Esteronzerai was the biggest town Raizel had been in yet, and it was where the carriage’s route diverged from Raizel’s, whether or not she had been stopping to lasso a wizard.  She bowed to the driver and, her grandfather’s words in her mind, tipped him, although she had not been responsible for the payment for… Continue reading Eleven: The Diamond Raven

She should have thought of it before she agreed, she supposed.  She might be stepping into some long-held family feud — their mountain had several of those — or maybe into the sort of thing where the city wanted to move someone whose home had stood in the same place for three hundred years.  Their… Continue reading Ten: The Perils of One’s Past

The woman studied Raizel. “You have skills I don’t?” “Well, I can’t design a building,” Raizel admitted, “or build one.  But in the last two days I’ve been dusted by a pixie, blessed by a spectre, and kissed by what might have been a goddess.”  Also by two whores, but she didn’t think that counted.… Continue reading Nine: Yederya Wizard

Raizel took breakfast in the inn’s bar the next morning, feeling well-rested, content, and ready to face the rest of her journey.  Perhaps she’d even hire a coach. The barmaid leaned over the table while she was refilling Raizel’s mug.  “There are opportunities around here, you know, for someone as clever as Esterzon Gorenz says… Continue reading Eight: A Kiss

The black-and-blue light danced upwards like a geyser and then seemed to be sucked downwards, towards the books. ​”No!” Trinner Traln shouted.  Raizel glanced at him just in time to see him jerk away from Esterzon Gorenz and dart towards the idol. The blue-black light seemed to suck him in.  No, sucked in a portion… Continue reading Seven: Moving On

Raizel was in a plane of white in front of a black spectre, without fifty sed and nowhere near the train station. If she got out of here, she was going to curse Trinner Traln and that idiot Esterzon Gorenz with every trick and hex and lie all of her grandparents and great-grandparents had taught… Continue reading Six: The Evil Idol

Trinner Traln and the round man were, of course waiting for her.   “Pixies,” she swore at both of them.  “Pixie dust. What were you thinking?” “What?”  The rotund man stared at her.  “There are pixies in that cave?  And you didn’t bring any out?” “What do I look like to you, man, an insane woman?… Continue reading Five: Pixie Dust

The cave was, indeed, very tight, and if Raizel had been any better fed, she would not have fit.  Trinner Traln and the round man shouted at her and each other as ehs slipped through the opening, moving more like a snake than even like crawling. “How did you even get this in here?” she… Continue reading Four: The Narrow Cave

The walk to the strange man’s cave was only an hour because of the rolling limp that affected his walk, and, it seemed, his speech patterns.  He would go up and down, up and down with his tales as they walked, telling Raizel all about the Empire’s plans to read everyone’s mind, only to turn… Continue reading Three: The Black Missive