page 207 (a teaser chapter from published novel)680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0kgbx3WV4Q
"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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTL0b8cmSiD
Sailor...so the disguise works680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNfdybqDdKr
"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."680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4lRdynjOGf
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!680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSFTbGBxYjY
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX52nuGTyLa
Time is money to you, after all. But my time is wasting!680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnxootnvCDm
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGYyGAALH7d
The girl gasped feebly and stiffened.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK5NmrYwtcE
"Stop dancing!"680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7I7NW6vs3K
Rhynn gentled his command to a whispering plea, "Take me to a room."680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ6Zue4CeuO
"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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1H6PTDpJgg
Daylight680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpMbtmMchbl
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSksAJg3Jso
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Pdrg3F9lP
"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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkiD2fX15tN
Ah, sailor-man speaks flattery but his hand hurts my bone...why is he clasping as one hungry?680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHwSsRDD7n1
"Tell you mine if you tell me yours!" teased wispy breath against stubbly cheek.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcRuJdl56Fz
"Jaguar"680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeL1UN9el2x
"I am Lilli."680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSJGGj8qdYd
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhmkpBoqI27
Pathetic...so not Mother's gem-encrusted-sphere-topped-bevel-chiseled crystal decanters holding Stephan's oils so purely ethereal680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeGo1sYky6s
Rhynn smells musty cloth. 680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgrr9cdHC9I
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6XUP4csG4b
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcXO68kysSt
Lilli gasped.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyIYGskyb1Z
Rhynn stares.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjDsFC6k2Px
The room remained in darkness for a sheet of black tar paper nailed to the wall shuttered out sun's brilliance trapping darkness inside.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSfF2fmk9iO
"Do you know what day looks like, Lilli?"680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXAPKxZXbKs
"I don't know what time it is...what means...how you say...day?"680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQey1XZBkMO
"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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDv6wpWYafv
Lilli blinked. Then she gazed out at a whole new world with eyes wide in utter wonderment.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxVgSDcwjCG
Rhynn studied Lille.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLYODuaY903
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmEJWFTdqT5
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiQ04I7HEMv
And hundreds of sundried sheets washed-clean of secrets exhaled in passions' selfish feast stuff rattan baskets hauled inside to unload...and load680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfUdLBXuuwC
"Lilli? I need something."680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6aHHLmAMJF
The girl stilled her breath as if standing on the brink of a spell about to be broken.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLg0Y5KFtVH
"Would you happen to know of a man named Ravenz?"680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf9CqtCOnBr
"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?"680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMqhO7ZsLWN
"He would look exactly as me, if one of us were to look in the mirror seeing his duplicate reflection looking back."680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEiXnwUOnL5
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhKds1s6r19
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...680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPTHzTUWKUT
"Jaguar?"680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaRfOFKrEW0
Rhynn bent his head closer to her face in a pretend-effort meant to encourage forthcoming admission.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkM90dQJUgs
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtEUceDyyAd
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnPOksvOWNx
Rhynn did not blink waiting where he stands before window holdg his pose pinning Lilli where she laughs.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFmmBpniMYl
Sobriety follows hilarity eventually.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrAevkFif9M
"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."680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXgGmta63xW
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?"680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr92IuyyfDl
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBObVmGQCs3
Lilli's eyelids softened their wide-open tight muscular hold to that of dreamily-gazing one might interpret in any other as longing.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf2jetq1FHh
A silver coin glinted before Lilli's eyes briefly shattering the edges of a dream forming.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiXU8x5L9AQ
"What's that?'680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm0pCmbuQAJ
"It is fair payment for truth, is all."680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1yogM5E1Rn
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ3dir8pNQw
"This is my first time seeing this thing you name payment-coin." Her entranced voice trailed away to a feathery whisper barely audible.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCpcXsMyc9L
"How so, Lilli? You work here, right?"680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYKZYeIOPJf
"Clients always pay the man sitting in the closet at the entranceway, from sidewalk steps coming up from outside."680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡospiLryztj
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6WE6uHNbI8
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2fPpRcCm1O
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzWUQgvFjfG
"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..."680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2QXwd86b9b
"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!"680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYRp1FeyeY6
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnWFl7u3yLr
Dubai's heart lurched at the sight of Lilli's wan face.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa4pIcnyCqE
"What goes on here , Fhynn I mean..."680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpgic78sSXi
"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?"680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCDpFxk1PPz
"Of course! I hear well! Now tell me, what am I to do with ...with this girl?"680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKIvPl0DQbH
"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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ9sq0eXkdV
"Now, go!"680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMEGEdeKWMw
"But what about you, Rhynn, Your Maj..."680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1XhiU7iJKU
"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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5IskqoSc3x
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtfmHJyINyr
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNM1Bx8onVf
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8MfJRZew3v
Guiding horses!680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn8ZWzsvi1j
"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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1CkkLWvPDK
"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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7BGnhUIs1Y
Dubai stares.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYhcLR6DiaA
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCCN3JxtfXQ
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!680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpx8LBSBjR6
"What is this mountain place and who is Madam Constance?" demanded Lilli, sitting more forward on the royal carriage's deeply tufted velvet seat.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV5ctwAECE2
"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."680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡefgVa0Mb5w
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNctSMp86J9
"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!"680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfRFCFamC6T
"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."680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv3DF78bAya
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwgtjCGC9og
"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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ30dXGhAiqQ
We've stopped?680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBG6WDZDRS3
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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPBozhvcFjo
"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?"680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3OJvc4C0Oi
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,680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6dhVERFH4r
"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.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4ZLjieQbIv
A candle...a bottle...oleoresin spilling...a flame igniting...torching tapestry and sheet, mattress and rug680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnN4u2miMIw
Rhynn emerged onto the road looking up the deserted gravel way seeing nothing but earth meeting sky at horizon's enigmatic horizontal line.680Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFvQiOao19T
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