Talikan, spring, 1323 JOHANNA HAD NEVER been so bored. There was no lack of comfort in the harem, that was true enough. The blue-tiled floors had been built over a hypocaust, and were warm both winter and summer. So was the water in the rectangular bath that stretched the length of the main room. The…
Excerpt… Shasha’s face was twisted into a snarl and she looked coiled, ready to spring. Félicien was white to his hairline. He couldn’t see Fatima or Azar or Malala or Ahmed, although a woman was sobbing somewhere nearby who sounded like Fatima. Hari was sitting on the ground with his legs crossed and his feet…
Excerpt… “We are coming with you to Kerman!” Fatima said. Johanna was startled. “We only just decided we were going there.” Fatima gave that remark the back of her hand. “Father has heard of a new kind of grain available in the west, one that in the right climate can bear twice in the same…
Excerpt… They watched the beating go on in silence for a moment. Félicien gave Shasha a questioning look. Shasha rolled her eyes in reply. “What has this old man done, honored one,” Johanna said, “that he should be punished so severely?” The official gave a mournful shake of his head. “He has represented himself as…
Excerpt… NORTH WIND WAS not the only priceless possession to have gone missing in Cambaluc that morning. The house of the late, honorable Wu Li was in an uproar as his widow stormed through every room, leaving chaos in her wake. Drawers were yanked out, their contents dumped on the floor, the drawers tossed aside.…
Excerpt… 1322, Cambaluc “MY HUSBAND IS dead,” the widow said. Not “Your father.” Not the more formal “The head of the house of Wu.” Just the exclusive, proprietary “My husband.” The widow was selfish even in her alleged grief. There was also a hard glitter of triumph in her dark eyes, for those with the…
Excerpt… 1320, Cambaluc One day a month later Jaufre went out to the stables and found Johanna seated on a bale of hay next to Edyk the Portuguese, deep in earnest conversation. She looked more animated than she had since the day her mother died. Edyk was holding one of Johanna’s hands in both of…
Excerpt… 1312, Five days from Kashgar JOHANNA HAD GRADUATED to her own camel. Her father, Wu Li, had told her that if she managed to keep her seat from the beginning of Kuche to the city of Kashgar that he would let her off the leading string for the journey home. Shu Ming’s protest had…
Read more All three of them stared at the desiccated limb that her mount’s hoof had exposed.
Excerpt… “And Shu Ming?” Bayan’s face lightened. “Alive. The doctors say she has suffered no harm. No physical harm.” Bayan nodded at the open door of his study, and Wu Hai went through into the garden, where once again the plum trees were in bloom. Shu Ming sat with her back to one of the…
Excerpt… 1292, Cambulac “He is leaving this life,” Bayan said, his expression somber, “and he knows it. While he lives, you are safe here in Everything Under the Heavens. When he dies…” It was nothing Marco had not known before he had requested this audience. Many times over the past several years, ever since the…
Read more “But he holds my wife and my daughter hostage against my return!”