Four days to COLD WELCOME’s release, that is.\u00a0\u00a0 But let’s get on with the story (my hands are hurting so this may be a short segment, and following the POVs may be a bit rough.)\u00a0\u00a0 There may be other foursomes or fours in hand or other fours around in this Interlude story.\u00a0 You never know, and sometimes I don’t either.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Something’s happening,” Jamis said as the crowd around them stirred.\u00a0\u00a0 Voices in the distance, loud and forceful voices, clashed, and then the crowd moved.\u00a0 No longer jammed in so tightly, the children eeled along, trying not to bump into the ends of swords, or wide skirts, or elbows–Justin and Shar were both tall enough to catch an elbow.\u00a0\u00a0 They had worked their way to the right side of the corridor, where Justin hoped to see past the taller adults into Universes and catch a glimpse of his grandmother and aunt, but the whole crowd turned sharp right into a corridor thar ran along one side of Universes, and then left around another side of it, and then, down a ramp, into a whole new area, still with the great windows along the outside.\u00a0 This one was furnished not in sleek black and silver, but with polished wood tables, a stone floor patterned in marble and granite and sandstone, with a center mosaic map of someplace Shar and Justin had never heard of.<\/p>\n
“Paksworld?\u00a0 Is that your story?”<\/p>\n
“Our whole world,” Jamis said.\u00a0 As the crowd spread out among the various tables, a tall dark-haired man in court dress called “Jamis–HERE!” and Jamis turned toward him.\u00a0 “Come on; I’ll introduce you.\u00a0 He’s Duke Arcolin, he married my mother, a widow, a few years ago, and he adopted me. ”<\/p>\n
The twins looked around at the strange…people?… and wondered how to ask politely.\u00a0 They had seen plenty of humods, but these didn’t look like humods.<\/p>\n
“Those are gnomes,” Jamis said, in a lower tone.\u00a0\u00a0 “They wear gray or black, and my father is also a gnome prince–the only human who’s ever been one. The bearded shorter wide people are dwarves.\u00a0 The tall very graceful ones are elves or half-elves.”<\/p>\n
“They’re not…human?”<\/p>\n
“Oh, no.\u00a0\u00a0 Does everyone in your books look like you?”<\/p>\n
“No, but humods are human even though they look different.”<\/p>\n
They had reached the table.\u00a0 Jamis made the introductions, and the twins produced creditable bows.\u00a0\u00a0 Arcolin smiled at them.\u00a0 “I’m sorry, however, but all the seats at our table are assigned already.\u00a0 Perhaps I could find someone to locate your families for you?”<\/p>\n
“We can find them, my lord,” Justin said.\u00a0 “It’s just that we were talking to your son–to Jamis–and people got between us.”\u00a0 “Excuse us, please,” Shar added.<\/p>\n
“Certainly,” Duke Arcolin said, and turned as someone called his name.\u00a0 The twins took that opportunity to dive back into the crowd.\u00a0\u00a0 Servers were bringing out platters of food for every table, now, and it smelled wonderful, very different from the foods they were used to.<\/p>\n
“That’s a whole pig!” Shar said suddenly.\u00a0 “Did you see?”<\/p>\n
“Yes, and that bird with its feathers on, too.”\u00a0 They spotted a nearly-empty table and scrambled for it, making it onto the benches.\u00a0 Immediately a server put down a platter piled with little round spheres that smelled like some kind of meat; their places were set with a sort of spike\u00a0 and a spoon.<\/p>\n
Shar speared one of the little spheres and tasted: meat, spices she didn’t know, and a sweet\/sour sauce that she liked at once.\u00a0 But before she and Justin had eaten more than three apiece, a large party approached, guided by one of the restaurant staff.<\/p>\n
“You don’t belong here!” he said firmly.\u00a0 “This table is for the Sea-Prince of Prealith and his family.\u00a0 You urchins go away at once–I’m sorry, m’lord; we’ll have that platter replaced promptly and the grilled sea-creatures brought directly. ”<\/p>\n
“Sorry,” the twins said in unison, backing away from the man’s glare, and then weaving among the tables, most now packed with people eating and talking from table to table.\u00a0 No one seemed to pay much attention to them but no one welcomed them, either.\u00a0\u00a0 “I’m hungry,” Shar said.\u00a0 “We’ve been walking around for hours.\u00a0 Let’s go back and find grandmother.”<\/p>\n
“Dressed like this?” Justin said.\u00a0 “You know what she’ll say–we might not get anything but healthy<\/em> food if we go up there.\u00a0 No dessert.”<\/p>\n “Well, then…let’s go to the kitchen.\u00a0 We can always say we can’t find our parents and maybe they’ll feed us.”<\/p>\n “We aren’t babies anymore.\u00a0 I don’t think that will work.\u00a0\u00a0 But look–see those tables by the service door?\u00a0 Those inside are putting food there, and then the servers take it to the tables where people sit.”<\/p>\n “It’s a buffet,” Shar said.<\/p>\n “It’s not meant to be,” Justin said.\u00a0 “But it can be a buffet for us–we just need a place to eat it after.\u00a0 And a way to carry it.”<\/p>\n The disappearance of the first basket of bread wasn’t noticed in the rush, and the roast lamb slices removed from a platter returning to be rewarmed were thought to have been eaten at the table.\u00a0\u00a0 The sauce on the lamb soaked into the bread, but that didn’t bother the twins.\u00a0 They’d located a narrow corridor\u00a0 close to the service doors and it had an handy jog in it, too.\u00a0 There were doors, but they were closed.\u00a0 When they’d finished the bread and meat, they took the basket back to their hunting ground and quickly filled it with small fried pies,\u00a0 while Justin found a jug of something cold, sweet, and foamy.\u00a0 Shar took two mugs off a stack and put them in the basket, and they scurried back to their hiding place.\u00a0\u00a0 Eating on the floor, something their grandmother never allowed, was a delightful change.\u00a0 The fried pies were filled with custard and fruit, and the drink eased their thirst with a delightful flavor.<\/p>\n “I don’t suppose it’s alcoholic,” Shar said after the second mug-ful, looking at it.\u00a0 “If it is we shouldn’t have more.”<\/p>\n “If it is, we shouldn’t have had any,” Justin said.\u00a0 “I did look for water, but there wasn’t any.\u00a0 I recognized the wine and the ale–this has to be for children.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s sweet.”\u00a0\u00a0 They finished off the pies and the jug, but felt no inclination to carry the basket and jug back.\u00a0 It was much pleasanter to lean against the wall…or lie down flat, even.<\/p>\n “We should go,” Shar said, after awhile.\u00a0 Justin said nothing.\u00a0 She looked over and saw that his eyes were closed.\u00a0 The light bothered her eyes, too, so she closed them.<\/p>\n …………………………………………………..<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Four days to COLD WELCOME’s release, that is.\u00a0\u00a0 But let’s get on with the story (my hands are hurting so this may be a short segment, and following the POVs may be a bit rough.)\u00a0\u00a0 There may be other foursomes or fours in hand or other fours around in this Interlude story.\u00a0 You never know, Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,5],"tags":[21,3],"class_list":["post-357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interlude","category-vatta","tag-vatta","tag-waystation-huygens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":358,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions\/358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}