A Broken Paradise (The Windows of Heaven Book 3) by K.G. Powderly Jr. Read Free Book Online Page B

gold-weave wraps. Onyx rings hung from freshly pierced nose and ears. Her dark brown eyes, lined with feline wisps of cosmetic blue and gold to match the wrap, flashed with mystery.
    “How old did you say you were?”
    “Twenty-four,” Tiva answered sheepishly.
    “Stumpy Watchers, that’s almost a little girl—but I guess not in your case! Nobody’s gonna make you for a day under forty with this look.”
    She’s really no different than Tsuli! Tiva realized. All that hard talk around the academy is just a front to keep things under her control.
    “Go to! You’re free now, bynti. What ya wanna do?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Village orb’s playing The Rape of Lilitua again.”
    “I’ve never seen an orb drama.”
    Farsa laughed. “You’re not missing much! Personally, I think the story goes too far—it’s a little much to believe that the ancients were lying about absolutely everything—and the final rape scene’s way overdone!”
    “How so?”
    “The story was made by these sages and dramatists that think the sacred histories were all lies written just to prop up the early Archons. While that’s probably part true, they really take it too far. Like, they say instead of helping the children of Lilitua in the Great Plague, Seti actually raped her and set up a puppet kingdom to rob the Far East civilization of Y’Raddu.”
    Tiva laughed. “That’s stupid! Let’s do something else.”
    “Amphitheater’s open. They’re doing Love’s Wandering Star . I’ve seen it five times, but I wouldn’t mind doing it again. I still like live shows better than the orb. Back in Erdu, the orbs have more flashy theater. Here everything cranks through the censors at Sa-utar. They take out all the good stuff—and I don’t mean just the love scenes—but the stuff that makes you think about life too. Besides, outdoor theater’s closer.”
    “What’s Love’s Wandering Star about?”
    Farsa scrunched her mouth. “It’s a love epic—pretty surprising with a title like Love’s Wandering Star , huh?”
    Tiva hung her head.
    “No, seriously.” The older ‘tween laughed, punching her lightly on the arm. “A god from Tiamatu lands his sky chariot in a backwoods village and falls in love with the zaqen’s youngest daughter. The father’s a real dragon turd, and marries the girl off to this skunky priest. But the god breaks up the wedding with a storm of dragons—they use trained lynd-wurms.”
    “Real wurms? Do the Dragon-slayers allow that?”
    “ They’re regular patrons! B’sides, it’s just lynd-wurms—egg-suckers with their claws clipped. I think your Dragon-slayers just like the love scene at the end where the hero takes the girl right on the stage, all nakedly. It’s done in a classy way, though. Not like some shows, where I think they get their wildies from public expo, or doing sword fights with fake limbs and cow livers tossed out into the audience just to shock a really backwards place like this…” Farsa paused. “No offense.”
    Tiva giggled. “I’m not offended. This really is a backward place. I mean, I’ve got to face the real world, right?”
    “Yeah, I suppose so—just don’t try and face it all in one night. Not even I can do that!”
    They both laughed , Tiva with a shrinking edge of panic.
    “What else is there to do?”
    Farsa shrugged. “There’s Grove Hollow. My brother and his friends have Iyu’Buuli festivals up there most nights. He says I can bring my friends, as long as they don’t act like children or something. They’ll probably call you a ‘Youngblood’ but they mean it all nice. It’s just a word they use for some of the younger regulars.”
    “Are you a Youngblood?”
    Farsa thought a moment. “At first I was. But they haven’t called me that in a while. I guess I’m somewhere between that and being a Zake. That’s what they call my brother and his friends in their upper ‘tweens. Most of them hid up at the Hollow to avoid the war and just