desiccation anticipated

Special attendants, newly graduated from the academy, spurred the falcons into the trade winds, with suggestions affixed to their legs. Half of the notes were missing, and the falcons were ready to go.

exhumation

As soon as they carried the coffin past the threshold of the crypt they heard the moan of the wind blowing through the canals. Locals called it the island’s bellow. Understanding what it was didn’t prevent fear from painting the backs of their necks with sweat, didn’t prevent fear from blowing its cold breath on them. Soon enough they would prove the circulars wrong and have grounds to open an official search for whoever printed them.

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bivoltine

It had two broods per year, each of a different kind. the spring brood was lighter, fleshier. The autumn brood was heavier and darker. They were mostly bone. The dark ones could be used to help break codes, as long as they never caught the scent of one of the other brood.

penance

Several animal carcasses, sprayed with peppermint to keep off the flies, were piled around the wooden table. She looked around to see if she could recognize any of the others attending the seance. Better than community service, she told herself again.

hewn

Unable to unlock the briefcase, we hacked it into pieces. Among the broken remains we saw pieces of film begin to corrupt each other. We scrambled to get separate containers for each piece and were able to salvage about 40% of it. Some of us were convinced that the cross contamination didn’t just destroy what was there but produced the images we saw after processing the film, and that there was no point in trying to interpret them.

barometer

bring the drunkard to appease him.

appease who, the drunkard?

no, fool, the duke. he enjoys drunkards. he enjoys treating of drunkards. he is in a foul mood, and he enjoys treating of drunkards. tho there is no telling what he will do to this souse. sometimes he nurses them, sometimes he preaches to them. sometimes he beats them, and other times he joins them.

scent track

a smuggling track went past the rear of the factory where I worked, it was a few hundred yards away. I only happened to find it ’cause i went back there to smoke weed and i wanted to be far enough away for the smell not to get noticed. i made sure only to smoke on days when i was on packing duty. if they asked me to go on the equipment on those days i would just tell the foreman i couldn’t ’cause i was high and he was cool about it. it honestly never occurred to me that somebody there might know about the smuggling if they already knew about my getting high, but one day i saw one of the bosses meet with somebody coming through there. i mentioned it to the foreman and he said not to tell anyone if i didn’t want somebody to tell about me too. i guess he though those two threats were equal enough to balance each other. he was wrong.

hydrophobe

The few times I tried to take the boy swimming he shouted constantly whenever he was near the water. Baths at home were fine. I think it was the size of the water and the open environment, thought it may have been the other people around. I gave up. Now he doesn’t like me telling that story, but there are worse I could tell. I challenged him to tell another side of it if there’s one to tell.

persevering

That fiscal year was deformed by the conflicting decrees of the satrapesses, some of whom declared debt amnesties, others who levied new taxes and fines which many had to borrow to pay. Accountants were confused, many lending houses contracted their businesses to one province. One merchant who came out of the tropical forest to the West expanded his operations.

whisper bound

The cage maker worked in chains. His profession was illegal in every province, but the city in which he worked was directly under the central government. He was getting old, and many bureaucrats were fretting about how to train his replacement. Several legislators were looking to use the opportunity to gain power.