Rainbow Snippets | Braving Invisible Stairs

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Good afternoon snippeteers! I hope you all had a great week. It’s been crazy here, and I’m suffering from a distinct lack of sleep – which isn’t actually due to work, but to the fact that I’ve been binge-reading two very different authors when I wasn’t working and made due with 3 hours sleep and a bucket of coffee when I was. How I fit in some writing on top of that I have no idea, but there are times when my mind refuses to stop and that’s one such…. Only way to deal is to keep going until I run out of steam.

Onwards and upwards then, with this week’s snip. We’re still with my fantasy novel Healing Glass – though this week I’ve been writing everything but – and so far I’ve introduced you to Minel, the dying glass master, and the failed glass making apprentice and city regent, Wark. Now it’s time to meet the other hero, warrior captain Falcon.

Despite the fact that the three gifted guilds rarely mix, Minel and Falcon met and became fast friends years earlier. Even assuming their adult responsibilities has not diminished their friendship. Falcon has just found out about Minel’s illness and has been given permission to visit him in the floating city. Here he is, getting ready to do that just that.

And I’m hoping that there’ll be a chance to get the staircase onto the book cover somehow…

From Healing Glass

Falcon crossed the beach, passed through the gate and looked up to where the invisible stairs curved out over the sea and up to the floating city. Only a faint shimmer betrayed their presence and fear squeezed Falcon’s gut as it did every time he stood in the shadow of the gate.

Falcon feared the staircase with its invisible treads and lack of a barrier, where a strong gust of wind could make one lose his balance, and a single misstep could cause one to plummet into the sea. Accidents did happen and while few died, fewer escaped without injury.

Wary as usual, he lifted his foot and sought the first step of the invisible stairs, exhaling a quiet breath when he found it. Trusting his weight to seemingly nothing but air was the next challenge. He was a warrior, trained to face death and yet… Minel ran up and down the invisible steps with more confidence than he did. The thought of Minel, waiting in the city above, steadied him. With a final deep breath, he took the second step. Then he started to climb.