Seasons Turning (Timely Realms Book 1) by Donaya Haymond

Author:Donaya Haymond [Haymond, Donaya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Autumn Arch Publishing
Published: 2018-08-01T22:00:00+00:00

Eight

Fall Back

The man with the shabby top hat and black fingerless gloves waved his cane and bellowed at the top of his voice.

He needed to get the attention of the downtown Centralian crowd. It took all his strength to be heard over the meat pie sellers, balloon animal makers, fruit kabob caramelizers, palm readers, Hug Dealers, and parrot choirs. Not to mention the swell of ordinary people hustling to and fro on business and pleasure.

“Step right up, gentlefolk! Step right up to see the most exotic, inscrutable, downright indubitable curiosities in the Seven States! These wonders come from the most exotic parts of the JRMD, the farthest corners of the Temperate Zone provinces, and the farthest Week Districts of the Season Realms. Witness a pancake burned with the face of Cthulhu. The ecstatic sight of flowers tipped with genuine, naturally occurring gold dew. The depressing pig that sings nothing but funeral dirges. Plants solemnly battling. Now featuring Twig, the sarcastic little wooden girl!”

****

The six-year-old behind Lynne kept kicking her seat. After the fifth kick she swung around and peered through the crack between her seat and Jared’s. He sat by the window, she in the middle. “I want to warn you,” she said sweetly, “that before my love came into my life and soothed my tempestuous nature, I would have hanged anyone who annoyed me this much by their thumbs in my dungeon for five hours. I suppose with you I might have modified it to being hung by the wrists, since children’s joints are more delicate.”

The little boy blinked at her. “Huh?”

His mother magically noticed Lynne’s threat when she had blissfully been unaware of what led up to it. She tugged out her earbuds and glared at Lynne. “Don’t talk to my son like that!”

“I’m sorry, the child has a parent? I was unaware. Generally even street urchins have better manners. If your objection is to the length of my words, let me make it simpler. Kid, if you kick my chair one more time, I will steal whichever of your shoes is closest. I will spit inside it, then play keepaway until you’re tearfully begging for it back.”

Jared cringed while also holding back laughter. Before the angry mother managed to reply, the overhead speaker crackled to life.

A strained female voice addressed them. It was the kind you associated with movies where only the romantic leads and maybe a cute child survive. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. There is no cause for alarm, but we would like to know if there is a meteorologist and/or geographer on board. If so, would she or he come up to the cockpit, please?”

The mother bit her lip and took her son into her arms, despite his squirms. Jared looked out the window and quietly drew Lynne’s attention. “We’re flying over a frozen sea. There isn’t a frozen sea between here and Minnesota.”

Lynne stared out at the landscape, crackled with snow-covered ice and the occasional berg. She unfastened her seatbelt and stood.

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.