bruxing

The Badgerman had come to call on them as they were congregated in the lounging area at the tail end of that week, preparing to meet Pam at the train station. She had gotten herself a ticket, as she had planned, and supposedly done enough research to have an idea of where to go. It had been a week with no sight of or questioning from the Badgerman and he came as company again, without his pad or pen. As he appeared alongside Importune, False groaned and cursed his bad timing, because he very much wanted to share coffee, but both he and Judith had been bullied into viewing Pam’s departure. And what was there to view, he thought? He shoul

“So thereafter she called me something vile, and then apologized, and fled,” False grumbled to the Badgerman who, mid-week, had come to call particularly at False’s awkward request, for False hardly knew how to request anyone, and how to receive them without dread. But Judith had done him a great injustice, confused herself, and had been either vacant of her room or behind a door closed with magic. Likewise Arid had closed herself up, and False had been meandering about between naps, turning down inquiring Ladies come for Judith, and feeling quite put upon to do everything himself, since Importune was polishing. The Badgerm

we are lions in prides keeping our boy cubs only until they threaten the claim of the stud presiding keeping our girl cubs only until they turn into lookers and make their poor dames   feel dusty and cold. from feline to feline it makes no difference so long as she gives him: one new nuclear climax, to end the world and a babe she must suckle, for the species, alone. But the elephants mourn,   till it all becomes bones till the Sahara dries marrow to crispy red powders and the elephants love babes,   clean into their corpsedom   till the vultures with sneerings will no longer pick them and they cannot say, but they need no r

Pam was something of an otherworldly smudge in the corner of the room, dressed in her gossamer black. She had traded her plain shifts worn in her running for the high leisurely fashion of the aristocracy, her waist cinched neat, her collars high, and her petticoats many expressly because she hovered—and didn’t want any curious young boys to see anything. She dressed, as Judith had noted, both like her in darkness (or, as the Badgerman had said, in grief, for she wore black in mourning, not merely for fashion), and like Strawhat. Perhaps because of this, Judith had gone quiet on Pam, too.   She was present for their meeting nonethe

Two years had not been enough to persuade Judith of anything. For the love of cursing, False always thought, and with a mild, subconscious correction he would substitute Hecate in lieu of cursing, as people did in such a world.   “You’ve been late to every calling,” he murmured from her doorway. “These people call at your own estate, and wait in your own parlor for your convenience, and you’re late to them.” “They take tea anyway,” Judith said. “It makes no difference if I’m there.” “You can’t avoid everyone,” False grumbled.   “I can avoid everyone I

The statement didn’t slide away from False; he stared at her, somewhat shocked. And she never added to it, so he moved on to the stairway. Lye’s group had stopped mid-staircase and pressed themselves thin against the railing to make room as False passed to the forefront, with Judith as close behind as she could get, and Pam hovering thereafter. One by one they fell into line, hollow-eyed, looking as weightless as the breeze itself. As he reached the grand doors, False had the impulse to reach for the knocker—which he had never done as one of the King’s suppliers. But he had a crippling fear that he would pass through a

The breaking of the curse began with False, lodged on the very brink of vanishing, as though perched on a great cliff overlooking the Dark Sea, rippling and hungry, and yet perpetually sick with debris. He saw himself there, apart from the small and strange space of the cottage from which Urn had so swiftly vanished in the face of strife. He could feel Judith’s hands about him but his mind stood apart from his body in the gruesome dark. From the Dark Sea hissed that ever-familiar, sassing voice which had criticized him and yet maintained his company and aided in his work: “You’ve not been yourself long enough, and I release

They did not descend like most books chronicling long wars would have had False believe. It had nothing to do with descending. It had to do more with swarming, he thought, like little erratic insects, from too many directions to count. And swarms did not really descend, they arrived. He had seen one witch distinctly, whipping around Judith’s mushroom cloud by air. And he could parcel out features—brown hair flying about in a weave, eyes surrounded by dollops of shiny blue paint. Her arms were blue midway down, clasping onto what looked to be a staff of some gem, not unlike Judith’s except that it was formed more into a zig-z

A bird had gotten in from the outdoor department and some young collegian had chosen today to seek out the manager with a speech on animal cruelty. And Jackson didn’t know how to say, yes, ma’am, birds are in here every day, ma’am, it’s a danger to the employees to try and retrieve them, ma’am. Instead he caught Callaghan by his apron on his way out, on his way to the beach, and asked him to get a net and see if he could snare the bird before the young woman had a stroke. And Callaghan didn’t know how to say no, sir, I’m have plans, sir, this job and this bird aren’t my life…sir. The coll

++ the end of the previous chapter, 16, has been changed as of 9/28/15, from the plus symbols onward. There was a silence all except for the dog. A sick silence, consisting of heated stares back and forth between all of them—mostly, except for False, who had gone to staring at his hands as they dripped with goop onto his once fresh, pressed clothes. He imagined himself steaming, melting like savory, sour courfalgar did as soon as it hit anything above freezing. And he thought, melancholy, well, this is it, then? It’s not as bad as I had thought. I might have done worse. He felt no pain, which was a decided improvement from every