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    Certain Symmetry: Adventures in the Liaden Universe®, #4
    Certain Symmetry: Adventures in the Liaden Universe®, #4
    Certain Symmetry: Adventures in the Liaden Universe®, #4
    Ebook69 pages1 hour

    Certain Symmetry: Adventures in the Liaden Universe®, #4

    By Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

    3.5/5

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    Read preview

    About this ebook

    "The Wine of Memory" brings Lute and his new apprentice, Moonhawk, to one of Lute's favorite places, only to discover that a tragedy has altered everything. Lute can get into a locked the house, but can he put a ghost to rest?

    In "Certain Symmetry," Pat Rin yos'Phelium receives two packets in his morning mail -- one a gift of joy from the Little Festival, the other an unexpected burden of duty and honor.


    "The writing is as rich with detail as anything by C. J. Cherryh, while the general approach... reminds of Andre Norton." -- Tom Easton, Analog

    ". . .tight, well-wrought prose, economical characterization, and basically charitable vision of humanity. . ." -- Tangent Online

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPinbeam Books
    Release dateJul 28, 2016
    ISBN9781935224570
    Certain Symmetry: Adventures in the Liaden Universe®, #4
    Author

    Sharon Lee

    Sharon Lee has worked with children of various ages and backgrounds, including a preschool, a local city youth bureau, and both junior and senior high youth groups. She has a bachelor’s degree in sociology and also in psychology. Sharon cares about people and wildlife. She has been an advocate in the fight against human trafficking and a help to stray and feral animals in need.

    Read more from Sharon Lee

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    Reviews for Certain Symmetry

    3.5/5

    16 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      There are two more Liaden universe stories here. One advances the tale of Moonhawk and Lute, with a visit to an old friend of Lute's--whose husband has died, and who has shut up their inn out of her grief. She's determined to do nothing that would risk forgetting her husband, Rowan, by moving on in life.

      Can Lute and Moonhawk help, in a way that she can accept?

      The other story is of Pat Rin yos'Phelium, a few days after A Day at the Races, receiving a very welcome gift--and another package, the Balance book of a a friend who has killed himself. Several of the outstanding Balances are easy to resolve, but the last is different, and very tricky for Pat Rin to find a resolution for.

      Each story illuminates the characters, who matter very much in the larger Liaden story. One thing about Lee and Miller is that their stories are both human and very humane. You can learn from these people if you're in the mood--or you can just enjoy some very good stories!

      Recommended.

      I bought this book.
    • 3/5
      I much preferred the second story "Certain Symmetry", involving Pat Rin set just after the conclusion of "A Day at the Races", to the first one "The Wine of Memory" involving Moonstone and Lute.

    Book preview

    Certain Symmetry - Sharon Lee

    DEDICATION

    Certain Symmetry

    is

    dedicated to:

    Angela Gradillas, SinCitian

    The Wine of Memory

    WELL, HERE'S AN improvement, the magician said to his apprentice, watching her walk the red wooden counter across the backs of her fingers. The counter reversed itself, returned along the thin, ringless fingers to the end of the hand, over the side, to be deftly caught by that same hand before it had fallen an inch.

    Moonhawk looked up with a grin, as proud of mastering this minor bit of hand-skill as she had ever been of learning any of the true-spells taught in Temple. It had taken days of almost constant practice to teach her muscles the rhythm required to move the counter smoothly across her own skin. It was the sort of thing one might do while walking, which was Lute's stated reason for teaching her this skill first. They had been walking for two days.

    I do believe you are ready to learn something a little more difficult, the magician said now, and looked around him.

    The road was empty. The road—the track, really, Moonhawk thought—had been empty for two days. Of all the people on Sintia, only Lute and Moonhawk found the village of Karn a destination of interest.

    The season is early, Lute murmured, seeming, as he so often did, to be reading her very thoughts. When summer is high, this road will be crowded with folk who have business in Karn.

    It will? Moonhawk frowned after her Temple lessons, recalling the long tales of provinces and products she and the rest of the Maidens had been obliged to memorize. Karn had certainly not been on any of those lists.

    She sighed and looked up. Lute was watching her with that particular expression that meant he was receiving the Goddess's own pleasure from her ignorance, which he would not, of course, enlighten until she asked him.

    Very well, she said crossly. Whatever comes out of Karn, Master Lute, that the world should walk for days to have it?

    Wine, of course, he answered, setting his bag down in the road with a flourish. The best wine in all the world that is allowed to those not in Temple.

    She blinked. Wine? But wine comes from Mandiel and Barbary...

    From Astong and Veyru, Lute finished. Fine vineyards, every one. But the Temples are thirsty. Or greedy. Or both. No drop of wine from those four provinces escapes to a common glass. That wine comes from Karn.

    Almost she frowned again, for it was not his place to pass judgement on the Temples—and by extension the Witches who served the Goddess there. But she remembered another lesson from her days as a Maiden in Temple. The wine cellars at Dyan Temple were large and an accurate inventory of vintage and barrel very close to the heart of Merlot, the Temple steward. Inventory was considered the sort of practical, useful work most needed by Maidens who were, perhaps, just a bit prideful of their magics. There had been one season when Moonhawk had spent a good deal of time in the wine cellars, inventory list to hand.

    Attend me now, Lute said, tossing his cloak behind his shoulders.

    Moonhawk moved a few steps closer, her irritation forgotten.

    Perhaps you think you have mastered the counter, but the counter may yet be the wiser, eh? He smiled, but Moonhawk didn't see. All her attention—and all her Witch sense—was focused on his long, clever hands.

    Now we enter the realm of magic, indeed. I am about to reveal to you the method for making a counter disappear. He extended his empty right hand, frowned and flexed the fingers.

    First, naturally enough, one must make a counter appear. And there, held lightly between his first and second fingers was a bright green counter. How it had come there, Lute and his skill knew. Certainly, Moonhawk did not, having seen neither the movement that would have retrieved a cleverly hidden counter nor felt the surge of power that would have been necessary to create a counter. Or the illusion of one.

    Lute extended his hand. Please verify that this is indeed a common wooden counter, such as might be found in any gaming house on Sintia.

    She took the disk, felt the smoothness of the paint, the rough edge of wood where the caress of many fingers had worn the paint away. No illusion, this. She handed it back.

    I find it a common wooden counter, she said, for she must also practice the eloquence of his speech, which served, so he said, to divert the attention of an audience and give a magician valuable seconds in which to work. Such as might be found in any gaming house on the planet.

    Excellent, he said, receiving the token on his callused palm.

    A common counter. He tossed it lightly into the air, caught it on the back of his hand and walked it negligently across his fingers.

    Behaving commonly. He flipped his hand, caught the counter between thumb and forefinger and held it high.

    Now, behold its uncommon attribute.

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