The Way of Things: Upper Kingdom Boxed Set: Books 1, 2 and 3 in the Tails of the Upper Kingdom Read Free Page A

Harvest.”
    Her mutterings were interrupted by
a knock at her door. She froze, stared a moment at the pheasant, then scurried
to the door and flung it open. There was a panther standing before her, a
shoulder-to-hip standard identifying him as a messenger from the Palace.
    In her surprise, she closed the
door in his face.
    “Oh dear, oh mother, oh dear… A
messenger from the Palace. Oh dear…”
    She opened the door again.
    “Oh! Hi. Um, I was, um... just
resting, here – there –
for a moment...I thought you might be a man. I mean, well, you are, um, a man…but..um, oh never mind. So?
Who are you?”
    “Fallon Watherford?”
    “No. I’m Fallon Waterford.
We haven’t yet determined who you are.”
    There was no reaction, none
whatsoever. The guard handed her a scroll and without so much as a nod, stepped
back into the University’s dark hall, hands folded stiffly behind his back.
    She stared at the scroll.
    “Is it written in Imperial?”
    He nodded.
    “Well then, it’s a good thing I can
read Imperial, isn’t it? I mean, what if I didn’t read Imperial? What would you
do then?”
    He stared at her.
    “Because I’m having a real problem
with MandaRhin, let me tell you. Even writing Hanyin. Mother, that is tough.
Imperial is so much easier. You can’t read, can you?”
    He continued to stare.
    “Well then, never you mind. Thanks
for this. Thanks a lot. Really sweet of you to deliver this in person... to me. Fallon Waterford. That’s me. Not
you. Me.”
    She closed the door and sagged
against it.
    “Oh, Mother. I really am hopeless,
aren’t I?”
    The scroll was sealed with the
Empress’ personal seal and she swallowed back a rush of nerves. But quickly,
her curiosity got the better of her and she peeled it open, her eyes growing
larger by the moment.
    “Oh no, oh dear, oh no. Oh, Fallon
Waterford, what have you gotten yourself into this time? The Palace? Me?”
    She glanced down at her garments,
at the loose man’s tunic and leggings and kujuh coat of forest green, at the
russet suede over-vest and bootlets and belt. Her father’s clothes.
    “I can’t go to the Palace like
this. I’ll have to change my clothing, brush my hair, to brush my face, my
tail!”
    She peered out the door. The guard
was still waiting.
    “I can’t go to the Palace like
this! I’ll have to change my clothing, brush my hair, my face, my tail!”
    “Now.”
    “Okay.”
    She stepped out into the hall and
closed the door behind her.

 
    ***

 
    A pair of ocelots were talking
softly as they passed through the antechamber toward the prayer room called
Green Tea. It was for Imperial guests, and some of the best gossip could be
found just outside Green Tea’s rice paper doors.
    “It is a dragon,” said one. “A fire
dragon, lost in its search for the sun.”
    “It is a dragon, to be sure,” said
the other. “But Kaidan’s dragon. The one he rode to the moon. It has fallen in
love with the moon and is going back.”
    “With Kaidan?”
    “Nonsence,” hushed the other. “Who
would belive such a thing. Without Kaidan,
of course. He has other things to do than visit any place twice. I hear he’s
a-courting the virgin Shagarmathah…”
    “No!”
    “Indeed!”
    Kirin rolled his eyes. ‘Kaidan’ and
his adventures. Popular myths. Stories for kittens. People confounded him
sometimes. But still, their curiosity was understandable. There was a new star in the heavens. It was
brilliant and bright and had set everyone’s imaginations racing as it rose and
fell with the moon. Diviners and worshippers alike were set on discovering its
meaning. He paid it no mind. Stars had little to do with panthers or armies or
negotiations. Although they could help with New Year’s spectacles, if only he
had the skill to move them.
    The woman at his side growled at
the ocelots, and they hurried to leave the antechamber. With a snort, she
resumed her pacing and the chamber filled with the sounds of sharp, angry
clacking. Kirin