The spear had broken the joint of the great cat’s left foreshoulder, and there was lodged. Its fur hung thick and longer along throat and underbelly, new-grass-color, white with age at the fringes. The fur of its flanks and back was mature evergreen, dark-stippled as if muddy. When still, the creature’s brindled coat merged with the jungle’s greenish light and shadow. Only in movement could the jukiere be seen. The spear tore loose from his grasp, he himself somersaulting downward one time, before arresting his descent with a snatched handhold of rank vine. Impaled, the jukiere vaulted overhead and on down the embankment. Demane ducked from scrabbling claws, yanking with all his might. Planting his spear’s butt against the ground, he leveled its point toward the cat, and braced for impact. Downcurved tusks a full foot long-ĭemane moved with instinctual speed. The bearded ruff, those thickly gnarled foreshoulders. Only a short lunge away up the embankment, the tiger whirled at bay.

He burst into sunlight where the slope cleared to treelessness between thickets. The ground began to grade upwards, and there Demane found himself gaining with every step. Demane held his best sprint without tiring but faster over the short distance, the jukiere kept easily ahead.

The great cat surged around the trunks of trees, plunged through black densities of brush. His attention narrowed to matters of pursuit. “West, Captain, west!” Demane shouted, while turning to give chase. Demane had followed only three steps when the jukiere broke cover and streaked across his path, crashing westward into the brush, though the captain had gone north. Closer to the noise, Captain bolted toward it, spear in hand. But neither Aqib nor Lucrio know whether their love can survive all the hardships the world has to throw at them.Ī Taste of Honey is a new novella in the world of Kai Ashante Wilson’s The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps.The great cat roared, just out of sight in the trees. In defiance of Saintly Canon, gossiping servants, and the furious disapproval of his father and brother, Aqib finds himself swept up in a whirlwind gay romance. His heart has been captured for the first time by a handsome Daluçan soldier named Lucrio. As the royalty negotiates over trade routes and public services, the divinity seeks arcane assistance among the local gods.Īqib bgm Sadiqi, fourth-cousin to the royal family and son of the Master of Beasts, has more mortal and pressing concerns. Long after the Towers left the world but before the dragons came to Daluça, the emperor brought his delegation of gods and diplomats to Olorum.

One of BookRiot’s “Best Books We Read in November.” Jemisin calls “a love story as painful as it is beautiful and complex”. By Kai Ashante Wilson (Published by Tor.com)Ī Taste of Honey is the Nebula finalist novella that N.

A taste of honey by kai ashante wilson