Six Sentence Sunday 7.15.2012

Excerpt from Moons' Kiss, available in print and ebook from Amazon.com, Smashwords, and other book retailers:

Gradually, he realized she would stand there forever before violating whatever protocol he failed to grasp.  He stepped closer and touched her arm.

She started, then gestured toward bowls set at the pool's edge, one full of sand, another full of leaf fragments, and spoke in a rush.  She indicated a robe lying across the bench, lifted an edge of the robe to show him a length of gray cloth underneath, and the realization struck that he was expected to bathe in the pool.

He looked at her then, wondering whether custom required her presence, and what services she was expected to perform during that bath.  He felt the pulsing pressure of arousal.

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#SweetSat Sample 7.14.2012

This excerpt is taken from Moons' Kiss by Kimberly K. Comeau, available in print and ebook from Amazon.com, Smashwords, and other book retailers.

Manerra stepped around Kayarra, but rapidly approaching footfalls shifted their attention to the trail. Kayarra stepped into the weeds bordering the field as a rider overtook Draytel’s group at a gallop and passed Aya without slowing.

"Do you recognize the rider?" Manerra asked.

"No," Aya answered, voice tense. He started walking. Manerra fell into step beside him, and Kayarra hurried to catch up.

The rider plunged recklessly through the crowded yard, and for an awful moment, Kayarra thought the rider intended to run the shuren against the wall of the main house. She leapt from the animal before it stopped moving and ran for the door.

"Aya—" Manerra said.

"I know." Aya quickened pace.

They hadn't yet reached the smoke of the nearest cookfire when the house door burst open. A woman with white hair left the building at a run, headed toward the corner of the house. Behind her, slower, stumbled the rider, who reached for the reins of her still-heaving mount.

The white-haired woman collided with a man leading a shuren toward the front of the house. The man caught her waist before she rebounded, lifted her off her feet, and heaved her onto shurenback.

The lady swung around and upright, slapped reins to her mount, and leaned low over the shuren's neck as it bolted. 

Aya dodged sideways into the path of the oncoming rider. "Lady Sheron!" he lifted his arms and shouted.

Sheron jerked upright, her face an expression of shock. The shuren brushed past Aya as Sheron fought to halt it. "Shon regis!" she cried, brought the shuren around, and angled toward Aya, who ran to meet her. The shuren danced sideways, spooked by Aya's rush.

Sheron leaned down, speaking rapidly. Kayarra couldn’t understand what she said. Manerra started toward them just as Aya reached up, pulled Sheron from her mount, and took her place with a leap. He nudged the shuren toward Manerra, shouted, "Find Denassa and Shurna. Ride with escort. Bring Sheron to the House of Moons." Aya turned the sidestepping shuren toward the forest trail and slapped her hard.

Six Sentence Sunday 7.8.2012

Excerpt from Moons' Kiss by Kimberly K. Comeau, available in print and ebook from Amazon.com and other retail booksellers.

"Shall I talk with him?"

"And tell him what?" Aya demanded.  Even knowing her love for Manerra, he could not allow her intervention.  The entire council could not veto a shecaren's decision.  If a sacrifice must be made, better it be Kayarra than the nation.  Although, awareness of an increasing number of consequences associated with Kayarra's death came close to destroying his nerve.

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#SweetSat Sample 7.7.2012

This excerpt is taken from Moons' Kiss by Kimberly K. Comeau, available in print and ebook from Amazon.com and other book retailers.

"Shecaren."

Manerra startled and whirled. He had not heard Denassa approach. He had not been aware that he'd stopped walking. His first wonder was whether she'd overheard his plea, but she stood, head bowed, in a deference they rarely used privately. Her formality reminded him of how deeply the janquer were affected by shecaren arguments.

"What does he want from me, Dee?" Manerra bypassed the expected acknowledgment.

Denassa's head lifted.

"Is he afraid I'll challenge his decisions? Or challenge his rule?"

Discomfort overcame her surprise. "He's not confided in me."

He interpreted that as a plea not to compromise her position. "Then tell me what I've missed these last four years. What happened to him?"

"After leaving Kita, we returned to Ayahn Rahh—"

"I know where you went!"

She stopped talking, her frustration evident.

"Dee . . ." he floundered in his search for the one question that would make sense of their arguments. Then suddenly, "Did he want me back?"

Her composure dissolved. "All the years you were gone, he did little more than talk about your return and relate stories of his own tribal years. He planned our arrival in Thurra to coincide with the completion of your training."

Manerra flushed hotly. "Then why can't we talk? Did he have feelings for Hyran he’s never mentioned? Have I failed him?"

Denassa was shocked again. "It's only been a day. Give—"

"No. No, it's not," he cut her short. "We only spoke of it today. Whatever's been wrong has been wrong since Thurra." But because Hyran's death was the obvious answer, Manerra asked, "What, in my father's name, is that thing I risked my life to save?"

Six Sentence Sunday 7-1-2012

Excerpt from Moons' Kiss, available in paperback and ebook from Amazon.com (In the Yatren language, "cor-anda" means "man-thing.")

How long had they been gone?  Not even a fortnight, and the ordeal continued.

Manerra rolled onto his uninjured hip, pulled a cushion under his head, and stared at the back of the blanketed figure snoring across from him.  Sand-colored hair was all he could see of the cor-anda.

It hadn’t had the decency to die.  Instead, it had defiled their living quarters.

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