5.5 - Remara and the Tiny Man

Tenderly, Wildspeech grasps the translucent shaft of a primary feather that came loose one day when he collided with a confused starling.

0.2 - Remara

For the first time, a voice in the symphony fumbled a note, then ceased singing.

5.4 - Remara and the Tiny Man

He freezes, his legs bent to run. There are too many things to respond to—her use of that name, her claim that his family still thinks of him, her sudden reappearance here, or the fact that she has collected even more questions for him.

5.3 - Remara and the Tiny Man

The rattle of Wildspeech's door jerks him into stupefied waking. The door jumps and jolts against the storage shelves he braced there, each blow shoving them back. He burrows deeper into the fragments of moss and feathers.

5.2 - Remara and the Tiny Man

This thing changes its face in ways that suggest it isn't a solid creature. If it isn't a solid creature, it can likely reshape itself. If it can reshape itself, it must know next to nothing if it looks like that.

5.1 - Remara and the Tiny Man

His eyelids slam open. For two seconds, he is sure that he has slept too long. Nobody woke him. The hammer is coming for his legs.

0.1 - Remara

Once, there was nothing.

4.6 - Remara and the Book Thief

Exhaustion drags at his movement. His body cries out for rest. If he stays still for another minute, he will curl up and sleep until morning. Until the Merchant marches in.

4.5 - Remara and the Book Thief

He crouches in his lair under the left side of the desk. Remara told him that the whole room is dark except near her, but he feels more comfortable knowing he's beneath a structure, deep in its all-encompassing shadow. He will enter from here.

4.4 - Remara and the Book Thief

The door slams, jolting Ha'Drak awake. He jerks, nearly tilting the statue he's curled around, but he stays put, his heart pounding. The air pressure changes as something large looms over him.

4.3 - Remara and the Book Thief

Fever takes Ha'Drak within a day. There is badness in his eyesockets and he has to kill it. With rapidly-weakening limbs, he lowers himself down the bookcase one shelf at a time.

4.2 - Remara and the Book Thief

Market day is miserable in every way for Ha'Drak. His scales crawl with the need for food. He pictures his own little cavern in the hillside—lined with mirror shards all the way in so that he can remain hidden while feeding on sunlight as soon as day breaks—and he moans with desire.

4.1 - Remara and the Book Thief

Ha'Drak coils his long tail in a perfect spiral around his right hind leg, his eyes fixed on the last remaining light in the window of the house he has been watching since moonbreak.

3.2 - Remara and the Musicians' Daughters

Mommy and Daddy hurry downstairs as the sobbing becomes a full-scale fit. Daddy gathers Bow into his arms, crying so hard she's nearly retching, and takes her upstairs. Mommy stays downstairs with Rosin, inspecting the Glass Lady.

3.1 - Remara and the Musicians' Daughters

Rosin Grentleyard pokes her head out of the doorway of her bedroom. It is dark, but she knows every plank of wood on the floor. Which ones creak. Which ones sigh. Her parents' room has been quiet for at least two forevers, so they're probably asleep.