Eye of the Ocean Book 3 Ji'jin Station

Eye of the Ocean – Book 3: Ji’Jin Station
An inner courtyard, the rooms and walls of the Speakerhouse surrounded her.
A garden, potted plants and tables around the edges, a central clear area with an
altar. There was a rocking horse with a Xintan style saddle. A Zimmer doll and
some building blocks. With a faint whistle, a wind-catcher brought a cooling
breeze into the enclosure, competing with the scent of cooking from the nearby
kitchen. Roasting lamb, the smell made her mouth water. There should be people
here, children playing, but there was only her and the woman doing her hair.
The time was dragging slower and slower but finally, the sky was darkening
over her head, it would be time soon for the evening prayers. She was hungry
and tired of tea and still more tea. The latest sat at the side of a small brazier set
on the flagstones, one of the servants had turned the preparation into an hourlong
session. Another woman was braiding her hair and taking as long and as
little inclined to talk as the other had been.
She had started off thinking of the Spreakerhouse as a refuge, now... No, she
hadn't been thinking, only reacting. And it had been a refuge; she had grasped
everything offered her as though it might make sense out of the chaos in her
mind. And was promised answers to her questions even as the old Zimmer had
backed away, his fingers flying as he made signs she didn't know.
Right now, she wanted food more than words. Would she have to wait for
either answers or food until the Speaker broke his fast after the service? A hungry
look up at more footsteps and she was disappointed again. A human girl carrying
a book. Xintan dress, tunic and pants, leather boots with a knife sheath on one
calf. She didn't look Xintan.
“My name's Alicia,” the girl said in Hegemony as she knelt, setting the book on
the table. “May I join you?”
Ulanda shrugged. An accent, but it wasn't Xintan, then she remembered that
Rit had had the same way of speaking.
Alicia opened the cover of the book and turned the first page. “Can you read at
all?”
“No.” She got a look that said Alicia knew she was hungry and restless. “Is this
part of the explanation the Speaker said I'd get?”
“A part, yes. The book is a translation of an ancient scroll that was written in
an extinct Empire language.” She started reading, using words that Ulanda didn't
understand, a few phrases, then would translate them into Hegemony.
As she read, with one hand, Alicia toyed with her single long tail of hair. Green
beads ran the length of it. The other hand held the book, on her lap now, she was
staring at the words, her fingers on a drawing in the margin as though she could
feel the meaning and not just see it.
Ulanda leaned forward and took the book, getting her hair tugged for the
effort. The drawing in the margin was of a seashell, bumpy lines underneath for
Laurel Hickey www.2morrow.bc.ca