Swans Over the Moon Read Online Free Page B

Swans Over the Moon
Book: Swans Over the Moon Read Online Free
Author: Forrest Aguirre
Tags: Science-Fiction, Fantasy, tragedy, Science Fantasy, Steampunk, alternate history, Apocalyptic, Moon, family drama, political intrigue, forrest aguirre, retropunk, shakespearean, king leer
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slumped
down in Selene's chair and fell into blackness. His closing vision
that night was the sight of Selene and the knight's women clapping
and cheering to the death throes of his Cimbri. The Tarans floated
up, Selene's long white scarf framing in a circle beneath them the
last sight of that place. His daughter, Cimbri, a broken body
swinging on the wind of the lunar night.
     

Chapter 4
     
    The dead were buried, per Procellarian
tradition, under mounds of white roses that were then ritually
watered by the tears of the deceased's kin. The Judicar oversaw the
ceremony, then led the knights back to the palace strapped to the
saddle of a fallen knight's horse. The dead knight's family
considered this the highest honor and walked alongside the steed,
keeping their leader from sloughing off to the side from
exhaustion.
    The victory celebration was bittersweet with
the loss of so many knights, but the survivors were drunk with
their own successes long before they were drunk with wine. The
Judicar gave a brief memorial for the fallen men, a congratulations
to the victors, and jokingly ordered all to have fun, on pain of
death. But his facade of happiness couldn't last long, he knew, nor
could he stand the pain of his wound and keep decorum, so he
retired as soon as possible to his bedchamber.
    Selene led her father from the banquet hall
to his bedchamber, where she helped him remove his armor. She laid
the individual pieces in a velvet-lined chest, arranging them in
their proper order. He flopped down onto his chair with a grunt and
sipped the healing tea that she had brought to him, watching the
girl and noting how different she appeared, in both looks and
mannerisms, from her mother. Perhaps her older sisters had taken
the most from their mother, leaving her only the leftovers of the
matronly inheritance. They were so different, in fact, that the
Judicar found it difficult to keep the image of his wife and that
of Selene fixed in his mind at the same time, as if one would not
allow the other his full attention.
    She helped her father up from his arm chair.
Pain shot through his leg, almost causing him to collapse, but he
leaned on her for support. He noted, through his pain, how light,
yet how powerful, she was. She was thin and short, but her frame
felt as if it were constructed of steel. Energy emanated from her
like heat from a coal stove, whereas he felt, now, like a spent
cinder. He noted also that the Tarans were careful to keep Selene
between them and him. They cast wary glances at him, as if
expecting punishment at his hand for some misdeed. His leg
throbbed, though, and soon all concern about the spirits was
swallowed up in a sea of pain.
    Selene guided him toward a side chamber, then
left him with a kiss on the cheek so that he might undress
completely before entering the small, spherical hot bath room that
adjoined the Judicar's bedchamber. Steam disgorged from its mouth
like a steel forge at maximum capacity. He disrobed and hobbled up
the stone stairway that led to the circular hatch opening. The
smell of eucalyptus mingled with cinnamon and clove unguents –
meant to cover the medicinal stench of pain-killers in the bath –
flooded his head as he carefully lowered his wounded leg into the
spiced water. He leaned back, closing the hatch with a spin of the
wheeled handle, then sat down heavily in the narcotic water.
    The entire inside of the sphere was carved in
low-relief scenes in marble, studded with mosaic tiles. Above
hovered the earth, the blue planet forever-present in the sky above
Procellarium, a celestial sentinel eye, caught in eternal stasis on
the ceiling. One half of the room showed stylized sun rays beating
down. The other half showed falling stars, all showering down from
the great orb of the sister planet. Midway round the chamber, in a
thick band that ran the full inner circumference of the sphere, was
a representation of Procellarium, palm trees and oases beneath
crater lips, over which
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