Broken Quill by Joe Ducie

Author:Joe Ducie
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Publisher: Cedar Sky Publishing
Published: 2013-02-09T13:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Meadow Gate

“Still as sweet as lilies in May, Tia,” I said, certain I recognized the voice and the woman attached to it.

The petite woman, wearing blue overalls above a white blouse and pointing twin, iron-barreled revolvers at my face, laughed. “Declan? Declan Hale? Broken quill, with the amount of people that want you dead, and all those bounties on your big head, I’d have bet good gems on never seeing you again! Ha!”

I gently pushed the barrel of one of her revolvers aside and got a good look at her. “Tia Moreau. Now, I know you’re dead and buried. I went to your memorial service, yours and the rest.” At five feet and a dime, Tia only just came up to my shoulder. Her face held a few lines I didn’t remember above a lightly freckled button nose and under emerald-green eyes, and her long, raven-black hair was tied back in a ponytail. An old scar, something else I didn’t remember, crossed the space between her eyes, down the bridge of her nose, and into her cheek.

“Did you now? Was there cake?” Tia holstered one of her weapons and cupped my cheek, while keeping the other revolver aimed squarely between my eyes. “Reports of my death, handsome, have been greatly exaggerated.”

Tia laughed again and planted a quick kiss on my lips. I felt a rush of something that felt like the first sip of scotch on a cold night. Not at all unpleasant, yet it made me shiver.

“Declan, you know this person? And her... friend?” Annie had her gun drawn and pointed at the large, muscle-bound goon, who had managed to crawl to one knee after I’d thrown him aside. The goon held a curved rapier that looked like a butter knife in his giant hands.

I released the hilt of my sword and let it fall back into the scabbard. “Annie, this is Tia Moreau. Once upon a time, Commander Moreau, of the Cascade Fleet, charged with protecting the skies above Ascension City, and Arbiter of the Knights Infernal. I inherited her job when she was killed in action. Your command ship was lost, Tia. Along with King Morrow’s and half the Fifth Fleet when the Renegades attacked Avalon and unleashed a Voidflood! How’d you survive?”

Tia’s face darkened, and she shook her head. “I can’t tell you. Not here, at any rate. It may attract... unwanted attention. The Abstract is listening, Declan.”

I understood at once and kept my peace for now. Tia had survived by crossing the Void—somehow—which left lingering marks on one’s soul. Marks that could be felt by some pretty nasty creatures. To speak of that cold space between universes would be to court disaster and perhaps to attract the ire of the Voidlings. Few escaped the darkness at all. I could count on one hand the number of people I knew who had walked the Void and lived to tell the tale. Two hands, now, if Tia was to be believed.

“You never came back?” I said, making it a question.

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