blunt ferry—with a girdle of flatboats pulled up along the farther shore. Fawn was dimly aware of Whit, trotting up panting to see whatever there was to see. She was more aware of Dag, watching her face. She wasn’t sure if he was seeing just the river valley reflected there, or something more, but his mouth softened in an ease that handed her joy back to her, to be passed back to him again, redoubled.
Ch. 6
Fawn sat up in anticipation as they topped a rise and the line of flatboats tied to the trees beyond Possum Landing came into view. They were as unlike the Lakewalkers’ graceful, sharp-prowed narrow boats as they could be, looking like shacks stuck on box crates, really. Ungainly. Some even had small fireplaces with stone chimneys, out of which smoke trickled. It was as if someone’s village had suddenly decided to run off to sea, and Fawn grinned at the vision of an escaped house waddling away from its astonished owners. People ran away from home all the time; why shouldn’t the reverse be true?
Ch. 9
He rolled over and stared at the tiny pricks of light coming through the holes in their blanket-tent, held up by the ragged roots. “You do have a way of stirring up the silt in my brain, Spark.”
“You saying I cloud your thinking?”
“Or that you get to the bottom of things that haven’t been disturbed in far too long.”
Fawn grinned. “Now, who’s going to be the first one to say something rude and silly about the bottom of things?”
“I was always a volunteerin’ sort of fellow,” Dag murmured, and kissed his way down her bare body. And then there was some very nice rudeness indeed, and giggling, and tickling, and another hour went away.
Ch. 12
He lowered his stubby bow and studied the results. Well, they had all ended up somewhere within the outer circle. Not a tidy heart-shot, but that straw bale sure wasn’t getting away. He rather regretted not being able to spell out D + F in quivering feather shafts. He could imagine them spelling a trailing sort of argh! maybe, if he squinted a lot, which was almost as good.
--
“You really got Remo going tonight. If only we could get him to quit confusing farmers with their livestock, I think he’d be a decent sort.”
“Is he that bad? He doesn’t mean ill.”
“I didn’t think he did. He’s just…full of Lakewalkerish habits.”
“Or he was, before he got tipped out of his cradle. I ’spect our river trip isn’t quite the rebellion he thought he was signing up for.”
She snickered, her breath warm in the hollow of his skin.
Dag said more slowly, “He was just an ordinary patroller, before his knife got broken. But if ordinary folks can’t fix the world, it’s not going to get fixed. There are no lords here. The gods are absent.”
“You know, it sounds real attractive at first, but I’m not sure I’d want lords and gods fixing the world. Because I think they’d fix it for them. Not necessarily for me.”
“There’s a point, Spark,” he whispered.
She nodded, and her eyes drifted shut. His stayed open for rather a long while.
Ch. 16
At breakfast, Fawn discovered that like most fine young animals, [Lakewalker patroller] Barr was cuter when he was dry and fluffy.
--
“There,” he said at last, straightening. “He’s got his paddle back.”
“Is that the end of him?” Fawn asked hopefully.
Dag smiled down at her. “Well, there’s this. He’s a Lakewalker boy away from home for the first time, all alone. He’s not going upstream by himself, that’s for sure. His only choice is to keep going down, like us. So we’ll see.”
She frowned at him in doubt. “Do you want him to come back?”
“I don’t like losing patrollers.”
“You kept Remo. That’s one.”
“I don’t like losing two patrollers ’bout twice as much as I don’t like losing one.”
Ch. 17
“M-a-a-a,” bleated the confused sheep, its hooves slipping and splashing in the mud and stones of the bank.
“You shut up, too,” Fawn whispered fiercely. “Now, lift!”
A grunt, a swing, and the last sheep was rocked over the thwart to join its two companions. Twelve cloven feet thumped and clattered, echoing on the planks of the boat’s bottom. Round yellow eyes rolled in long white faces. Fawn leaped to thrust back the front legs of one trying to struggle out again, soaking her shoes.
“We better get in and start rowing,” she said. “You don’t think they’ll try and jump out when we’re out on the water, do you?”
“They might. And probably get their fleece waterlogged and drown, to boot. Sheep are stupider than chickens.”
“Whit, nothing’s stupider than chickens.”
“Well, that’s true,” he conceded. “Almost as stupid as chickens, then.”
--
“Nice boat ride?”
“Uh-huh,” said Fawn, staring up in defiance.
“Whit, Barr…you look a mite sheepish, one could say.”
“No, we only smell it,” muttered Whit.
“It wasn’t my doing!” Barr blurted.
Dag’s lips twisted up. “This time, Barr, I believe you.”
He leaned down to give them each a hand up in turn, and oversee the skiff properly tied.
Whit said uneasily, “Are you going to turn us in?”
“Who to? They weren’t my sheep.” He added after a moment, “Or yours.”
Barr breathed stealthy relief, and Dag shepherded Fawn firmly to bed.
He actually kept his face straight until he had a pillow stuffed over it. The chortles that then leaked through had Fawn poking him. “Stop that!”
It took a while till he quieted down.
Ch. 18
"[...] The Wolf Ridge malice I didn’t see close-up, just heard about from the survivors of the actual attack on the lair. The Raintree malice I saw eye-to-eye. That malice opened up one of the best ground-veilers in my company as easy as you’d gut a trout.”
“How can you even take down a malice that strong?” asked Remo.
“Gang up on it. Go after it all at once with a lot of patrollers with a lot of knives, and hope one gets through. Worked at Wolf Ridge, worked the same at Raintree.” He added after moment, “Well-veiled patrollers. So let’s go around again.”
After a couple more circuits, Barr remarked, “So, are you saying if I stayed this lousy at my ground-veiling, I’d never be chosen for one of those suicide-rushes?”
“In Luthlia, we’d set you out for bait,” Dag said.
Remo sniggered. Barr grimaced at him.
--
A successful hunter like Chicory might well possess a rudimentary groundsense like Aunt Nattie’s, if some passing Lakewalker had climbed his family tree a few generations back.
Ch. 21
“I have to question Crane,” Dag repeated. He nodded to the patrollers. “You two had best sit in. A quorum of sorts.”
“I want to hear that tale, too,” said Fawn.
He shook his head. “It’s like to be nasty, Spark. I would spare you if I could.”
“But you can’t,” she pointed out, which made him wince. Feeling pressed by his dismay, she struggled to explain. “Dag…I’ll never be a fighter. I’m too little. My legs are too short to outrun most fellows. The only equal weapon I’ll ever have is my wits. But without knowing things, my wits are like a bow with no arrows. Don’t leave me disarmed.”
--
An even stranger look lingered in Crane’s face, as if it shocked him to find there was something still in the world for him to want—and it was in his enemy’s hand to give or withhold. Wonder grew in Fawn, winding with her horror. She’d expected Crane to say, Blight you all, and let the malices take the world. Not Yes, I beg for some last share in this.
As if testing his fortune in disbelief, Crane growled blackly, “We made better sport in the cave. Would it give you a thrill, big man, to kill me with your own hand?”
Dag’s gaze flicked down. “I already did. All we’re doing now is debating the funeral arrangements.”
Ch. 23
Dag’s ground had to be in the most awful mess just now, come to think. Like a house the day after some big shindig where all the neighbors and kinfolks came, and ate and danced and drank and fought till all hours and your least favorite cousin threw up on the floor. You couldn’t hardly expect to get any work done till you’d cleaned up the place again all tidy, and you couldn’t tackle that till the hangover passed off.
Upon reflection, Fawn was profoundly thankful that Dag showed no weakness for drink. Patrollers in their cups had to make the most morose drunks in the world.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
The List. (Updated 19 March 2011)
- Type up 100 sets of book notes. [link to list]
002/100
- Cut up 100 magazines.
000/100
- Finish organizing all images on computer.
- Get a passport.
- Get at least two hours' worth of exercise per week.
008/286
- Update Flickr weekly with pics of new and in-progress projects.
003/143
- Take weekly self-portraits. [link to collection]
000/143
- Finish at least part of either the ABJR or Luna 'verse.
- Get a booth at a craft fair.
- Write in journal at least every other day.
014/500
- List 100 things that make me happy. [link to list]
000/100
- Write 100 haiku. [link to entry]
000/100
- Unpack (or at least go through) every box.
- Design and have printed business cards.
- Read 250 books. [link to list]
023/250
- Clean refrigerator/freezer inside and out every other month.
01/33
- Hand-clean all tile/linoleum floors every other month. (The laundry room with all Chris's pro-gear in it is exempt.)
00/33
- Set aside all stuff to sell or give away.
- Do the 5,000 Question Survey. [link to answers]
0,200/5,ooo
- Go swimming ten times.
00/10
- Scan all diaries and random notes books.
#/#
- Go to the Harry Potter thing at Islands of Adventure.
- Go through all links saved in Twitter Favorites from 2010 at DW.
0/4
Update Vertical File, The Experimental Hooker, and Army Issue Crackerbox twice a week.Vertical File: 044/286
The Experimental Hooker: 013/286
Army Issue Crackerbox: 003/286 - Add five original recipes to the Orbital Cookbook.
0/5
- Go without caffeine for 30 consecutive days.
00/30
- Answer the 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind.
00/50
- Find a personally inspirational quote and work it into a piece of art or home decor.
- Buy something from Etsy.
- Donate blood every 8 weeks.
00/18
- Go shopping in New York City. (Bonus: get fitted for custom bras and corsets.)
- Drive from here (Fort Drum, NY) to either my mom's or my dad's place on my own or with one other person.
- Go to a comic/sci-fi/anime convention.
- Go to a Jimmy Buffett concert.
- Take one Sanity Break per quarter.
- Drink the recommended amount of water (the number of half your body weight in pounds divided by two in ounces) every day for 30 consecutive days, four times.
1: 00/30
2: 00/30
3: 00/30
4: 00/30 - Learn how to play poker.
- Complete four 30-day memes. [link to tag]
1: 00/30
2: 00/30
3: 00/30
4: 00/30 - Watch at least 20 videos from the "Real Queue" per month.
208/640
- Donate 1,000,000 grains of rice at freerice.org.
0,006,500/1,000,000
- Finish list by June of 2011.
00/11
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)