Beyond the Boundary Stones (The Chronicles of Tevenar Book 3) by Holder Angela

Author:Holder, Angela [Holder, Angela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Deore Press
Published: 2016-01-04T18:30:00+00:00

Twenty-Two

Nalini turned the glass circle over and over in her hands. It was as big across as her palm, nearly an inch thick in the center, tapering in a smooth curve to a thin rim. She looked through it as Gevan had demonstrated. At first all she could make out was a blur of light and color. She moved the tip of one finger close to the far side and adjusted the distance. At a certain point the blur resolved into a sharp image of her skin, the tiny lines expanded into dramatic ridges and canyons.

She couldn’t help letting out a little “hmmph” of surprise, even though she’d sworn not to let these foreigners have the satisfaction of seeing they’d impressed her. If they managed to. She had to admit this was a pretty good start. Although probably it would prove only a clever curiosity, not truly useful.

Gevan looked up from the cluttered worktable. “Are you done with that? Let me have it.” He took it from her hands and set it carefully, almost reverently, into a wooden frame shaped to hold it. “The biggest problem we had on the ship was keeping the lens and whatever we were observing steady enough. On such small scales even a tiny movement is enough to carry your subject far out of sight. I spent a good deal of thought on how to deal with the difficulty. Now I can finally test my ideas.” He used a blob of clay to affix a long, slender nail upright behind the lens, fiddling with the height until the head rested at just at its center. “Let’s see how this works.”

Before Nalini could react he pulled a knife from his belt, pricked the tip of his thumb, and applied the welling drop of blood to the head of the nail. It formed a scarlet bead, shimmering in the light of a lantern Gevan had placed on the workbench just beyond his contraption. Gevan sucked absently on his thumb as he seated himself on a stool and peered through the lens. He twitched the nail a bit closer, then a hair farther away, until he made a pleased sound and gazed for several long seconds. Nalini got the feeling he’d forgotten she was there. He reached for a piece of paper and a pen and started sketching.

Nalini waited a few minutes for courtesy’s sake, then went to stand next to him and cleared her throat loudly. Gevan started and looked up. “May I see?” she asked, not bothering to keep the annoyance from her voice.

“I’m sorry. Of course.” He rose and gestured for her to take his place.

She seated herself, looked through the lens, and blinked. Disks she recognized from his sketch hovered before her, glowing pink rings floating in yellowish liquid. Scattered here and there were other shapes, spheres and oblongs and blobby clusters too dense to make out clearly. She pulled back to look at the droplet of blood on its perch, then ducked to gaze through the lens again.

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