It had an earthy, ripe taste, like cider had once been stored in it. I pushed the lid off the water barrel and cupped some water into my hands. No! I argued with myself and struggled to my feet. Sometimes it was Jase who brought me back from the edge. Some days were worse than others, delirium getting a strong foothold, it seemed, all the way into my soul. They came as regularly as the taunting beam of light, but I was still uncertain how much time had passed. I tried to use them as a measure for the passing days. Heavy footsteps clipped the cobbles in the hallway outside my cell door. I was back in my small dark cell, my dream dissolving in a quick gust, my arms cold again. The music we imagine together beats against our skin, the air, the swooning murmurs of those watching, Jase’s boots tapping our promises into place, unassailable, enduring -Ī crash jarred me awake, a door slamming into a wall. He spins me, lifting me into the air, the muscles of his shoulders flexing beneath my hands, then he lets me slide downward between his arms until our lips meet. Show them I could learn to be part of a family. To show them I knew how to do other things besides steal their Patrei. Would my memorized steps impress his family? Was I nimble enough? Graceful enough? Enough of anything? Because I did want to impress them.
I can’t tell you where she is, or who has imprisoned her (because that would be a spoiler!) but in this scene, and a few others, I wanted to show the hopeful Kazi who is nervous about being part of a large family, and the eager Kazi who thought her new life with Jase was just beginning - before everything took a very wrong turn. In the long dark moments that have no end or beginning, memories of Jase tether her to this world. She is not certain how long she has been imprisoned, and her infected wound (which we glimpsed in the last Hypable excerpt) has left her with a tenuous grip on reality. But here we see Kazi’s strengths stretched to the limit. Because of that experience, she is no stranger to starvation. From Dance of Thieves we already know that Kazi has been a survivor from the time she was a small child and left on the streets of Venda to fend for herself. Pearson sets the scene for ‘Vow of Thieves’ excerptĪnother sneak peek from Vow of Thieves! Don’t worry - no major spoilers.
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