Law of the Wolf Tower: The Claidi Journals Book 1 by Tanith Lee (black authors fiction txt) ๐
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- Author: Tanith Lee
Read book online ยซLaw of the Wolf Tower: The Claidi Journals Book 1 by Tanith Lee (black authors fiction txt) ๐ยป. Author - Tanith Lee
But our eyes โ how the dust and sand particles stung. And there were spiteful bits of grit.
We crawled among the rocks, trying to find some sort of shelter, but the water was also splashing out from the fall and the pool as the winds stirred them, and Nemian bellowed that we mustnโt let this poisonous fluid even touch us. Then somehow we were outside the rocks and couldnโt, in the chaos, find them again.
The noise of the dust winds was fearsome. It sounded like something truly terrible, without pity or thought โ which it was.
Iโd grabbed my little sack โ a reflex.
We staggered about, and Nemian grasped my other hand. I find it reassuring to report that, in this situation, I wasnโt thrilled when he did that.
He bawled at me we mustnโt become separated.
Heads bowed, we tried to push forward. The dust-winds slapped and punched us. Apparently, so I gathered from his yells, there had been another rocky place further on, which he had spotted as the wind started to build up. This might provide more shelter.
But it was useless. In the end, we crouched down, and covered our heads with our arms. Actually, in his case, only one arm, as he had put the other around me.
At another time, bliss, I suppose. But I was terrified. Not of what the storm could do, exactly, although he said after they can kill, and I believe him. Just of the sheer ferocity of it.
Then, with no warning, the winds โ there seemed about six of them โ dropped. They fell round us like dry hot washing, and the grit and tiny stones rattled along the ground.
We raised our faces, and saw the strangest โ to me โ sight.
In House books Iโd stolen glances at, I had seen pictures of ancient cities that once had existed in the world before the Waste claimed everything. And this thing I saw now was surely such a city, or its remains.
The land had dropped gradually, and there was a sort of basin, and in this some tall towers with windows, or spaces where windows had been, and ornamented roofs with domes and pedestals. There were pillars too, a whole long line of them that might have stretched for a mile. Mostly there were walls, and carvings, or the bits that were left of them. There was one huge vase, with stone flowers still rising from it.
My eyes streamed, and everything wavered.
I said, โI never saw that from the higher ground.โ
Nemian said, sounding irritated, โYou probably couldnโt. The winds uncover things, just as they bury them.โ
Iโd thought the storm was over, but no. A second or so more, having shown me the city ruins as if to educate me, and the whole thing started up again.
How long it lasted this time I can only make a guess. It felt like hours. Finally I was lying on the ground. I cringe to say it, but I think I was whimpering. Well, maybe I wasnโt. Just grunting. Anyway Nemian was utterly still. And once everything stopped, I was afraid heโd smothered completely.
But he sat up, and shook himself, and combed handfuls of white and yellow dust out of his hair with both hands.
I have this ridiculous idea, only it couldnโt be, could it? Heโd gone to sleep again. Didnโt dare ask.
I stood up, and shook out my skirt and my own hair, and then gave up. (I must, I thought, look like Nemian, as if Iโd been damped and dipped in flour.)
When I looked around, the city ruin was gone again. The dip in the plain had become a mound.
Presently, about an hour later, when we walked up it, I stumbled on one stone blossom still sticking up from the buried vase.
Nemian made no mention of having taken my hand, or seeming to try to protect me. He scowled at the Waste, then his face simply became smooth and beautiful again. (His hair had lost its glory, though.)
He said, โWell done for bringing the water flask.โ (It was in the sack.) And then, โReliable Claidi.โ
But Iโd grabbed the sack because it had this book in it. The flask, after all, was empty.
There were so many questions I should have asked, arenโt there. I bet you would have. You would have said, for instance, Where exactly are we going? And What will happen to me when we get there? And you might have insisted he knew that, though Claidi was perhaps half royal, sheโd lived first as a dogsbody and floor polisher, and next as Jade Leafโs maid-slave.
I didnโt ask or say anything much. Iโm not completely making an excuse. For one thing, I was so tired. Compared to this tiredness, my other tired times in the House seemed nothing.
Someone else would have been upheld by a sense of excitement and optimism. But I felt exasperated a lot. With the Waste mainly. And with Nemian. And with me.
The sun got higher and hotter and more unbearable, and I was desperate to have a drink of water. One doesnโt realize how awful thirst is until something like this happens, worse than hunger.
After the buried city was behind us the land was very bumpy, and yet totally the same. Crash went the ground, hitting my feet.
Far, far off, still no nearer, the pale parched hills which looked, anyway, most uninviting.
We reached a rock, one rock, but it threw a shadow. So we sat down in the shadow.
Nemian stretched out his long legs. His clothing had been perfect, but wasnโt now.
โYouโve been very strong,โ he said to me, โnot drinking any water.โ
โThere isnโt any.โ
Iโd thought he knew.
โOh,โ he said. He frowned. โDidnโt you bring any?โ
โYes. You โ we drank it.โ
โWell, yes. But I thought there was more. I
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