They taught us wrong, p.3
They Taught Us Wrong, page 3
The vista made her wonder for the first time about the vast possibilities of the world before it had died. Could the old vehicles that littered the streets have taken her to strange and wonderful places? Were there once vehicles that flew along the mighty bands of steel that stretched out from the Kintetsu Rail Station where Kintetsu Cadre squatted? Had the street below once been filled with people? What magic lay deep in the tunnels of the Zenbu?
Ri tried to picture it, a huge throng would be needed if the street were to be clogged, but she could not stretch her mind beyond two or perhaps three cadres’ hunters carefully avoiding each other as they crept by on opposite sides of the street, pretending the others were not there.
From this bay window she could see almost the entire street, though the sacrificial huddled out of view directly below. Two more windows thrust out from the front of the building. She hurried to the next and nearly fell into Tinnai’s lap. Her leader squatted on the floor with a book open in front of her. There were no pictures, just lines of tiny black writing. Her wounded arm in a sling.
“What are you doing, Mother Tinnai?”
“Good morning to you as well, Ri-chan.”
Heat flooded her cheeks as she dropped to the floor and bowed her head to the carpet, softer and much cleaner than the one by the entrance.
“It’s okay little one. After last night you are no longer a child. It was wrong to call you so.”
A gentle hand tipped her back to sitting position. Tinnai sat bathed in the morning’s reds and golds, haloed by the sun now rising over the ruined city. Leaning forward, Ri could indeed see the sacrificial squatting by the door below. From here, a guard could watch the whole street.
“I am reading about a man named Watson. He is looking for a place to live. And a man who is dripping blood from his finger,” she pointed her own finger at the book and squinted at it, “a Holmes. They decide to live together.”
“A wounded hunter. Do they find it? Do they find the place to live?”
Tinnai flipped the page forward and followed her finger slowly down the page.
“Yes, on a street called Baker.”
“Just like us. It is a good story, Mother Tinnai. Are there others?”
She waved her good hand at the towering bookshelves about them. “What did you think those were?”
Ri looked up at the row upon row of towering bookcases. There were not just a few stories there, not even hundreds, there must be millions. Every page might have a story of new homes.
There must be other secrets about homes in these stories. Ways to protect their home. Ways to make the Tancho Cadre safe. And powerful.
“Mother Tinnai, you must teach me to read. You must. Then I can help you save the Tancho and we shall become great and wealthy and rebuild the last city of the world into the great wonder it once was. We shall send people out exploring to build other cities. We will save the hunters there, or send new ones. I must know what is in these books, Mother Tinnai. You must teach me.”
Her merry laugh finally stumbled Ri to a halt.
“It would be my honor to teach you, Ri-san of the Great Hope.”
Her grown up name. Ri bowed her head to the carpet and tears ran from her eyes and made dark spots on the sun-golden carpet. Ri-san of the Great Hope.
“I will not let you down, Mother Tinnai. I promise. I will never fail the cadre.”
Keep reading at fine retails everywhere.
The Nara Reaction
About the Author
M.L. Buchman started the first of over 50 novels and even more short stories while flying from South Korea to ride across the Australian Outback. All part of a solo around-the-world bicycle trip (a mid-life crisis on wheels) that ultimately launched his writing career.
Booklist has selected his military and firefighter series(es) as 3-time “Top 10 Romance of the Year.” NPR and Barnes & Noble have named other titles “Top 5 Romance of the Year.” In 2016 he was a finalist for RWA's RITA award.
He has flown and jumped out of airplanes, can single-hand a fifty-foot sailboat, and has designed and built two houses. In between writing, he also quilts. M.L. is constantly amazed at what can be done with a degree in geophysics. He also writes: contemporary romance, thrillers, and SF. More info at: www.mlbuchman.com
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Copyright 2019 Matthew Lieber Buchman
Published by Buchman Bookworks, Inc.
All rights reserved.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the author.
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Cover images:
Crashed Spaceship on Alien World © Angela_Harburn | Depositphotos
Spaceship Crashed on Ice Planet © Phil Cold | Dreamstime
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M. L. Buchman, They Taught Us Wrong
