“You see, we are more alike than you think.” Then, a bit awkwardly: “If I had been work, you would have remembered a contraceptive?”
“Of course.” She poked him with her finger for emphasis. Or don’t you know how to talk like this, either? “Are you sure you want a fishwife like me for a companion? I suspect I will be the jealous type.”
As his face relaxed he actually looked relieved, but he managed to respond in kind. “No sharing? Not with anyone?”
Darame started to answer, and then paused. “Maybe with Mailan.” Brant was right — I have gone native.
Sheel looked remote, and then shook his head. “No. She is guaard, and would never give it up. How could she remain detached enough to protect me, if…”
“You have excellent labs here, silly. Can you think of a better way to say thank you?” Darame grinned broadly at him, and then winced — her face did not pull that way yet. Sweet Lord, the muscles of her throat!
“We shall see.” Fingers suddenly reached out and took her hand. “We are survivors, we Nualans… especially we Atares. We are as prone to land on our feet as the proverbial cat. You have proved yourself a survivor — I think you are meant to be one of us.” After a short pause he whispered: “All my life I have had to do what was expected, what was needful — now others can live with what I need.”
“Hush,” she said absently, returning his grip with strength. Bits of plastic and ceramic danced across her memories. Funny, she had forgotten the museum… was this then the secret of Nuala? Out of all things, survival… out of both tolerance and love. Darame thought until her head throbbed. All you ever wanted was enough money to enjoy yourself and not worry. All right, it is yours. With something you never had time to think about — someone who likes you as much as you like him. And as for getting bored…A very sly smile crossed her face. “You realize you will be ruling this planet within ten years if I stay?”
Sheel was visibly startled, and then a dimple appeared. “That is not funny.”
“You think I am joking?” The humor suddenly fled from her face and she whispered: “Sheel, no one ever taught me how to say ‘I love you.’”
Purposefully lifting her palm to his lips, he said gently: “Of course they did — in another sort of language. And I know you are good with languages.”
– END –
Nualan Maps
Nualan Time
The planet Nuala has a twenty-five-hour day, retaining the ancient sixty-minute hour and sixty-second minute, although Nualan time-keeping appears hazy to off-worlders. It can be extremely difficult for planet visitors to keep track of time, since moonrise and moonset can vary enormously. In Amura, the hours are canonical. Elsewhere, however, the moon cycles are closely watched, and it is possible for second bell to precede first bell — or follow third bell, depending on the time of moonset. The same situation applies to moonrise.
Matins — First bell and the deepest point of night.
Lauds — Second bell, moonset (firstmoon)
Canonical Lauds — Between matins and starrise
Prime — Third bell, starrise (Kee)
Tierce — Fourth bell, midmorning
Sext — Fifth bell, high noon
None — Sixth bell, mid-afternoon
Vespers — Seventh bell, starset (Kee)
Compline — Eighth bell, moonrise (firstmoon)
Canonical Compline — Between starset and matins
The Nualans’ sequence also changes fractionally with the seasons. Compline and Lauds are rung at their median points during the dark of the moons.
The Nualan Calendar
The Nualan year is an ecliptic orbit of 432 Nualan days, based on a twenty-five-hour day. Ancient Terran hours are used as the base measurement. Nualans divide the calendar into four seasons of 108 days each. These divisions are based on the rainy seasons; it rains almost thirty-six days straight at the beginning of spring and autumn. A Nualan month is thirty-six days. Nualans do not use any smaller fraction of the calendar between “month” and day. They refer to the passage of time according to festivals and religious feast days.
New Year — Firstday (first day of fall)
Festival of Masks — Thirtyfiveday
Feast of Souls — Thirtysixday
Yule — Onehundred Twentysevenday (midwinter)
Feast of Atonement and Anointing — Onehundred Eightyoneday (first day of spring)
Ascension Day — Twohundred Fortysixday
Midsummer’s — Threehundred Fortythreeday
Feast of Adel — Fourhundred Twentyfiveday
High Festival — Fourhundred Twentysixday through Thirtytwoday
A Nualan Family Tree
A Note About the Nualan Language
Down through the centuries, the various colonies of Earth each evolved their own language. If the founding group was homogeneous in background, its primary language generally derived from the culture; if it was heterogeneous, the favorite language of choice eventually dominated. At the time of the first launches, the languages of choice for the myriad of peoples who chose the stars were Chinese, English, and Spanish. These three languages formed the pigin tongue which was the basis of Axis Standard.
The colony of Nuala was one of the few founded involuntarily, and its linguistic progression was radically different. Due to the high number of scientists among the original settlers, English, Latin, and German predominated, with a sprinkling of Gaelic and several African dialects thrown into the language stew. Since the pronunciation of several commonly-used Nualan words do not translate easily, assistance is offered below.
ä — used in:
Ragäree
ragäree
Ciedär
Ciedärlien
This “ä” is pronounced as American speakers say “o” in bother and “a” in father. The first “a” in ragäree is pronounced as in rah.
aa — guaard
This double vowel is the long exhalation ah. It is almost identical to the first “a” in ragäree, and in most parts of Nuala and on the planet Niamh has become identical. Only tradition leaves the spelling of ragäree unchanged.
ē — sini
This vowel is the old usage for the “e” sound in American English for beat, bleed, and sleepy. Both “i”'s are pronounced the same way.
ü — used in:
Mendülay
Mendülarion
This “ü” is pronounced as American English speakers say the “ue” in cue and the “ew” in few.
A bracketing effect is used by the Nualans in their written language, mostly in titles and in proper names. In the first example below, the second and third words are pronounced differently when linked; in the second, the written usage is merely traditional. A few very strict septs of clans use this bracket only when a child is the heir of its mother (eldest daughter or son) but this is not a general interpretation.
^ — used in:
Mendularion S^Atare
Nadine reb^Ursel Kilgore
About the Author
Born in Indiana, USA, writer Katharine Eliska Kimbriel also spent time in Michigan, Ohio, and California before settling in Texas. She has a B.F.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University and a deep distrust of formal education. Her obligatory itinerant occupations have included research aide, gold caster, janitor, sales clerk, licensed massage therapist, web designer and maintainer, technical writer, and correspondence school instructor. Once upon a time she was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New SF/Fantasy Writer. Katharine’s work has long straddled the line: “too literary to be commercial, too commercial to be literary.”
In other words, she is ready to try success.
Published novels include the historical dark fantasies Night Calls and Kindred Rites. They chronicle the adventures of Alfreda Golden-tongue, who is also featured in the short story “Ducks.” On the Science Fiction side of the business, you will find Fire Sanctuary, Fires of Nuala, and Hidden Fires, stand-alone science fiction tales which take
place on the same planet.
Katharine is managed by a Burmese cat and a handful of gargoyles. Her occasional hobbies include ballroom dancing, brewing beer, antique roses, beading, Xeriscaping, making Ukrainian Easter eggs, and practicing on her Celtic harp Real Soon Now. She has been a macrobiotic practitioner for several years, but confesses to a weakness for high quality chocolate in infinitesimally small doses.
Go to http://www.katharineeliskakimbriel.com/ for the most recent info; she posts at her live journal —http://alfreda89.livejournal.com/ — which runs downhill to Facebook, MySpace and other points east. With luck, as you read this, she is working on a new novel. Do your part — buy, promote, and ask the universe for more of her books!
o0o
Katharine Eliska Kimbriel is a founding member of Book View Cafe, a website that offers up free fiction from established authors in a spectrum of genres including fantasy, science fiction, mystery and romance. Several dozen published authors are cooperating in this project with content changing daily. It’s a great way to sample a wide range of fiction and participate in an exciting new publishing paradigm. Project manager Sarah Zettel, puts it this way: “Book View Cafe will make sure the customer gets the stories they want, when they want, how they want, wherever they want. We are the library in your back pocket.” Check out the site at: http://www.bookviewcafe.com/ and the group blog at http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/
Publication Information
Fires of Nuala
K.E. Kimbriel
This story is a work of fiction. All characters are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Book View Café Edition
Copyright © 1988, 2010 Katharine Eliska Kimbriel
All rights reserved
Cover art by Don Dixon
http://www.cosmographica.com
The print edition of Fires of Nuala was a Questar/Popular Library Edition
Popular Library was an imprint of:
Warner Books, Inc.
666 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10103
First Printing, December 1988
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ISBN: 978 0 9828440 7 6
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Nualan Maps
Nualan Time
The Nualan Calendar
A Nualan Family Tree
A Note About the Nualan Language
About the Author
Publication Information
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Fires of Nuala Page 42