Lombardy, summer, 1324 THEY SOON DISCOVERED that travel in Europe was nothing like travel in Cathay, or in Persia for that matter. The Road was marked by steles built by the Great Khan. Each of the cities along its many routes had clean, well-maintained caravansaries for travelers and their livestock, or at the very least…
Venice, May, 1324 “Get ready,” Gradenigo said. “Are we too close?” Jaufre said in a low voice, rising to his feet, hands at the tie of his robe. “He’s an old man, how far can he throw?” Gradenigo said. The old man’s arm raised and Johanna saw the tiny gold ring in his hand, illuminated…
Venice, spring, 1324 Both of them turned to see Donata Polo standing there in her luxurious dark robes with not a fold out of place. She was attended on her right by a serving woman who looked every bit as censorious as her mistress and on her left by the man who had shut the…
Read more “I will say what pleased your father and what did not!”
Excerpt… “Your eyes,” Jean de Valmy said hesitantly to Shasha. “These are how eyes are made where I come from,” she said. “And where would that be?” “Cathay.” “Cathay!” Jean de Valmy’s eyes lit up. “Is it true that jewels rain from the skies in Cathay?” “Only when the moon is full for the second…
Read more “Is it true that jewels rain from the skies in Cathay?”
Excerpt… Venice, December 1323 “THE YOUNGEST DAUGHTER, who is still at home,” Peter had said. “You may find you have something in common.” Like a face, Johanna thought. They met at the taverna where she had met with Peter the first time. It was convenient for both their lodgings and the alewife remained as professionally…
Read more “Of all my father’s fabulous fables, of course this was the one he chose to leave out.”
Excerpt… Venice, December 1323 The goliard had taken himself and his lute to the largest of the local inns and was there to be heard singing songs of the Princess Padmini and the night it rained emeralds, and telling floridly embellished tales of the hedonistic life lived in Cambaluc and Kinsai. Very little exaggeration was…
Excerpt… Venice, December THE BEST THAT could be said about winter in Venice was that the colder temperatures suppressed the smell of the canals. There was, however, no known advantage to the constant fogs that lay heavily on the Laguna Veneta, ghostly tentacles of which slithered up the canals to enfold the city in a…
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…