The waves flung up against the purple glow of double sleeplessness. Along the piers the ships return; but sailing I would go through double rings of fire, double fears. So therefore let your bright va...

Afterwards, she was taken down to the sea. She didn’t feel too well, so she sat on a rock down where the sand was wet and scrunched her bare toes in and out of the cool surface. She turned away, looke...

Waves flung themselves at the blue evening. Low light burned on the wet hulks of ships that slipped by mossy pilings into the docks as water sloshed at the rotten stone embankment of the city. Gangpla...

An oil lamp leaked yellow light on the wooden walls of the ship’s forecastle. Geo wrinkled his nose, then shrugged. “Well,” said Urson, “this is a pleasant enough hole.” He climbed one of the tiers of...

Geo walked down into the forecastle, still deserted except for Urson and Snake. “Well?” asked Urson, sitting up on the edge of his berth. “What did she tell you?” “Why aren’t you asleep?” Geo said hea...

“That dream,” Geo said to Urson a moment after the mate left. Urson looked down from his bunk. “You had it too?” Both turned to Snake. “I guess that was your doing, eh?” Urson said. Snake scrambled do...

Light lowered in the sky as they walked beside the river, keeping close to the rocky edge and brushing away vines that strung into the water from hanging limbs. Urson broke down a branch as thick as h...

Geo rolled over and out of sleep, stones and moss beneath his shoulder. He grabbed his sword and was on his feet instantly. Iimmi was also standing with raised blade. The river sloshed coldly behind t...

It was Urson who first pointed it out. “Look at the far bank,” he said. Across from them, they could make out an obviously man-made stone embankment. A few hundred feet further on, Iimmi sighted the s...

The pale woman with the tiny eyes rose from over him. Her hair dropped like white silk threads over her shoulders. “You are awake?” she asked. “Do you understand me?” “Am I at⁠—at Hama’s temple?” he a...

Snake reached down, picked the beads up from Urson’s hand. The sound of wings had stopped. “Where do we go now?” Urson asked. “Follow the general rule, I guess,” said Iimmi. “Since we know Hama does h...

Dawn light lay aslant the crater’s ridge. Argo pointed down the opposite slope. A black temple was visible at the bottom among trees and lawns. “There is Hama’s temple,” Argo said. “You have your task...

Under the trees, she raised up on tiptoe and kissed the balding forehead of a tall, dark-robed priest. “Dunderhead,” she said, “I think you’re cute.” Then she blinked very rapidly and knuckled beneath...

Roughness of sand beneath one of his sides, and the flare of the sun on the other. His eyes were hot and his lids were orange over them. He turned over, and reached out to dig his fingers into the san...