The Dragon that Flew out of the Sun: Stories of the Xuya Universe by Aliette de Bodard

Author:Aliette de Bodard [Bodard, Aliette de]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi

The Frost on Jade Buds

On the comms-image, Chi looked much as Thuy remembered her: tall and thin and dour, almost skeletal, as if what had happened to her in her youth still stifled her metabolism – and, in truth, perhaps it did. Neither Thuy nor any of the family – nor, indeed, any inhabitant of the Scattered Pearls Belt – really knew the full extent of what happened to her, or how to reverse it.

"You look well, elder sister," Chi said. The words would have suited the imperial court; would have been appropriate for an elder of Chi's generation. There were other, more familiar ones, more suitable for the sister of one's blood; and Chi could have used them. She could have pretended to care. But of course she no longer bothered.

Thuy couldn't bring herself to lie. "You don't."

Chi laughed, but it didn't reach her eyes – and even the makeup and the plucked eyebrows couldn't distract from the red, burst blood vessels in her corneas. "You never could lie."

"Not to family," Thuy said, simply. She wondered where Sixth Aunt had got to; she'd left the ship a bi-hour ago, saying she needed to find something in the Apricot Blossom Ho orbital, and hadn't come back. Staring into her sister's eyes, Thuy wished she could have counted on Sixth Aunt's biting wisdom and overbearing presence; on her reassurance that she was handling this the proper way; for anything that would have taken away that feeling of baiting a tiger with nothing but her wit to save her – and ancestors knew wit had never been her strength.

On Thuy's implants-feed, the signal from The Dragons in the Peach Garden flowed like a meditation prayer – the ship's trackers were attempting to trace the call, hopping from node to node in the network, discarding the more remote planets of the Black Tiger solar system, moving in closer to the centre...

Let them find something; anything that would help them. Let them track Chi down before it was too late.

"You shouldn't be here," Chi said.

"Did you expect me to stay away after I got your message?"

"What, that I was coming back to the orbital of my childhood?" Chi's voice was slightly ironic; as if already detached from the conversation. Of course it would be.

"You know what I mean," Thuy said.

The trackers were narrowing it further; to the middle band between the large space stations and the stunted, burnt planets; to the Scattered Pearls Belt itself...

Please please please...

"I know exactly what you mean. You have this pathetic notion that you can stop me, that you can make me change my mind." Chi's face was closed again – as serene, as enigmatic as the statue of Quan Am in the temples. "You're free to try, elder sister. But you'll never succeed."

And with that, the comms cut off. Thuy remained standing for a while, staring at the emptiness in front of her eyes – the ship's network superimposed the images directly on her field of vision – and tried to banish her sister's image from her thoughts.

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.