Eye of the Ocean Book 3 Ji'jin Station

Eye of the Ocean – Book 3: Ji’Jin Station
- 18 -
Tu'pin watched smoke from the city curl lazily into the sky to make a lower and
darker layer against the broken clouds. A staggered sunset but close to being
doubled, the yellow sun was setting second to the other by only an hour, and
throwing a purple light against the clouds and smoke both. The Temple drums
had started for the evening service. There was an Initiation tonight and the
terrace outside the Priest House was almost empty of people; he and Oimit were
the only ones loitering.
He raised his face to the breeze and shook, letting the air work into his hair,
enjoying the rush as his blood cooled. His robe of feathered ilistin cloth helped to
wick the excess moisture in the air away from his skin, taking heat as well. Purple
light in the strands of white fabric, they floated as he shook, mixing with his hair.
He wore it longer than he ever had before and in a fall down his back, the stubby
lower band along his spine mixing with the longer. The robe was draped to hang
low at the back in a very old Zimmer style.
“You could show a little restraint,” Oimit said, crossing her arms. She sat on
the stone balustrade that bordered the terrace, her back to the city below them.
“Why?” he asked, intending to tease her out of her mood.
“You look like a bloody zilzi'misk,” she said, crossing her legs at the ankles.
All tucked in, legs and arms. She would be hot in her Be'li'kini uniform; she
wore it whenever she left her suite or received guests. Disapproval and not just
annoyance from the heat, but was it real or an act? A shield, he decided.
“Was that supposed to be a compliment?” he asked. “Besides, how would you
know?” The rare zilzi'misk were Clan Zimmer by blood, and for the females, by
gin'tala as well, but caught half between Clan and freeborn in maturation. Sterile,
but like the freeborn, sexual without being paltin. Anyone late in maturing might
be taunted with the possibility by their age-mates. A deadly taunt. A'Genn like
most High Clans, killed them.
He was rewarded with a smile. “I didn't lead as sheltered a life at the Alliance
Postings as you did at the Holding.” She laughed. “Other Clans might whisper
about our unorthodox breeding lines, but never that we show a lack of propriety.
Can you image Dacca with a zilzi?” She laughed for the both of them. He couldn't
imagine, it seemed disrespectful to even try.
He went and sat next to her. Smoke in the air, algae and rot, a moist decay all
around. Granite, they were sitting on cut stone. And her scent, he dreamed it
every night and woke up wanting her in his arms. He found the Camerat women
disgusting.
“You were the most exotic thing that ever happened to me while I was growing
up,” he said. “I never even left the Holding until my first Warrior assignment and
Laurel Hickey www.2morrow.bc.ca