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Stories from the Verse
In Verse Proportion
Chapter 88: Kondor 203
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Brown 222
When they reached the dining room, Zeke brought a bowl of what seemed to be cold soup. Kondor wondered whether it had been hot soup that had been sitting long enough to reach room temperature or whether it was normal to serve it cold in this hot clime. However, being still significantly dehydrated he downed the bowl fairly quickly.
“You want more of that, or something solid?” Zeke asked.
“How about a bit of both?” he answered, and got a nod before the soldier headed back to the buffet table.
“What about you?” he said to Leah.
“I’m fine. I just want to be sure you’re all right.”
“Well, I’m recovering. You’d better get something to eat for yourself, or you’ll be hungry later. And tell Zeke he needs to eat, too.”
She nodded, rose, and scampered toward the food table.
Zeke returned momentarily juggling a plate and two bowls. He gave one of the bowls to Kondor, and sat across from him with the other bowl and the plate on which was a selection of cold foods. “Yours is coming,” he said. Leah arrived a moment later, with two plates and one bowl, and gave him one of the plates.
“You’re all right to eat this now, aren’t you?” she asked. “I don’t want you getting sick.”
It occurred to him that she probably had more experience with dehydration than either he or Zeke had had, and he should take her advice seriously.
“I’ll go slow,” he answered. There was some cold fowl, probably chicken, and some hard cheese sliced fairly thin, and a small bunch of grapes. He started with one of the grapes; the juice was quite refreshing.
Already people were departing, headed for rooms. It must be dark by now, and what light they would have would come from oil lamps and candles. It was getting difficult to see his food, yet he didn’t want to rush to eat it.
Suddenly there was a bit of a glow around Zeke’s plate. “What’s that?” Kondor asked.
“Oh, Lauren taught it to me. It produces enough light to read a book, I figured it would work to see my food.”
“Why didn’t she teach that to me?”
“Because it’s magic, and you don’t believe in magic.”
There was that magic thing again. Well, however it actually was that Zeke was producing light from his fingertips, there was no point arguing about it now. The light provided enough glow for Kondor to see where things were on his own plate, at least well enough to eat them.
A small bowl of wash water was there, and he cleaned his fingers. “Where to now?” he asked.
“I’ll have to get you both to our rooms,” Leah said. “The servants will have lit the lamps, but the corridors and stairways are going to be a bit dark. Are you all right to walk?”
He considered a moment before answering, then said, “Yes, I think so,” and stood.
“All right, then, follow me.”
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #448: Inventive Versers. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
