Joshua Burnside, “And You Evade Him/Born in the Blood”
Good morning!
I had a great time at the Kenosha Comic Con yesterday! Thank you to everyone who escaped the oppressive heat by stopping in our tent and saying hello.
Journey to the Water rewrites are still under way, and I’ll have a new chapter for you on Patreon tomorrow and last week’s chapter here on Wednesday. I will still be working on rewrites when the serial version finishes in a couple of weeks, but I’ve got some other stuff in the works for you, so stay tuned.
I’m not here for political commentary, and I’d assume neither are you, so I’ll just say that no matter what happens, our job remains the same: take care of people, take care of ourselves, vote and petition where we can, and believe that a better world is possible.
I appreciate you. Take care and stay hydrated this week.
This Sunday, July 14, I’ll be at the Kenosha Comic Con! The event runs from 10 until 3 and includes comic creators, writers, artists, and food trucks. You can find it outside of Studio Moonfall, 5031 7th Avenue, Kenosha, WI. Here’s the facebook event and here’s the website.
Also, I’m very excited to show you all five bookmark designs for Journey to the Water! You can pick up one (or more!) of your very own at the Comic Con! Also for more of Brooke’s art, go here.
Fearghus waited, ginger brows raised in an unspoken question. He’d always called me impatient, and said that his fiery hair belied which of us was the more hotheaded. I had missed him so—even in the long years when I had thought of nothing and no one but Khalim, I carried Fearghus with me. I dared not reach out to touch him for fear that he would vanish into the salt-heavy air.
“What are you doing here?” I said, finding my voice at last. “You should be upon the summer plains, hunting with the gods of our people. Please, tell me that you haven’t been banished to this desolate place.”
The gray sea broke against the shore in a whisper, lifting my boat and pushing it further into the rocks. I’d have to pull it farther ashore if I ever planned to return to it, but for now, I could not tear my eyes from Fearghus’s face.
He took my hand and stepped forward. I had no choice but to follow. I would have followed even if I’d had a choice.
Chapter LXVI: The Crumbling World
Eske ventures through the world beyond the world to arrive, at last, at his destination–but there is danger even here at the end. You can read this chapter right now on Patreon.
It’s Monday again. I’ll have a new chapter of Journey to the Water up on Patreon tomorrow, and last week’s chapter will be up here on Wednesday. In the meantime, I’m working on rewrites.
On Sunday, July 14, I’ll be at the Kenosha Comic Con from noon until 5! This takes place outside Studio Moonfall, 5107 7th St, Kenosha, WI. There will be some cool local and local-ish indie writers, artists, and comic creators, plus at least one food truck. Here’s a link to the Facebook event, if that’s easier for you. I hope to see you there!
I’ve only got a couple of petitions this week, so here we are:
Khalim’s fist struck the vast marble door and made no sound. The wall of the white city loomed above him, high as the red twilight sky, its perfect flat surface marred only with its faint, gray veins. The seam between the doors let none of the perpetual low sunlight escape. The city was exactly as Khalim had left it: flawless, impenetrable, and silent.
Khalim did not belong here, and he never had. His hand was dark against the great door, the tattered threads of his clothing brighter than even the sky. He had left the dust of the road and the wet earth of the forest behind, but he felt as though he would leave a mark on the marble just by touching it.
He knocked again, scraping his knuckles against the stone but leaving neither dirt nor blood on the surface. The marble only appeared smooth.
“I know you’re there,” Khalim said to the door. “I was in your presence for fifteen years. I could find you again even in this place.”
“This is not what I would have wished for you. You’re alive, Eske. You should be among the living.”
Chapter LXV: The Long Walk
This is the fourth chapter from the end! Eske has passed through the gate of bone, but more dangers lurk here in the world beyond the world. You can read this chapter right now on Patreon.
It’s a new month, and I’ll be out to two new events in the coming weeks. First is the Kenosha Comic Con on Sunday, July 14, and second is the Feast of the Goat Queen on Saturday, July 27. I’ll be sure to remind you as we get closer to these dates.
Patreon readers have FOUR more chapters left of Journey to the Water before the serialized version is complete, and blog readers have five. I’ll be working at a polling place for the special election primary tomorrow, so the posting schedule will be moved forward a day: I’ll have a new chapter on Patreon on Wednesday, and last week’s chapter will be here on Thursday.
I’ll probably still be in the middle of rewrites when all the chapters are posted (roughly a month from now). My plan right now is to give you the first chapter/installment of some of the new projects I’ve been working on and hold a vote, so stay tuned.
From the wreckage of a hundred or more ships, I crafted a sturdy canoe, large enough to withstand the crashing waves but small enough that I could hold its sail and its single oar alone. I cut apart the robe that had been given to me at the temple of the dragon, stitching its panels together to craft a sail; the oar was a fortunate find, washed up in a frigid tide pool. Water and weather had split it almost in two, but I tied it together with sinew and rope, and it held well enough. It would get me out to sea.
All the while, the sun rose lower and set more swiftly with each brief, passing day. I worked by firelight. The pilgrims maintained a bonfire of driftwood and animal dung. We ate from our shared stores and from what little we could gather in the tide pools: tiny shrimp and spiny urchins, as well as kelp and seaweed. I harpooned a seal soon after my arrival, and that fed us well for many days and earned me a place among the pilgrims.
How they stared at me, day and night, watching me work. They were a strange, pale lot, with sunken eyes and bodies bent from carrying heavy packs and eating little for months at a time. They had walked, they said, for the better part of a year, almost entirely on foot. When the bitter winter ended, they would make their return journey, carrying with them all that they would need.
Still, when a great squid washed up upon the shore, its dead flesh shining like still water and reeking of the deep, they left it alone. One must not eat the flesh of a god, they said.