Watcher's Web (40 page)

He said, in
his hard and unforgiving voice, “Open it, daughter.” In that
unemotional tone that masked his worst kind of anger.

No choice
then.

Mikandra
turned the envelope over and prised her fingers under the seal. The
waxy paper ripped. Her hands trembled and made sweat marks on the
red paper.

Folded inside
the envelope she found a cream-coloured sheet and some printed
papers, all in the antiquated dialect of Coldi which was the
official language of the Trader Guild.

She
spotted the words
Registration details
at the top of one of the sheets.

Her heart
thudded like crazy. The field of her vision narrowed while black
spots danced in the edges. It was as she’d hoped, dreamed and
feared.

The very
large, looming, huge problem of course was that this response came
before she’d worked up the nerve to tell her parents that she’d
applied.

Acknowledgements

Before this book
arrived at its finished state, many people have read and commented
on it. I would especially like to thank my friends from the Online
Writers Workshop for Science Fiction and Fantasy, and in particular
Stelios Touchtidis, Sherry Thomas, Sue Curnow, Phill Berry and
Linda Dicmanis.

About the
Author

P
ATTY
J
ANSEN lives in Sydney,
Australia, where she spends most of her time writing Science
Fiction and Fantasy. Her story
This Peaceful State of War
placed first in the second quarter of the
Writers of the Future contest and was published in their 27th
anthology. She has also sold fiction to genre magazines such as
Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Redstone SF and
Aurealis.

Her
novels (available at ebook venues) include
Shifting Reality
(hard SF),
The Far Horizon
(middle grade SF),
Charlotte’s Army
(military SF) and
Fire & Ice, Dust & Rain
and
Blood & Tears
(Icefire Trilogy) (dark
fantasy).

Patty is a
member of SFWA, and the cooperative that makes up Andromeda
Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and she has also written
non-fiction.

Patty is
on Twitter (@pattyjansen), Facebook, LinkedIn, goodreads,
LibraryThing, google+ and blogs at:
http://pattyjansen.com/
.

More by This
Author

In the
Earth-Gamra space opera universe

RETURN OF THE AGHYRIANS

Watcher’s Web

Trader’s Honour

Soldier’s Duty

Heir’s Revenge

The Far
Horizon
(For younger
readers)

AMBASSADOR

Seeing Red

Raising Hell

The Shattered
World Within
(novella)

In the For Queen and
Country universe

Whispering Willows
(short story)

FOR QUEEN AND
COUNTRY

Innocence Lost

Willow Witch

In the
ISF-Allion universe

Charlotte’s
Army
(novella)

The
rebelliousness of Trassi Udang
(short story)

His Name in
Lights
(Novella)

Shifting
Reality
(novel)

Epic,
Post-apocalyptic Fantasy

ICEFIRE TRILOGY

Fire
& Ic
e

Dust & Rain

Blood & Tears

The Icefire Trilogy
Omnibus

Short story
collection

Out Of Here

Shorter
works

Looking For
Daddy
(absurd horror
novella)

This Peaceful
State of War
(Writers of the Future winning novella)

Visit the
author’s website at
http://pattyjansen.com
and register for a newsletter to keep up-to-date
with new releases.