The Sinful Stars: Tales of the Fading Suns by Bill Bridges

Show description

So the next sunrise I scooted back into the jungle. *** We watched from the trees as the newcomer defiled the Broken Place. We communed with the Start-is-the-End Song, and our attack became clear. But I heard in the Song something I had not heard before. So I asked elder H’Chur’ff if the newcomer could be at the Broken Place in search of the Song. We do not know this kind of newcomer, I said. He is too small and oily and covered with filaments to be Decados. The Decados are not seeking the Song, but this one may be, and that may have brought him to the Broken Place.

I mean prospecting. I mean geologizing. I was whipping northbound on the Boulevard of Paradisiacal Gardens in my trusty hopper, which I just got slathered in a new coat of blue metallic lacquer to protect it’s oxidation 72 THE SINFUL STARS spots from the eternal Severus drizzle, when this strung out Decados ore processing foreman on a sleek, antique hoverbike plows into me. Now the trick to driving a big rig like a hopper amidst a swarm of little flitters is to defer to them whenever possible. Like a gentle giant frolicking through a field of porcelain dolls, you have to be ever vigilant for the telltale tinkle of crushed powder underfoot.

That would enable us to bring his bones home to lie in state in the cathedral. Very possibly to work miracles, like the cloak of St. Hombor on Shaprut, the helm of St. Mantius on Tethys, or the skull of St. Kharmian on Aragon. Think how glorious that would be! ” Bloddic smiled indulgently. “That would be grand. If you could actually locate the blessed healer’s remains. ” “There’s at least some chance, Your Eminence. ” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he wanted to take them back. But Bloddic didn’t ask for details.