An End To All Things
Xhea exhaled a long breath of smoke as the man again approached. Come to my temple, she thought to him mockingly. Four walls of concrete and one of rain; a cloud of tobacco for incense. Come pray for your ghost.
He stood for a long moment, staring at her. "You're too young to be smoking," he said at last.
"And she's too young to be dead," Xhea replied, nodding towards the ghost that once again hovered above his head. The coins in her hair clinked together at the movement.
Nominated for the 2006 Nebula Award.
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Reprinted in Czech anthology Trochu divné kusy 3, edited by Martin Šust.
"An End To All Things" was a story I never expected to write. But when editor Kerrie Hughes sent me a last-minute invite to an anthology shortly after our meeting at the World Fantasy Convention in Tempe, Arizona, all my existing plans flew out the window. I had two weeks to write a story on the theme of "children of magic" -- and the first story I wrote was dreadful. (It has actually become legendary among my friends, its temporary title now a code word for "an irredeemably bad story with pretty writing.")
With only four days left before deadline, I let myself dream, and my ghost-obsessed mind handed me the story of Xhea and Shai and the City on a platter. I often say that I'm terrible at writing dialog, but Xhea's one of those characters who talks (and talks back) without my permission. Though I needed every one of those four days to make the story work before deadline, I admit I'm rather fond of the final product.
I think that there's far more to Xhea's story than fits in this single tale -- in fact, I think that this story should have been about 5,000 words longer to do it justice, but ah, well -- and many more stories set in the City, besides. I hope to one day return to her and her ghosts.
Published in Children of Magic edited by Kerrie Hughes and Martin H. Greenberg, DAW Books, June 2006.
