Eye of the Ocean Book 3 Ji'jin Station

Eye of the Ocean – Book 3: Ji’Jin Station
face softened as he watched her, he knew her mind. Do I... did I love you, she
also wanted to ask. Except Bolda had said that other Ulanda hadn't been capable
of loving.
She scratched her wrist where Mirwin had touched her instead of meeting Rit's
eyes again. The tingle that had made her drop the wood had changed to a
strange ache. He had probably known her last question too. Strom. Do you love
me? She smiled at the thought but hid that with the rest, and probably as poorly,
by bending over Tika, the cat raising her face until the golden eyes were all of her
vision and they touched noses.
She rubbed the cold wet spot on the tip of her nose. “The Overpriest said that
what was in the scroll was what they wanted.” Tika was back purring and
snagging beads and threads on the robe. “He said it offered two possibilities, not
just that the woman died in the spiral... or whatever their Temple had instead.
Does this here mean he's not getting what he wanted?”
“Ulanda, I don't know. Empire will be tied off, not really destroyed. Perhaps as
they see it, time...”
“Or he's getting diddly-squat,” Bolda said.
“No, he's here,” Ulanda said.
Anga was toeing the rug, working the pile as though there as something to see
under the surface. A tree with a mat of long bronze leaves at the base, as though
it were late fall even though the rose vine climbing on the bare branches was in
full bloom. Birds darted among the roses and tiny black and white lizards peeked
out from the shelter of individual petals.
“Yes, I am,” he said and looked up.
“Are we all just symbols?” Ulanda asked. Leaning forward, she fanned the tufts
of the rug much as the loom-master had with his toe. Details were lost then
formed again. Like a picture, she thought, but not just surface, each individual
fiber had several colors along their lengths - she'd pulled one earlier that showed
shades of red, two greens, a brown and a mustard yellow. “When... just before
the Audience Hall vanished,” she continued, “people appeared. I didn't know them
all, but some of those I do know couldn't have been there. There was a man...”
Anga looked up at her, his tiny black eyes glittering like cut glass.
Ulanda stood suddenly, with Tika turning the start of a fall into a jump to the
floor. The cat glared at her, ears back, flicking her tail. “I'm sorry,” she whispered
to the cat, feeling like an idiot then walked to the steps, back the way they had
come, crossing her arms into a tuck.
An offering-fire and for a moment, waves crashed against rock far below,
bringing the scent of salt on the rising spray. She was on the edge of a cliff.
“There was a man,” she repeated as though having to convince herself. Then she
blinked and smoke still rose in a thin stream, but it was only Peecit's small fire
and that was almost out. Ulanda could see the Zimmer girl, somewhere she'd
Laurel Hickey www.2morrow.bc.ca