Vows and Watersheds: Book Three of The Shattered Moon
New prospects and new challenges.
Ten years on from Three Kinds of North and The Sundering Wall, Jerya's life feels settled, until a new acquaintance raises fresh prospects, but only if she is prepared to align herself with the owner-class. Then news of a planned expedition across the mountains prompts a fateful decision.
Jerya returns to the Sung Lands intending to deliver a warning, but will the Guild of Dawnsingers and Perriad, her old nemesis, see it in that light?
Jerya finds herself risking everything she has come to hold dear.
New prospects and new challenges.
Ten years on from Three Kinds of North and The Sundering Wall, Jerya's life feels settled, until a new acquaintance raises fresh prospects, but only if she is prepared to align herself with the owner-class. Then news of a planned expedition across the mountains prompts a fateful decision.
Jerya returns to the Sung Lands intending to deliver a warning, but will the Guild of Dawnsingers and Perriad, her old nemesis, see it in that light?
Jerya finds herself risking everything she has come to hold dear.
A Brief Sample
He came in the afternoon three days later. As soon as they could snatch a minute alone together she showed him the paper. Since seeing that first story, she had checked each morning, but there had been no further updates.
"All those times I've avoided talking about where I came from…"
He was quick, but his mind didn't take him all the way. "You came from somewhere up in the mountains?"
"No, I came from beyond the mountains. Railu too."
He stared, his face quirking oddly. Perhaps he was struggling not to laugh. She knew that anyone claiming to have come from beyond the mountains would generally be laughed out of court.
"Everyone knows there's no life West of the mountains," she said, then took a deep breath. Speak it, or not? It was surely now, or never. "And everyone on the other side knows there's no life East of them."
He was still gazing fixedly at her. But he wasn't laughing. "Can it really be true?"
"It can," she said, "But I only know one way to prove it to you."
"Then you would have me seek to join Selton's expedition?"
"No," she said. "I would have us stage our own."
"But how… why should we hope to succeed when many others before us have failed?"
"Because I've done it before." She wanted to shake him. He was not a stupid man—very far from it, in general—but sometimes his mind strained to grasp ideas which were obvious to her. She supposed it was a matter of different experiences; he, after all, had lived all his life in one land, one culture; she had known two. Three cultures, you might almost say, if you counted her few months at the College of Dawnsingers, a time which always seemed to glow with particular intensity in memory. "I know the route."
Something about the plain way she said this seemed finally to reach him. "Well, it is clear to me that you believe what you are saying. Therefore either it is true, or you are quite mad." He paused a moment, smiling, teasing by delay. "And I cannot believe that you are mad."
"Oh, thank you so kindly for that, sir."
He grinned. She never called him 'sir' any more, save in company, or in raillery.
"Well," he said, finally reaching for a chair and drawing it up to her desk. "I suppose at least that explains a few things, like how you initially learned to read. But now… what is it that you propose? And I suppose I must also ask why the urgency?"
"I'll explain it all," she said. "But there's something I need from my room upstairs. Perhaps while I'm fetching it you could find us some drinks? This may take a while."
He came in the afternoon three days later. As soon as they could snatch a minute alone together she showed him the paper. Since seeing that first story, she had checked each morning, but there had been no further updates.
"All those times I've avoided talking about where I came from…"
He was quick, but his mind didn't take him all the way. "You came from somewhere up in the mountains?"
"No, I came from beyond the mountains. Railu too."
He stared, his face quirking oddly. Perhaps he was struggling not to laugh. She knew that anyone claiming to have come from beyond the mountains would generally be laughed out of court.
"Everyone knows there's no life West of the mountains," she said, then took a deep breath. Speak it, or not? It was surely now, or never. "And everyone on the other side knows there's no life East of them."
He was still gazing fixedly at her. But he wasn't laughing. "Can it really be true?"
"It can," she said, "But I only know one way to prove it to you."
"Then you would have me seek to join Selton's expedition?"
"No," she said. "I would have us stage our own."
"But how… why should we hope to succeed when many others before us have failed?"
"Because I've done it before." She wanted to shake him. He was not a stupid man—very far from it, in general—but sometimes his mind strained to grasp ideas which were obvious to her. She supposed it was a matter of different experiences; he, after all, had lived all his life in one land, one culture; she had known two. Three cultures, you might almost say, if you counted her few months at the College of Dawnsingers, a time which always seemed to glow with particular intensity in memory. "I know the route."
Something about the plain way she said this seemed finally to reach him. "Well, it is clear to me that you believe what you are saying. Therefore either it is true, or you are quite mad." He paused a moment, smiling, teasing by delay. "And I cannot believe that you are mad."
"Oh, thank you so kindly for that, sir."
He grinned. She never called him 'sir' any more, save in company, or in raillery.
"Well," he said, finally reaching for a chair and drawing it up to her desk. "I suppose at least that explains a few things, like how you initially learned to read. But now… what is it that you propose? And I suppose I must also ask why the urgency?"
"I'll explain it all," she said. "But there's something I need from my room upstairs. Perhaps while I'm fetching it you could find us some drinks? This may take a while."
