Queen Demon (The Rising World) by Martha Wells

Author:Martha Wells [Wells, Martha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group
Published: 2025-10-07T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Dahin walked into the room and stopped abruptly. “Well, you’ve changed,” he said, planting his hands on his hips. “This seems a little one-sided, going into scholarly battle with a child.”

“You have not changed, sadly.” The Tescai-lin’s expression was cool. “And only a Blessed would consider a scholarly discussion a battle.”

“Oh, there you are.” Dahin was pleased. “I knew you were still in there.”

While Dahin was setting out his maps and papers in front of the Tescai-lin, Kai let Reanis conduct him to the guest quarters so he could take advantage of a bathing room that included the luxuries of warm running water, privacy, soap, and scented oil. From Ziede’s heart pearl, he knew the others had just arrived, that Tahren was carefully lowering the ascension raft to a tight landing on a small plot of ground in a kitchen garden that was currently lying fallow. Kai told Ziede, I think Dahin was lying about coming here for research.

I thought so too, she replied, when he didn’t demand that we put together our own expedition to Sun-Ar immediately. But there didn’t seem a point in starting that fight before we got here.

Kai agreed, but he wished he knew what Dahin was up to. And why he couldn’t just tell them. But Dahin had been like this for years. Kai shouldn’t be frustrated by it. He was, but he shouldn’t be.

The others had been shown to the guest quarters by the time Kai got out of the bath, and he found one of their hastily packed bags waiting in the outer room. Digging through it, he found a pair of plain brown leggings, but the only clean shirt and skirt was of a rich blue, and the coat stuffed under them was embroidered in faded silver over black brocade all along the hems and cuffs. There was a black veil in the pocket, cobweb fine and just translucent enough to conceal Kai’s eyes. He knew Bashasa had given it to him, though he couldn’t remember when. Bashasa had had a habit of producing a thing when Kai needed it, as if it was just something he happened to have with him. Kai thought it might have been this veil, when Bashasa had never worn veils even in the places where they were in fashion, that had finally made him realize that all these casual gifts had been carefully chosen at some point.

This was more of an outfit for a formal event for Benais-arik’s court, but the heavier fabrics were sturdy and strong and would feel good in Belith’s cool evening weather. And everything else they did in this city would now be with the blessing of the Tescai-lin, so there was no point in concealment anymore. He tucked the veil away in the coat pocket.

Kai was already in the reception room, eating stuffed olives, when the others came in. It was an area with less difficult furniture, meant for more intimate guests who wouldn’t consider informality an insult. It

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.