Mom looked curious; Dad suspicious. Holly turned to them. “This is Mary and Gordon Parker. Mom and Dad, this is Ohlan.” Dad held out a hand. “Ohlan …?” Last name! Crap, they’d never discussed it! “Fore...
Shalár ignored him, turning to the hall attendant whose duty was to record the business of petitioners as they arrived. Three others stood waiting, and it happened that two of them preceded Kelev. Shalár heard their reports and requests, and gave orders in response. When K...
I would have gone after him but Madera came in from the other direction with a small basket of eggs. Savhoran’s door slammed. Madera turned to me. “What happened?” “I cut my finger and he freaked out.” He looked like I’d told...
Clive said to the waiter who brought him a glass of bourbon. He couldn’t help staring at the drink floating toward his hand, and as he accepted it he felt a brush of something cold and tingly. Suppressing a shiver, he looked up at where the waiter’s face should be and tried to smile, then turned ...
The technician, her own large, brown eyes slightly anxious, hovered near the fiberboard box where a mother cat lay with her five kittens in a nest of shredded fabric. Tiny, high-pitched mews came from the squirming kits. The tech reached a hesitant hand toward the mother cat, a striped gray tabby...
The fifty he had seen only a few days ago had been joined by hundreds more. Six companies stood there, as well as a rabble of unattached recruits so fresh that they had difficulty holding still. Berephan shifted in his saddle and gestured toward the rabble. “Those are the newest. Have your pick o...
She frowned at the intruding light and lifted her head to command its removal. A glance was all that was needed to send an attendant scurrying to adjust the heavy drape. No one cared to court Shalár's displeasure. She shifted in the massive darkwood chair from which she held audience, uncomfortab...
I heard my mug hit the concrete and shatter. The female—the alben—was coming. I couldn’t move, but I could tell she was getting closer. The pain in my head didn’t stop. There was something that should have helped, but I couldn’t concentrate enough t...
“Long ago. We have both had other loves since.” Whoa. I took another swallow of tea, trying to grasp what I was hearing. Gehmanin, who was now an alben, had once been … and that meant … “He would have returned to me had I asked it. He wanted me to ask it, but I never would...