Martha Wells

13. Jade and Balm: at the Court of Opal Night

Jade said, "So, that...  Didn't go like I thought it would."

Balm had to agree. They had assumed Malachite was just a queen trying to get an advantage over another court. They had been so wrong, so stupidly blind.  Balm blamed herself, she had given Jade bad advice. She said, glumly, "I thought she would be looking for an excuse to send him back to us; she knows he wants to go. I thought all we had to do was give her a way to do that and save her pride.  I'm sorry."

12. Teaching the Fledglings to Hunt: In the Time of Indigo Cloud's Return to the Reaches

Moon always took the Sky Copper clutch out himself. Not that he didn't trust the Arbora and warriors, but he hadn't been much older than Thorn when he had first learned to hunt and he thought that insight might make it easier to teach the clutch.

Also, he didn't actually trust the Arbora and the warriors.

At the moment, the hunters were stalking grasseaters on a lower section of the multi-leveled platform. Moon ...

11. Moon and Stone, Crossing the Southern Drylands

They had been flying all night, taking advantage of a strong south wind, and Moon was relieved when Stone circled down to the valley. It wasn't an ideal place to stop and rest, but at least it was there.

The terrain was mostly barren sandy ground with sparse grass, punctuated by low rises and some scrub brush and one lone tree. Moon came in low, tasting the air and catching the scents of dryland flowers and sand.

Stone dropped to the ground not far from the tree. Instead of shift...

Crosspost From the Blog: Raksura Week

(Since this is the release week for The Edge of Worlds, I'm cross-posting this.  I'll be posting new eleventh story snippet here tomorrow, April 5.)

(Raksura week: It's like Shark Week, but not as commercially successful.)

This is the official release week for The Edge of Worlds (as opposed to the unofficial release week we had when the hardcover shipped early). The ebook will drop tomorrow, April 5, on the official release day.

Good News:

...

10. Jade in the Golden Isles: In the Time of Indigo Cloud's Eastern Colony

Jade took one last look at Moon. He lay sprawled face-down on a low couch in the center of the open court, his hair still wet with saltwater. The white clay walls reflected the sun and made the court baking hot, perfect for half-drowned Raksura. Jade hissed to herself and stepped back into the adjoining room.

The palace of the Gerent and the trading guilds on the Golden Isles was the first groundling habitation Jade had ever seen the inside of, and she knew they...

9. Tempest and Ember: At the Indigo Cloud Court

Bark and the other Arbora arranged the bower and the tea set as if Ember's life depended on it, and it took Ember several tries to shoo them out. "She's my birthqueen," he reminded Bark. "It's too late for me to impress her."

Bark plumped another cushion and adjusted its placement on the fur. "She doesn't think very much of us. I just want to make sure everything's perfect!"

The Arbora reluctantly left, and when Tempest arri...

Some Notes

For people who don't follow my blog, I wanted to post this here too: 

I'll be doing a signing for The Edge of Worlds at Murder by the Book in Houston, TX, on Saturday April 9 at 4:30, where I'll be co-signing with J. Kathleen Cheney. If you want to be there but can't attend, you can preorder our books (including all the previous Raksura books and Kathleen's Shores of Spain trilogy) here 2016-02-26 22:39:30 +0000 UTC View Post

8. Jade and Balm: In the Time of Indigo Cloud's Eastern Colony

Jade climbed down the wall toward the garden of the teachers' court. She stopped above the doorway, clinging to the stones of the vine-covered lintel. She could hear the Arbora inside talking in confusion, excitement, dismay.

Jade knew how they felt.  She just didn't know how she felt.

Below, Balm stepped out of the hall.  Jade hissed quietly.  Balm glanced up and spotted her, then looked over her shoulder to make sure no on...

7. Bramble and Rill: In the Time of Indigo Cloud's Return to the Reaches

"Rill, are you down there?" Bramble called. She stood in one of the large curving wells in the bottom of the tree, below the work areas and store rooms. The walls here had no carving, the wood left rough, and the floors hadn't been smoothed. But the combination of artistry and utility was obvious in the open channel that curved alongside the set of stairs. Moss curtained it, but Bramble could tell it had been planted there intentionally, though now it was overgrown. The water rushing down the ch...

6. The Death of Dash: In the Time of Indigo Cloud's Return to the Reaches

Moon was warm and buried under the blankets, Jade curled around him, when

someone said quietly, "Jade?"

Jade sat up and leaned over the side of the hanging bed. Still half asleep, Moon shoved himself up to see it was Blossom, standing below the bed.

She looked upset, and there were mud stains on her feet and on the loose pants and shirt she wore, as if she had been out on the garden platforms and shifted without washing her scales first. This was concerning, since ...

5. Jade and Balm: in the Time of Indigo Cloud's Eastern Colony

Balm looked up as Jade dropped into her bower from the ledge above. Her expression and the angle of her spines made what had happened plain, but Balm said, "I guess Pearl wouldn't change her mind?"

"No." Jade's spines twitched as she paced. There wasn't much room for it even though Balm's bower was big for a warrior's. The bowers here in the east side wall were platforms with three walls, made cozy with hanging beds and cushions and heating stones. It was hard to tell what purpose the grou...

4. Moon and Stone: the Time of the Eastern Colony

Flying over the plain was hypnotic, the wind sending waves and ripples through the tall grass like a deep green dryland sea. The day was so dreamlike, seeing the sky start to darken toward sunset was almost a surprise.

They had been sleeping atop the occasional stone pillars that stood up a hundred paces or more above the ground, remnant of some ruined aqueduct or other structure. There weren't any in sight now, and when Stone slowed to circle down toward the ground, Moon though...

I want to thank everybody again for supporting this Patreon.  I'm scheduled to get the roof leak fixed tomorrow, and this really helped make that possible.

The next snippet post should be on December 22, and please feel free to keep making suggestions.  It's really helping spark ideas for me.

3. Moon and Chime: In the Time of Indigo Cloud's Return to the Reaches

Moon had one of those questions. It was something that seemed obvious to him, but knowing how tricky Raksuran customs, particularly Aeriat customs, could be,

he decided to ask Chime about it. "When I give Jade something, is there anything I should know?"

They were sitting in the mentors' library, and Chime was leaning over a book, carefully copying it onto fresh paper. The copy was intended to be part of a trade

to another court, part of the quest t...

Thanks for the wonderful comments!  I'm glad you guys liked it. Though I do want to come up with some snippets that are more up beat.

For December I should be posting snippets on the 8th and 22nd.

2. Things Left Behind: In the Time of Indigo Cloud's Return to the Reaches

Note: This is set between The Serpent Sea and The Siren Depths

"We knew there was a block somewhere around here," Snap said as he led Moon and Chime down the spiraling ramp.

Moon was willing to look at whatever it was, but Chime appeared to be suspicious of Snap's motives. Chime said, "You better not be dragging us down here to look at a drain."

Moon had been through this part of the colony tree before, but not recently. It was below the Arbora'...

Thank you all for the comments!  This is fun. :)

I'm thinking at this point that the second snippet should be ready to post on November 17th.

1. Stone and Cloud: In the Time of Umber Shadow

Cloud woke slowly, conscious only of being curled on a fur pallet in a warm bower. After days of tense, rapid travel through the suspended forest, with only brief stops for exhausted sleep in the rain on marshy platforms, it was a luxury. Still drowsing, he rolled over and stretched. That was when he registered that something nearby was breathing.

He snapped awake and flailed upright, only to see it was a consort fledgling, sitting beside the hearth bowl, watching him critically. The fledg...

I just wanted to update everyone and let you know I'm almost done with the first snippet, and I'll be posting it here on Tuesday, November 3.  Thank you!

Thank you!

Thanks so much to everyone who signed up! The response to this has been awesome and I really appreciate it.  Thanks to everyone for all the kind words in your comments.

We hit both goals, so I'll be doing two new snippets per month, starting in November. I'm going to keep it to two snippets, because I'm still working on the sequel to The Edge of Worlds (which comes out in April 2016) and I need to keep a lot of focus on that.  My longterm goal is to keep the snippets g...

Okay, here we go! I'm still figuring out how this works, but I'll start working on the first snippet post and we can go from there.  At some point maybe we can figure out extras and rewards and things like that that people might be interested in.  If you're a patron feel free to comment with suggestions for short snippets or questions or other things you'd like to see here.