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City Of No-Sleep [MultiFormat]
eBook by Vera Nazarian
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$0.69 |
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eBook Category: Fantasy
eBook Description: Vera got the idea for this story while driving home late at night from her ten-year college reunion. She got a speeding ticket, which upset her so much that she thought "some good has to come out of all this," and then a story idea popped into her head: "What is the true meaning of law?" She dedicates this story to her friend Lauren Elaine Oliver, who helped her brainstorm it on Mount Baldy, and - to a lesser degree - to the cop who gave her the ticket.
eBook Publisher: Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust, Published: Sword & Sorceress 16, 1999
Fictionwise Release Date: April 2010
5 Reader Ratings:
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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [30 KB]
, ePub (EPUB) [37 KB]
, Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [13 KB]
, Portable Document Format (PDF) [178 KB]
, Palm Doc (PDB) [13 KB]
, Microsoft Reader (LIT) [65 KB]
, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [84 KB]
, hiebook (KML) [63 KB]
, Sony Reader (LRF) [46 KB]
, iSilo (PDB) [11 KB]
, Mobipocket (PRC) [14 KB]
, Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [47 KB]
, OEBFF Format (IMP) [23 KB]
Words: 3914
Reading time: 11-15 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Portable Document Format (PDF) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED
 
If you ever get lost, somewhere West of the Compass Rose, look for a city called No-Sleep.
The city is young - as each new day is young. And it's filled to the brim with miracles.
But the King here is old and mad like a mangy goat. They say his mind is broken; a fractured mirror, filled with disjointed ever-changing images which are his dreams. They reshape the fabric of the city every night.
The old madman spends his waking hours attempting to put together the shards of the mirror in order, and then sleeps erratically, during which time, chaos returns to him. And the residents are known to keep themselves awake for as long as possible, so as to delay the inevitable changes, for they come only after sleep's oblivion.
You are welcome to visit this place if you like, to marvel at the wonders.
Only, whatever you do, don't fall asleep here. For the next time you wake, the city will have rearranged itself.
Ierulann stood above the woman. The woman lay prostrate at her feet, groveling, and her tears were watering Ierulann's boots.
"Please forgive me, Guard of Law, grant me mercy! I wouldn't have been driving my wagon so fast if I'd realized I was on the King's Road, for it wasn't here yesterday! And my employer will pay me a pittance for tardiness! I must deliver these goods or lose my job, and I have children to feed. I beg you not to judge me by the letter of the law! Mercy, just this once!"
"It's true, the King's Road was to be found two-and-a-half leagues to the South of here, last night. But so what? You should've known better than to be late in the first place," said Ierulann impassively, holding her tablet, and about to mark down the woman's name and today's place of residence. Guards would be dispatched there in a hurry to collect the fine, before the King dreamed and the city was rearranged overnight according to some new chaotic pattern that lived in his mind. A day later the woman's residence might no longer exist, and her meager possessions (that now belonged in full to the King) wouldn't be there to be collected and deposited in the treasury. No doubt, these worthless items will likely disappear from that very treasury again on the morrow - indeed, the woman herself might end up on the opposite side of the city, and her children who knows where else - but that was not the point. The law was to be upheld.
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