Touched by Venom

Author:Janine Cross [Cross, Janine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-08-06T01:21:15+00:00

FIVE

What happened next is difficult to recount. I don't know where to start. With our triumphant return to our compound from temple? With the press of the crowd and the ululations of women that accompanied us the entire way? Or with the pottery clan men who vaulted onto each other's shoulders like acrobats, bellowing praises to our illustrious bull dragon?

The thing of it is, I remember that afternoon and evening like a series of images hung upon a wall, like one of Mother's famous four-tile panels. Static pictures captured in clay: It's safest to remember events in that manner.

Understand, Temple law states that the clan of a boy chosen by the dragonmaster as apprentice must give away all possessions at sundown on Sa Gikiro, in recognition of all the boy has lost and in preparation for the riches Temple will bestow upon the clan in eight days, as recompense for the life the dragonmaster has taken from them.

Such an event had not occurred to any clan within our zone for more than two generations. We knew what we had to do, as per Temple Statute: give away all our goods. But we did not know how the giving would unfold. Perhaps a blessing, that.

So, the first image in the clay-tile-panel in my mind:

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