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Stories from the Verse
In Verse Proportion
Chapter 100: Kondor 208
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Brown 229
Weeks passed, and were it not for the physical exercise Kondor thought he would be getting fat. Nothing was happening.
Be careful what you wish, he thought. After all, things do happen in this world. It isn’t much more than a year since you fought those bandits, and since then rescued the princess, fought the enemy versers, and repelled an invading army--not to mention having gotten married even since then. It might be dull, mostly lazing about the palace, but he did not really want more excitement. What was that old Oriental curse? May you live in interesting times? No thank you.
Yet somehow he couldn’t help thinking that something was going to happen.
On some level, that was silly. He was letting Slade’s ideas, and maybe Lauren’s, affect him. He wasn’t here to do something; he was here by accident. Things happened, he responded to them, and fine, so he had been given three chains, effectively medals for bravery in this world, because he had responded--but what should he have done? Their host had a problem with bandits, and Slade had offered their services to deal with the problem. Then the Calipha Rathi had been kidnapped, and someone had to rescue her. Given their unusual skill sets, they were the obvious choice. They went to what they hoped would be a peaceful talk with those other versers, and were ambushed, defended themselves, then defended the city of the father of the wife of one of their own. It wasn’t as if he had been forced to do anything. He had skills, they came in useful, he was awarded honors for this.
It might happen again. Actually, given enough time it would happen again. Even in that parakeet world which seemed so peaceful there was the kind of trouble Slade superstitiously called preparation for Ragnorak. Something would happen, and given his skills and reputation he would probably be asked to help, or at least given the opportunity to volunteer.
He began visiting the observation towers. He told himself that it was good for him to understand the defenses, and indeed he occasionally walked the battlements and observed some of the medieval artillery. It reminded him of another castle, besieged years ago by creatures out of nightmares, a different war. He had been called upon to fight then.
It was all nonsense, of course. Things happened no matter where you were. He got involved when they did. He certainly hadn’t been brought here because something was going to happen. He just happened to be here, and things just happened to, well, happen. There was nothing more to it than that.
Yet somehow he was feeling more and more certain that something was going to happen.
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:
