A snow-day snippet!
Jan. 27th, 2011 02:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilmanfor those of you who may already be chomping at the bit (or need some incentive to get your copy of PACK OF LIES....
"But you did not come to discusssss horticulture with me." Madame's great head came closer as her neck arched down, her body adjusting so that she could meet me, more or less, eye to eye. "Yesssss? Thissss isss a work call, little Bonnnnita?"
"I am afraid that it is, Madame." I met her gaze, struck again by the jeweled tones of her eyes. Her much lesser cousin, the cave dragon, had eyes the color of fired clay bricks, his entire body barely twice the length of her neck. His voice had been like hers, through: smooth and cultured, like rosewater and honey. The old legends of serpents with smooth tongues? They'd been speaking, literally, of dragons.
"So." Madame settled herself comfortably, a great-aunt indulging a favorite niece. "What isss it you wissssh to know?"
What did I want to know? That was the question, wasn't it? What didn’t I want to know? Madame was an Ancient -- older and wiser even than today's visitor. Anything I asked her, she would either know, or know someone – or something – who knew.
But even before I'd gone to study with J, my dad had me reading fairy tales. And one of the first rules ever when dealing with dragons, no matter how polite, is don't waste your questions on things you can find out for yourself -- or things you really don't want to know.
from PSI #3: TRICKS OF THE TRADE (November 2011)
© Laura Anne Gilman, 2011
"But you did not come to discusssss horticulture with me." Madame's great head came closer as her neck arched down, her body adjusting so that she could meet me, more or less, eye to eye. "Yesssss? Thissss isss a work call, little Bonnnnita?"
"I am afraid that it is, Madame." I met her gaze, struck again by the jeweled tones of her eyes. Her much lesser cousin, the cave dragon, had eyes the color of fired clay bricks, his entire body barely twice the length of her neck. His voice had been like hers, through: smooth and cultured, like rosewater and honey. The old legends of serpents with smooth tongues? They'd been speaking, literally, of dragons.
"So." Madame settled herself comfortably, a great-aunt indulging a favorite niece. "What isss it you wissssh to know?"
What did I want to know? That was the question, wasn't it? What didn’t I want to know? Madame was an Ancient -- older and wiser even than today's visitor. Anything I asked her, she would either know, or know someone – or something – who knew.
But even before I'd gone to study with J, my dad had me reading fairy tales. And one of the first rules ever when dealing with dragons, no matter how polite, is don't waste your questions on things you can find out for yourself -- or things you really don't want to know.
from PSI #3: TRICKS OF THE TRADE (November 2011)
© Laura Anne Gilman, 2011
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Date: 2011-01-27 07:58 pm (UTC)Oh, and one day I have you waiting for my books. Or, I'll have you weeping with relief that you are done reading my submission to Carina.... Nah. The first one is Much Better :)
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Date: 2011-01-28 04:05 am (UTC)no subject
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