page 207 (a teaser chapter from published novel)769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1xvJEhKqSH
"Now don't you just be a pretty one, sailor man!" A wispy young girl of indiscernible age swiveled seductively about Rhynn as he stood in a swab's costume Nicoli managed to rummage together off a closet's shelf pressed among masquerade masks and harlequin jackets, glittery fairy wings and furry-trimmed tulle gowns. Rhynn stared at the girl.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCkWrMexI5m
Sailor...so the disguise works769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdhopV3aFIp
"But you don't smell of salty air or boiler room sweat." The girl's nose brushed across Rhynn's back and her breath tickled his ear. He shuddered. His scalp sweated icy chills beneath tattered gingham kerchief tied in knots at his temples. "Maybe you swab topside the king's pretty yacht, is why you smell so...different."769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2uJNSVj84g
How can you tell what I smell like, girl for this hovel smells of soapy ammonia and stale potpourri in a poor attempt at disguising the base scent of grime and man!769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCKTIdNWfRU
Cigarette smoke wafts in the air creating ghostly apparitions in candles' dim glow. Voices spoken softly and low as muffled grumbles rise and fall farom long chaises scattered about the room's partitions. Laughter evaporates as cheap champagnes' bubbles in thick air as response to a comment just as quickly forgotten. Maroon damask tapestries shut out day's light keeping the mood of nighttime in and absorbing all secrets to woven silence.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJIzgKOdjMx
Time is money to you, after all. But my time is wasting!769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQKmpYOHD4p
Rhynn grasped the girl's fluttering wrist as her hand rose to tease at the kerchief's knot. The thinness of her bones shocked him and her skin looks sheer as vellum and feels fragile as rice paper. He fears her brittle fingers might shatter in his grasp as balsawood sticks splinter.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHFYEdHgMFX
The girl gasped feebly and stiffened.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjzZnMtKoUL
"Stop dancing!"769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQRclYfvu0h
Rhynn gentled his command to a whispering plea, "Take me to a room."769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM8LigygPqU
"Ah, sailor-man gets right to the point, I see." Rhynn did not let got the girls' wrist for he intended to examine the dermis binding muscle and tendon or if any tissue at all should lie along such a porous shaft. But he needs light.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOVCBFzgJrf
Daylight769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzwRcsMGzpO
It took some moments for Rhynn's eyes to adjust to the darkness as he followed the cat-eyed girl haltingly at first letting his free hand sweep the wall as their feet swept carpeted hallway past doors shut tight against sport misconstrued as romance-in-dance.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY7PRG6ie3H
The door closed. And latched shut with a snick as bolt fell into bracket. Rhynn blinked, searching the darkness for furnishing, candlelight, or window where curtains might hang waiting to be swished aside letting sun in exposing all.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4gXTohhB3j
"It's dark in here!" hissed Rhynn. Then remembering the root of his task spoke more gently to working-girl. "Take me to the window, Miss...what is your name pray tell, so I may treat you properly as a well-named beauty should be treated just as beautifully?" Rhynn's lips brushed her temple feeling a fine pin-feathery tendril tickle his nose.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWwNfj1PgMi
Ah, sailor-man speaks flattery but his hand hurts my bone...why is he clasping as one hungry?769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxPYZqBm3sR
"Tell you mine if you tell me yours!" teased wispy breath against stubbly cheek.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfhXd4ywpvI
"Jaguar"769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYop1JeRarT
"I am Lilli."769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXEaE8PyQGc
In that moment shady frames of a shabby iron-frame bed feebly supporting sagging springs standing next a small vanity came into dim view. A simple childlike drawing depicting sheep grazing in pasture hangs by a wide ribbon from a hook in the wall. No chairs occupy either side of the bed but a little tufted stool sits apologetically before a mirror seeping its silver. Rhynn counted to five the number of vessels containing turpentine-based chemicals camouflaged as Cologne Splash lined up in gouche glass bottles topped with pewter screw-off caps.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2UquaraQ4x
Pathetic...so not Mother's gem-encrusted-sphere-topped-bevel-chiseled crystal decanters holding Stephan's oils so purely ethereal769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPLoQbPDHsp
Rhynn smells musty cloth. 769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYIgc7DnuhL
In one swift step he pushed Lille against the windowsill holding her there with his thigh firmly pressing into her back so as to ensure no escape. Lilli's eyes grew startled and searched Rhynn's face for a leading expression as to where this encounter might go...and end.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF4ib6Y5OgU
Rhynn reached for the swag and in one swift grip of his hand yanked at the babric dangling from tin rod resting in tin brackets ripping the entire ensemble from the wall. Bits of plaster and dust flew to the floor following the clatter and clang of cheap hollow hardware bouncing upon old burnished plank.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjmAckFozJi
Lilli gasped.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU3JFyW1Yyo
Rhynn stares.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPmdpuRCh9i
The room remained in darkness for a sheet of black tar paper nailed to the wall shuttered out sun's brilliance trapping darkness inside.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡruznrGsbQ6
"Do you know what day looks like, Lilli?"769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAzVaU2aAnm
"I don't know what time it is...what means...how you say...day?"769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡej8qZ7o6Bh
"Look closely because you are about to find out!" Faster than light travels Rhynn freed the pane of its tar paper captor exposing a blast of dazzling sunlight, sheer high-noon-blue skies, wispy angel-hair clouds and green trees hosting songbirds trilling unabashed and free on branches.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZj9RVEro3P
Lilli blinked. Then she gazed out at a whole new world with eyes wide in utter wonderment.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT1AiYl5KUJ
Rhynn studied Lille.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7bY4A1o10F
You are young, girl, and your skin is transparent, nearly clear showing veins barely trickling heme-leached plasma seeking oxygen in pure-air-starved lungs. Your eyes show as boiled yolks floating in pale albumin. Your bones are fragile as thin glass for no sunlight is allowed on your skin. I will rescue from deathly deficiencies but I need something from you in trade.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKrmjf3I3Hu
Rhynn looked out the window and saw far off to yard's distant side three fat women in brown aprons with their heads bound in scarves fastening laundered sheets on lines with stout wooden pegs. Nothing but sheets hung from wire lines facing sun's warmth. Lines yanked along squealing pulleys roll out bleached sheets hanging to flap in day's floating breezes.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPxW1Ot9zmU
And hundreds of sundried sheets washed-clean of secrets exhaled in passions' selfish feast stuff rattan baskets hauled inside to unload...and load769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF8j80m2ahN
"Lilli? I need something."769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡirDQT3LQ7S
The girl stilled her breath as if standing on the brink of a spell about to be broken.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP4z1v93xAB
"Would you happen to know of a man named Ravenz?"769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUkSUWDfD1T
"What?" Lilli's face registered disbelief and surprise at Rhynn's obtuse question. "What should this Ravenz man look like, if perhaps he wasn't as generous as you in telling me his name?"769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP3YgJpYTBi
"He would look exactly as me, if one of us were to look in the mirror seeing his duplicate reflection looking back."769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjbHDOZyXK3
Lillie simply looked at Rhiynn's face with a passive expression of her own not giving away any hint at all of having engaged any such person.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ70hm6qjSMT
The girl is good, mused Rhynn, and she plays her role well keeping the characters as just mannequins bouncing through their pitifully-sad dramas upon her narrow stinking stage keeping time to the squeals of tired springs' protest...unceasing...769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Jf7rzsRvH
"Jaguar?"769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYH2kTNuMnj
Rhynn bent his head closer to her face in a pretend-effort meant to encourage forthcoming admission.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsWsCAPJvZX
Who are you, Jaguar man, with your sailor eyes of such hue as I have never seen in any face in all my living hours? It will be this memory of your face looking at me as I behold it now that I will transpose over all others coning after.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvHXH80HuGF
Lilli laughed. Out loud, loudly laughing as a baby giggles just discover its toes. As clear as glass bells tinkling does honest pure laughter ring in the room rounding all walls filling ceiling's every crack.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhlZgf7NfGK
Rhynn did not blink waiting where he stands before window holdg his pose pinning Lilli where she laughs.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8U7fp0gSdj
Sobriety follows hilarity eventually.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCJBBgNPdvW
"No, Jaguar, sir, I have not seen this man, Ravenz whom you seek. A man reflecting identical beauty as you display in your singular self has no need hiring my services for he is far blessed in the way of getting all this for free."769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8SECcb1ctB
Of course, she must be right in this thinking. If Ravenz is in me as my father believes then why in Heaven's name would I seek anwers in a place such as this...unless...there are two of us...but then, as she rightfully states, "why?"769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWowAEXOTMt
Time has come, Lille." Rhynn softened his grip on the girl's wrist but not his capturing stance. Instead, he tenderly massaged the red marks his fingers imprinted on her frail wrist and thin palm holding her hand in his as if precious rare bisque rests there.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFot8FTCXVV
Lilli's eyelids softened their wide-open tight muscular hold to that of dreamily-gazing one might interpret in any other as longing.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdoMsizMfee
A silver coin glinted before Lilli's eyes briefly shattering the edges of a dream forming.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBrqwjbMXUn
"What's that?'769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb2zNJqj1mz
"It is fair payment for truth, is all."769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjc45Ka0xxx
Lilli reached for the coin proffered by Rhynn's hand. Her eyes studied each side front and back and all around the engraved circular edge as if never seeing such an object ever before.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfccGIhEYNQ
"This is my first time seeing this thing you name payment-coin." Her entranced voice trailed away to a feathery whisper barely audible.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Y0kNG1lhI
"How so, Lilli? You work here, right?"769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSScnxrP3cp
"Clients always pay the man sitting in the closet at the entranceway, from sidewalk steps coming up from outside."769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU0dNrpggAH
Rhynn pressed the coin into Lilli's palm enclosing her bony fingers about it one by one. Clasping this balled-up sickly fist in his, Rhynn steered the meek girl free of his capturing pose to cross filthy bedchamber floor through doorway down hallway past others locked, through front doorway into brilliant sunlight so blinding to Lilli's weak eyes that her body slumps the length of his sliding straight to stone portico threatening a tumbling and clattering of all her bones to heap at steps end.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ887Ur7GQ0i
Rhynn swept down catching Lilli up in his arms. Her head dangled backward and bobs lifeless showing knotty bones in her white skinny neck. Slender pale arms hang like chicken bones at her sides. Nubby knobbed knees point skyward. Her feet turn in not particular direction at all but flop to the rhythm of Rhynn's steps as leaves flutter down a street in afternoon breeze.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc4KtekQqNj
Dubai sits waiting patiently in Kings Carriage strumming an old mandolin he spotted hanging on a merchant's wall. It had taken some doing to finely tune its tatty strings but soon enough the instrument's voice rang clear and true. The king's driver is lost to a state of poetic music-making when a door burst open and calamity happening on the stoop splinters his trance.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo5GHZmgoYv
"Good gracious, Rhynn! What is the meaning of this? You insisted I bring you to this place in disguise and now you run out the front door with...with..."769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTaTe9wj2zb
"Lilli just fainted in the sunlight, is all. Her eyes are weak from lack of seeing it! Make way for her in my father's coach, good driver! Don't argue!"769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlGUo0ecFMn
Dubai race to the king's side even before the pretend-swab's sandals reached the bottom step. Quickly gathering the girl's arms to cross her chest he reached to steady her bobbing head in his hands.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrqt97DdSoP
Dubai's heart lurched at the sight of Lilli's wan face.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWEhegcOLZI
"What goes on here , Fhynn I mean..."769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAIJPa8XZ7C
"All the wrong things go on here that will come to a halt by hour's end! It is the meaning of my first order of business in the office I've inherited as is my intent of carrying forth Father's...King Breretyn's great reconstruction plans. Now, open the carriage door and listen carefully to my words! Follow my instructions exactly as I give them! Understand me so far, Dubai?"769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhnXh8wEHxW
"Of course! I hear well! Now tell me, what am I to do with ...with this girl?"769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHHrOW9iFD6
"Take Lilli to Mountainwing's west side and carry her from carriage to the chamber of Lady Constance. Lady Constance is to draw Lilli a bath foaming with oils poured from vials only she knows where to find. Then seek Lady Penelope, a seamstress needling in tailors' north quarter as she has dresses hanging-in-wait. Request two or three! With lace! Stop by the kitchen on your way back fetching broth from middle steaming cauldron. And take a spoon!" With a final fling of the old gingham kerchief onto the carriage floor Rhynn ran his fingers over his scalp tousling scrunched wavy curls to life.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkvvgrAkIAP
"Now, go!"769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtKXN8fBixE
"But what about you, Rhynn, Your Maj..."769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH9yaGaxLE4
"I've got something to find yet for it wasn't in this place . But Lilli's life could end here if you don't hasten! Rhynn slapped at the team's hinds causing a whinnying response in horses' turn-away to the highway leading to ultimate farytale castle on magnificent green hilltop.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAY9Mu8R6Tk
Lilli slowly came unto wakefulness in cooling shade of the carriage's canopy feeling the gentle jostling of wheels turning on gravely roadway wondering at the meaning of this dream she floats in.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNEcuMCnhQd
What of this scent...these smells...something like flowers in air so light and void of cigarettes' stale smoke and candlewax melting? And what is that sound like music's notes but not quite? It's like a song warbled but not by one's voice...I must see the cause of such sweet noise.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMVTjrNcyFd
Lilli opened her eyes to see birds in joyful flight high above a stranger's head; driver Dubai sitting tall in the driver's seat holding reins so elegantly guiding horses.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU03UMhIo5f
Guiding horses!769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5CUqfdttAO
"Who are you and why am I here...lying in this thing? Where are you taking me and what happened to the sailor man, Jaguar I was with just then?" Lilli felt muscles' cramp paining her balled-up fingers so released their hold to reveal Rhynn's gleaming silver coin.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZiIpfRubOT
"I would be one going by the name of Dubai, Miss! I have been instructed to take you to Mountainwing's west suites where Lady Constance will tend to your immediate needs. You will be bathed and clothed in a new dress with lace, and nourished with a nice rich broth extracted from kitchen's steaming middle cauldron. Tiz duck today, I believe, Miss Lilli. Quite satisfying!" Dubai turned about on his seat to look back at the girl.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrAQhRsHWvG
Dubai stares.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlg1iMy0qiZ
The girl on the seat is a waif to be sure, starved to extreme thinness and milky beyond all shades of white at the lack of direct sunlight allowed most other damsels' peachy-pink cheeks. Yet her face shows true beauty hiding beneath skin so finely-smooth as does any maiden's fair beauty show in the gentle-way of growing up freely.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqDFPmYhmEe
But her eyes! What amazing eyes I have not seen in the face of any maiden...golden, they are...and shimmering just as the element, gold gleams!769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMbm8vOHjUr
"What is this mountain place and who is Madam Constance?" demanded Lilli, sitting more forward on the royal carriage's deeply tufted velvet seat.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsa19UWV4i6
"Why, it is to His Majesty's castle I am taking you, Miss Lilli! And it is one Lady Constance who will minister unto you according to King Rhynn's command."769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSiLkrGVnzd
Lilli's yellow eyes rolled away in their whites and her head slumped to the side as her hands went nearly limp except for the sake of the coin did she keep fingers' grip.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc7cWk4bxrs
"I have been teased by a...king? In a brothel a sailor-man...now you say, 'king'...visited me...but not quite visiting me...asking me things...and then...this! How am I to get home? I don't know where any of this is!"769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgotx2OIvvX
"Oh, you are definitely heading home, if King Rhynn has his way! And he does, I might add, come from a long line of strong kings used to getting their way! The place you have been freed from will cease to exist after today. You are now in the king's care and it is to be in Mountianwing's suite your head shall dream tonight."769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4z7sUa5mDt
Lilli gazed up into the kindest face ever to hover so closely to hers, except the sailor-man's, of course, and she feared to blink for fear Dubai might evaporate away as all others gone before.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmZoen2lW1T
"Well, are you coming into my arms, or not? The king has ordered me to carry your loveliness from coach to suite by way of my arms as not one of your feet, or for that matter, must touch the ground till you have been bathed in royal fragranced oil and gowned in a dress of pure fine lace.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjUdJjERCRO
We've stopped?769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwpuJAyugNZ
Lilli peeked out from beneath the canopy shelter and beheld Kings Castle in magnificent splendor. Grand turrets pierce the sky. Twittering birds flock in flight from branches above fruiting trees to alight in limbs bearing blossoms so huge as to be one giant bouquet.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvdOGIg6LjG
"Such grandeur I did not know exists, nor air so sweet or time this pretty. All I leaned of was the way of ugly black night. Tell me, kind sir, does day end in the house of kings?"769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCfrZMq0FVQ
Dubai flew up stone steps under porch awning over threshold down granite hallway up stairwell across landing through sunlight beaming as Heaven's ribbons streaming through high arch window falling softly on white glassy marble echoing his swift footfall, gracefully stepping as a dancer's soft-soled shoes glide the whole while of the way calling,769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5mhodwyIT1
"Lady Constance! Lady Constance! Miss Lilli needs urgent care, Lady Constance, my Lilli needs tender...my Lilli needs...my Lilli" in rhythmic cadence quite as a lullaby's words falling like feathers in Lilli's ears.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1oC5n3xaXZ
A candle...a bottle...oleoresin spilling...a flame igniting...torching tapestry and sheet, mattress and rug769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ15TCWb2Asz
Rhynn emerged onto the road looking up the deserted gravel way seeing nothing but earth meeting sky at horizon's enigmatic horizontal line.769Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvTrqekwE0V
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