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Here’s a snippet from Kings of the North. Location: Vérella, the Verrakai city house. Time: Day after coronation of the young king. Present: Dorrin Duke Verrakai, the Marshal-General of Gird, the new Marshal-Judicar of Tsaia, another Marshal.
If you totally, absolutely, do not want any spoilers at all–including zero idea that something might happen after this of plot-significance–don’t read past the break.
Dorrin raised the ax; the buzzing grew louder. “Do you hear anything?” she asked, wondering if the sound were perceptible to those without magery.
“There’s a fly in the room somewhere,” the Marshal-General said.
“It’s not a fly,” Dorrin said. She brought the axe down full force on the floor. The old wood, hardened by time, rang but did not yield. The bloodstain darkened perceptibly.
Comment by Ross Ashley — May 3, 2010 @ 6:49 pm
Ooooog.
Comment by elizabeth — May 3, 2010 @ 9:13 pm
Oooog? What is this Oooog? Shiver, shudder, uh-oh…yes. Oooog?
Comment by Jenn S. — May 3, 2010 @ 10:11 pm
Creepy! Awesome! I second the “Ooooog,” which may in fact not be safe because it sounds like a swamp monster, but it sounds onomotopoiecally appropriate. 😀
Comment by fierydream — May 4, 2010 @ 1:12 am
Oooog is right. Kind of a cross between Ooooh and Gah, except … good. 😀
Just dropped by to say, I (finally) got my hands on Oath of Fealty and it’s brilliant! I love it. Dorrin is awesome – Arcolin and Kieri’s storylines are great too, of course (everything is!) – but I really like how little details about Dorrin’s past from the Paks books are suddenly Very Significant. Like her glowing sword – I remember wondering about it when it first came up, so it was a happy ‘A-ha!’ moment when that came up. 😀
(Speaking of little details, what is this past of Arcolin’s that was alluded to by Aesil M’dierra? Hmmm…)
I especially love the little dips into black humour here and there. The line where Dorrin is wondering if the Prince would really send her a note consisting of ‘present yourself for execution’ made me laugh out loud – especially since us readers are already aware by that point that the message is quite the opposite. Hahaha. Brilliant.
I also notice you have some pictures of Oath of Fealty from various parts of the world. I offer a picture from Singapore; it’s taken in my office from my cellphone and is not of the best quality, but perhaps that’s appropriate for the location. 🙂
http://i40.tinypic.com/2zdzpfp.jpg
Comment by FrancisT — May 4, 2010 @ 4:53 am
oooog oooog
Comment by Eir de Scania — May 4, 2010 @ 6:37 am
Yay for snippets!
Oooog? Sounds like the Unseen University Librarian’s got a cold.
He would not approve of The Book travelling around the world. Books are supposed to be in their shelves, as nature intended. 🙂
Comment by AJLR — May 4, 2010 @ 8:36 am
Goodness, the thought of having to walk over a floor like that gives me the knee-creeps! 🙂
Comment by Mike D — May 4, 2010 @ 1:27 pm
“Books are supposed to be in their shelves, as nature intended”
Readers do so interfere with the work of the library, do they not ?
Michael Dolbear,
Little Egret in Walton-on-Thames
Comment by Mary Elmore Cowart — May 4, 2010 @ 1:48 pm
Everyone knows that catalogers describe and classify for themselves. So no one else can find any books, therefore readers do not interfere with the work of the library. (This from a retired cataloger. Tongue in cheek, of course.)
Comment by elizabeth — May 4, 2010 @ 11:32 pm
Reader creeps in, slowly, slowly slides book on shelf, opens…
I do understand the problem, though, as my personal library (books all over the house) regularly suffers from readers helping books migrate to parts unknown. “Honey, have you seen Sibley?” “Isn’t it in the bathroom?” “No, somebody moved it…” A couple of days ago I refound and reshelved Butterflies Through Binoculars: West. I have at least five “missing in action” books I would use if I could find them.
Comment by elizabeth — May 4, 2010 @ 11:32 pm
Open stacks are the only way to go (says this reader who can find things anyway.)
Comment by elizabeth — May 4, 2010 @ 11:34 pm
fierydream: I don’t know if Arcolin’s past will ever be more than one of those details that escapes past the frame of the painting. If it becomes plot-relevant, I will finally figure out whether he came from Pliuni, Horngard, or someplace in between.
Comment by ellen — May 5, 2010 @ 1:59 am
I love the snippets, big oooog! And I loved Oath of Fealty, just finished reading it the second time, (took ages, between first and second read, I got some bug that affected my eyes). And boatbuilding hubby loved it too…
Comment by Adam Baker — May 5, 2010 @ 10:32 am
Oh yea, definitely love snippets.
I thought it was kind of fun as I read OoF to see if I could find all the snippets that had been posted. I think I found all the snippets that I could remember.
Comment by Genko — May 7, 2010 @ 4:41 am
Ooooog, maybe is what follows OoF? Yes, to many here — also wondering about Arcolin. I’ve just finished my 4th reading of Oath, and have loved it just as much each time. Maybe I can stop now, go back and read Deed again, or even something else for a bit.
Comment by Hils — May 7, 2010 @ 9:32 am
I too just finished devouring OoF after a stressful semester in which I could not allow myself to think about the fact that it was sitting there at Borders waiting for me to come buy it. Thank you! It was wonderful to return to the world that introduced me to adult fantasy.
Comment by AMMBD — May 7, 2010 @ 9:04 pm
AUGH! more snippet must have more snippet!
thank you for the snippet 🙂
Comment by Robin S. — May 13, 2010 @ 7:13 pm
This snippet puts me in mind of the portrait of her ancestor that bled in Oaths of Fealty. But to walk upon a floor that bled in this manner would definitely freak a person out, I’m hightailing it out of there pronto.
Robin
Comment by elizabeth — May 13, 2010 @ 9:06 pm
You and I both would be hightailing it out of that house, even before that. I’m amazed Dorrin…well, no spoilers. Anyway, yeah. Seriously bad vibes in that place.
Comment by Jenn — May 16, 2010 @ 8:37 am
Wow.
The verrakai have a thing for blood.
Elizabeth I love your perception of evil. It is really on the mark.
I wonder whose blood sacrifice it is.
Is it a stronger sacrifice if it were say a family member??? Why did they feel the need to drench the Verrakai house in such magics
More importantly how on earth did the Duke and Duchess entertain?–“No dear don’t sit in that chair/walk over that floor/touch that nob!”
Comment by elizabeth — May 20, 2010 @ 7:49 am
Jenn (somehow your post ended up in the “wait” file for much longer than it should–sorry). The former Duke Verrakai, and most of his predecessors, did not entertain friends because they felt (rightly, thanks to their history) that they had none. The downstairs rooms of the house in Verella were mostly untrapped, and traps could be easily moved, so on the very few occasions when it was necessary (socially/culturally) to receive outsiders, it could be done without revealing how nasty things were. The country house…never.
What the Verrakaien believe about the variable value of blood sacrifice may be wrong (speaking only of the story context: the story allows for “real” effects and “beliefs about those effects” and non-mapping of B onto A.) In terms of changing bodies, taking over another Verrakai body is believed to intensify the level of magery, whereas transfer into a non-Verrakai (and, in their belief, that would be someone with no mage-power) confers no additional power and may in fact “dilute” the power of the original. (A modern, non-magelord analog familiar to most of us is the transfer of power within a family or social/cultural ruling set, consolidating that power–often combined with the belief that letting outsiders into the circle of power could dilute it for all, as the outsiders bring in a different set of values.)
Comment by Louise — June 15, 2010 @ 3:07 pm
I just finished Oath of Fealty for the second time, and am almost finished rereading the Paks trilogy (again, no idea how many times now). Thank you so much for revisiting the world. I love it! And I can hardly wait for the rest of the series to see what happens to them all. I hate waiting!
Comment by elizabeth — June 16, 2010 @ 9:32 pm
Very glad you liked it…wishing I could make everyone happy by writing much faster, but I can’t.