“You sound like Grandmother Khue.” She felt only a fraction of her old anger. “Looking for meaning in deep spaces.”
Long Chau shook her head. “Still angry?”
“There’s nothing out there,” The Shadow’s Child said. “No revelations. Nothing to worship.” But nothing to fear, either.
“Mmm,” Long Chau said. What had it been like for her—in those long moments when she was there, desperately trying to hold on to Tuyet and praying to her ancestors—or whoever else she did pray to—that The Shadow’s Child was going to reach her in time? “As I said—I don’t speculate.” A pause, then: “But I’m not like Grandmother Khue. I don’t endanger young girls. Or ships.”
“I know,” The Shadow’s Child said, finally. Long Chau meant well. She was abrasive and forthright, and prone to getting carried away with her own deductions, missing all the subtle cues that would have told anyone else to stop. She—
She was all right, really. “You can come back. When you need a blend. I’ll be quite happy to help you. Honestly.”
Long Chau set the cup on the table. “Thank you.” She rose. Barely the faintest of tremors in her legs, as The Shadow Child’s bots left her hair and hands and scuttled onto the floor.
At the door, she stopped, looking in. She thought for a while, and then said, carefully, “If—I should happen to have a case where a shipmind’s perspective would be useful—”
“Go on,” The Shadow’s Child said, unsure of what else to say.
Long Chau’s gaze was piercing. “I would offer to pay you, but that would be insulting to you and what you do. So why don’t I come to see you, as a friend, and you can tell me what help you’d feel comfortable giving me, and on what terms?”
As a friend. “I’ll be glad to,” The Shadow’s Child said—and was surprised to find that she meant it.
Acknowledgments
This book was written at a particularly challenging time in my life, when I was learning to conciliate motherhood of two small children, work and writing. I would like to thank a number of people for the support they provided, without which I would never have made it to the end: Alis Rasmussen, Zen Cho, Vida Cruz, Tade Thompson, Fran Wilde, Michelle Sagara, Stephanie Burgis, Victor Fernando R. Ocampo, Patricia Mulles, Cindy Pon, Nene Ormes, Likhain, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Inksea, Alessa Hinlo, D Franklin, Zoe Johnson, Liz Bourke, Mary Robinette Kowal, Elizabeth Bear and Scott Lynch.
Thanks as well to Ava Jarvis, Lynn E. O’Connacht, Seth Gorden, Samantha Henderson, and Genevieve Cogman for providing feedback on the drafts of this, and to Jonathan L. Howard for his speedy reading and blurbing! And to Patrick Samphire and Sebb for advice on covers and lettering.
To everyone who turned this from a draft into a gorgeous book: Yanni Kuznia, Geralyn Lance and everyone at Subterranean Press; Maurizio Manzieri and Dirk Berger for gorgeous and striking cover art; Lisa Rodgers, Patrick Disselhorst and everyone at JABberwocky who worked on this; and my agent John Berlyne for his support and advice.
To my readers and tireless promoters: I wouldn't be here without you.
To Jeremy Brett and Lucy Liu, the Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson of my heart.
And, finally, to my parents, who gave 10-year-old me a much coveted two-volume edition of all the Sherlock Holmes stories; to my sister, who geeked with me on Victorian London, TV series and movies; to my husband Matthieu and his wild fixes to plot problems; and to my children, the snakelet and the librarian, who will one day hear about space detectives and their adventures!
About the Author
Aliette de Bodard lives and works in Paris, where she has a day job as a System Engineer. She studied Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, but moonlights as a writer of speculative fiction. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Obsidian and Blood trilogy of Aztec noir fantasies, as well as numerous short stories, which garnered her two Nebula Awards, a Locus Award and a British Science Fiction Association Award.
Works include The House of Shattered Wings (2015 British Science Fiction Association Award), a novel set in a turn-of-the-century Paris devastated by a magical war, and its standalone sequel The House of Binding Thorns. She lives in Paris with her family, in a flat with more computers than warm bodies, and a set of Lovecraftian tentacled plants intent on taking over the place.
This novella is set in the same universe as On a Red Station Drifting and The Citadel of Weeping Pearls.
Visit her website www.aliettedebodard.com for short fiction set in the same universe as this book, as well as Vietnamese and French recipes.
ALSO BY ALIETTE DE BODARD
OBSIDIAN AND BLOOD
Servant of the Underworld*
Harbinger of the Storm*
Master of the House of Darts*
DOMINION OF THE FALLEN
The House of Shattered Wings
The House of Binding Thorns
XUYA UNIVERSE
On a Red Station, Drifting
The Citadel of Weeping Pearls*
The Tea Master and the Detective*
SHORT FICTION
Of Books, and Earth, and Courtship
* available as a JABberwocky ebook
Looking for more from Aliette de Bodard’s Xuya Universe? The Citadel of Weeping Pearls is available in eBook and print editions from JABberwocky.
THANK YOU FOR READING
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