Whisper Alive by Marc Secchia

Author:Marc Secchia
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2017-05-11T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14: Whisper of Olde

TAMPING A HANDFUL of azarite slivers into the bowl of his pipe, which was as large as her two cupped hands put together, Manrax said, “Now, don’t you get any ideas, young Whisper. Smoking’s a foul addiction and I don’t want anyone claiming I tried to corrupt an innocent young damsel. Especially, don’t you even dream about smoking azarite. It’s a nasty habit only suited to men of nasty, unsociable bent, like me. I never smoked anywhere near my children, mind. I’d rather choke my apprentices – why, by Azar, there’s a revealing slip of the tongue!”

Manrax turned the beautiful, crystal-carved pipe in his hands, showing her the exquisite silver filigree decorating the bowl and stem, which was as long as her arm and slightly curved. He said, “It’s something, isn’t it? You don’t see work like this anymore. This is my fair Myra’s work, bless her hands and all that she is to me and the kids. Tongue like etching-acid, mind. Don’t tell her I said that. Nor how much I love her. I can only admit that out here, where my soul’s feeling mawkish over all this beauty.”

Did an appreciation of beauty make her sentient?

Standing next to Whisper as she perched upon the railing, the Head Engineer indicated the auroral sky. “The old Draco-Mages chose this spot with the greatest care. The lay of the land mitigates against sunstrike, see? Whitesun will rise over those hills, where the Igneous Dragons live – you know that, of course. Immediately after it rises, those sentikor trees on that headland shade the bridge almost completely. Next, look four miles closer. Notice how the canyon wall bulges out beyond those graxite and gold ores? That shields her for the next hour. Then you’re into the foliage higher up, in the normal way of canyons sheltering their denizens. It’s just that this one is unusually wide, that was always the problem here. When those Draco-Mages came, they sank pilings three hundred feet deep into this cliff face behind us, girl. You could hang mountains off these, I’d wager.”

Meditatively, he scanned the scene. “We designed the bridge to withstand sunstrike. There was cooling built into the pilings and especially into the bridge-cars, but you still wouldn’t be wanting to take a ride at any time but now, from before dawn until the fourth hour, or so. Then it’s just too crystal-shattering hot. You’d sweat your waters dry by the time you reached the far side.”

Sensing he wanted to talk, Whisper kept quiet.

“Whispers were like –” he sighed deeply, thinking something through for so long that she suspected he had nodded off briefly “– they were like glue that kept people together, that’s what they were. Society’s glue. You just kind of assumed they would always be there, see? They connected things, from governments and monarchs and cities, to a poor man with his sweetheart. You could send them just about anywhere, between villages and across bulwarks. Of course, times were also dangerous.

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