Maybe what happened was our own faults. With Grandmother here, and the automas standing guard, we dared leave the gate open. The herdsmen...

A few days later, as the sun turned the desert dust to gold, the gate guard announced with sweeping hand gestures that someone was...

Grandmother swept into the camp in a swirl of dust, escorted by the stench of sweat and smoke. Her face and arms were bare, free of the...

Lira and I stood near the gate and the lone automa that guarded it. Behind us, the stronger members of my town piled splintered boards,...

I want to say I didn't recognize him, he was so changed, but it's not true. I just didn't want it to be him. I didn't want him to have...

I'd expected to see Amaz when we rode our donkeys out the starred gate. But if he was lurking somewhere in the camp, I didn't spot him. I...

The mask Thesil tied over my nose and mouth was rough linen, not the silk of my childhood. I still stuck my hands out of my new cloak to...

For once, I couldn't read Grandmother's face. She stood with her lips pressed tight together, her brows lifted. A finger tapped at her...

The mine looked like some giant had taken a hammer the size of the moon and slammed it into a mountain peak . People crawled and jumped...

Thesil and I stared as though the last month had never happened. As though the man that had died in front of us had been only a distant...

Thesil didn't want to talk with me. She trailed behind, her shoes dragging through the dirt and stomping the occasional anthill. When I...

It was Thesil who noticed, some days later. She stopped walking, several feet behind Lira and her donkey. I, who tried to keep pace with...

When I woke, I was upside down. The blood rushed to my head, making my face throb. But only parts of it. My cheek pressed into the weave...

It was hard work, gathering enough wood for a fire when we didn't even have an axe. We had to wrench bushes apart with our bare hands,...

Thesil was sitting on her bedroll when I darted into the tent, my heart pounding from more than the run. I could nearly taste the...

A week later, the silver tube protruded from Thesil's neck like the tap on a barrel of wine. It reminded me of the hollow metal earrings...

A week passed before the city's gates opened and something spilled out onto the dusty road, sending up clouds that obscured the earth and...

I had painted Holy Efra. The thought boggled me. The Great Unknowns sent visions with the revelations, everyone knew that, but they were...

Abursa had told the truth. The troupe had a spare tent and blankets that became mine before the afternoon was out. It was even large...

The girl broke off another green branch of the wizened tree as I walked towards her. It left a ragged wound in the trunk, and I frowned....