Mel’s Reviews > Swordheart > Status Update

But Fisher had said he was old and he was done and he’d gone back to his little fishing village to live with his daughter.

Perhaps his daughter had had a daughter of her own. Perhaps somewhere still, there was a clan who could put a bolt in a man’s eye from a hundred yards and weep and draw the string back and do it again.

Halla agreed. She was mostly just bemused at how Zale had gone from throwing up in the bushes to coolly plotting murder.

She was even more bemused that she seemed to be going along with it.

“I’ve never killed anyone! You’ve never killed anyone! Sarkis and Brindle did all the killing bits! We stood around and wrung our hands!”

“I’m sure we’ll figure something out. People manage to kill each other all the time. How hard can it be?”

Sarkis emerged from the scullery, looking soggy. “I have defeated the dishes.”
“Were there any survivors?”
“The only casualty was some kind of monstrous serving plate with pears on it.”
“Oh, that,” said Halla with relief. “Dare I hope it’s broken past any possible mending?”
Sarkis considered this for a moment, then went back into the scullery. Sounds of breaking crockery drifted through the open door.
“Yes,”

The wooden pews were sturdy rather than elegant, with marks on the legs where either small children or dogs had gnawed on the edges.

“That,” they said, grinning, “was fun.”

Love seeing Zale in his element, and everyone loves a good dressing-down and to see justice served.

She expected the very sensible priest of the very sensible god to agree with her. Sensibly.

Instead, Zale tilted their head, a small smile on their lips. “Perhaps that’s why you like him. It must be very dreary, being needed all the time.”

“Oh god,” Halla heard herself say. “Oh god, you have no idea.”

“I might.”

“A gnole really doesn’t like these Hills.”

“A human isn’t too thrilled with them either,” Halla assured him.

And of course, nobody would have put such ponds on the map, preferably with convenient notes like, “Perfect for body disposal!” or, “Dump unwanted enemies here!”

The Hanged Mother attracts a certain kind of mind, I fear. An unkind one. I have met a few among them who were not so bad, but it is a faith for those value power and punishment.