Stray Bats by Margo Lanagan

Author:Margo Lanagan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Small Beer Press
Published: 2019-11-05T16:56:31+00:00

Chop off your hands and put them into fire. (You can only cast this spell a certain number of times.) They will try to catch hold of the flames, then cease to strive. Keep the murmuring constant—any pause will result in surface imperfections; any serious interruption will mean a lifelong dependency on ordinary others—they’ll scorn you, too, for bringing this on yourself.

Test the forged hands against a heart that you have damascened with many others, and honed to a resilient edge. It is unlikely that your own will be suitable unless it has beaten for two score years and ten.

If you have proceeded correctly—and few enough workers do—in the course of testing, the fingers will sing a high, fine note above the forge’s growl.

They will glow with a force greater than simple flame born of peat and bellows. They will obey the biology of bones and tendons, but be unconstrained by it. The hair singed off them will never grow back, although you will smell it, sometimes, in their creations.

Now these hands are fit for blessing the most fragile of unions, the most peculiar. They are capable of firming the least element that can be firmed, as the parties, joining hands, leap into the light.

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.