Cassandra Hase, author of the Wind is High

"That means there is no drinking. Not for the performers, which is punishment enough, but neither for the audience, which is even worse. There is also no gambling and no work for a minority of our more gracious Company. The mood has been set, and now for the setting."
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She looked over to the bookshelf. It was mostly fiction. Books on science, artillery, engineering would be suspicious. She would only ask for those if she had the means to put it to use. The contents of this shelf earned its utility every conversation she had.
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“L’Marc said you could bill it to his guild. He just asked that I get a receipt.”
“Alright, boy, come into my office.” Montegue stood, and it was like watching a mountain rise. Slow but unstoppable. He stomped away, through a metal door with an iron grate.
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The women were in his front now. They stood behind his generals. Gavin looked past them. The plumes rose like stairs. Only the subtle breeze disrupted the elegance.
“I stand before you bringing a proclamation. Bringing his truth. Dare I say, bringing your salvation.”

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Dahla said, “You did it once. You can do it again. The way is the same.”
Lissie glanced to her side and said, “You were holding my hands then.”
“I was following you.” Dahla looked like she had when Lissie first saw her. Wry, confident, stalwart. Lissie closed her eyes.
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Maribelle looked at her daughter. Even over the armor, she had a journal strapped to her belt. “The Ellium offered education to any who wanted it. In ten years, I had academies of my own. A populace capable of educating itself.”
“I don’t think many books are going to make it, Mother.”
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Alexander took another long pull from the earthenware jug. "Any of you boys know how to play Writ?" Both Pole and Paul murmured their assent. Riley saw that Alexander was still holding the jug. He did not seem as intent on sharing as the boys had suggested.
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The silence dragged on. Gavin felt his eyes closing to the golden sunlight.
L’Marc’s voice startled him awake. “Did you bring attire for the royal court?”
Gavin thought of what clothes he had in the trunk strapped to the top of the carriage. He did not know if they were proper attire.
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“It worked out, didn’t it? The Duke was embarrassed that your noble blood was almost arrested. It was a fairy book ending. They even gave us climbing gear!” Alexander raised his arm, looking at a sleeve. “And these fine coats."
Lissie snuggled into her fur hood.
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“What will you do now, with the Commerce Road closed?” Gavin asked.
“Ships on the Eible Sea. We lose every fifth shipment, but they haul so much more than caravans.” L’Marc polished his monocle. “Closed borders do not mean closed to everything. War, disease, famine, it is not ruinous.”
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I've posted the next chapter of the Wind is High on my website. The girls are about to leave the comfort of home for the second time, marching alone into foreign and hostile territory.

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The whole ride back to the castle, she had been thinking that she would be safe behind these walls. Safe as soon as she told Father. Without him here, she felt more exposed than ever.
She was supposed to be here. The Duke’s daughter, sitting like another ornament at the table.
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Camping on the flat was unlike anything Riley had ever imagined. The posts they drove into the ground to tie down the tents would not anchor against the sand. They ended up wrapped in the canvas, feeling the wind the whole night.
The smell was rancid.
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The one benefit of the cold was that the snow stayed frozen. They pushed on one step at a time until Lissie saw the waterfall. “It’s up there. I can see it.” The winter had polished it to a column of blue laced with white cracks.
“Time for the easy part!” Alexander sounded grim.
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Gavin asked, “Will you let me travel with you in the morning?”
“There is nothing that keeps you bound to your home?” L’Marc responded.
Gavin thought about Cora at dinner, and of the sketches of her locked safely in the journal in his desk.
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The little dog trotted happily out to his master on the branch, and sat calmly on his lap. The man scrubbed the dog viciously, which Ruskin repaid with kisses. "My dear compatriot, what have you brought me out of the darkness?" His hair was dark, but his eyebrows were pale in the light.
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At the beginning of spring, she had matched the color of her coat to these roses. The autumn fog dulled it to mauve.
Twigs stood waist-high and as thick as her thumb. The tips shorn to points, gardeners had painted the ends with rusty tincture. They said it protected them from the frost.

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It is on the super final draft, but I am definitely still working on it haha

She stared in horror at the scale and scope of the digging. It was like watching the mountain be undone. Every moment another crash, more sky. More dirt and rock to fall on her.
Her face was covered in snow, ice and dirt. She brushed it away and refused to close her eyes.
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They couldn’t feel anything but the itching. They couldn't feel their own fingernails digging into their skin. The fear became madness, and no words would come anymore.” Riley snatched her mother’s water goblet and took a drink; her voice was growing hoarse.
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She pulled out a strip of leather and wrapped it on her hand. She laid the sword over her lap, the hilt in the crook of her elbow. Taking the other side of the leather, she started stropping the blade, using even strokes at an angle against the edge.
Trevor looked on with wide eyes.
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The woman purred, “The only adornment a soldier needs is his sword.” The lady placed her hand upon Gavin’s sleeve. Gavin tried to swallow against his dry throat.
“The first decision in this matter is ‘silver’ or ‘gold,’” L’Marc said, waving at a velvet board where two necklaces hung.
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“I’ll help you get these boots off. You just nurse that arm.” Lissie felt Riley’s hands working at the laces of her boots. One was removed, then the other. Her feet were lifted off the floor, one by one. She felt herself turn as Riley laid her legs on the rough blanket.

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The flames reached out and Lissie closed her eyes against flaring sparks. She took a breath of smoke and realized, with shame, that she was still embodied.
Saminka spoke first. “It was ten years before I learned to do that. But it’s not riding. It doesn’t matter if she can’t control it.”
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I co-write with my husband. We have only finished one book so far and are working on a video game

He glanced back toward the nexus of storm clouds. A wall of dust prevented the plague victims from reaching the Nomads. The Problem Cases pushed against it, those behind smashed into the ones in front.
Lissie rose higher. Flames danced around her.

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Two men held each side of a wrench and did not speak as they slid the angled hole around the screw holding the water system in place.
Water spewed and hissed from the gap, bursting itself open. The pipe-fitter painted lead onto the threaded screw, shielding it with his body.

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She placed a heel on the back of his hand, and stepped down hard. He screamed. She stepped harder, until she felt the resistance give way.
“Take this message in your hand back to Gavi.” She lifted her foot. She whispered in Maribelle’s ear, “Send the design team a bonus.”
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On the fourth morning the air had fallen crisp. Clouds finally found their way to mar the sky, and there was a heavy grey fog over the Bandinette. Autumn was a month off yet, but Riley could smell it in the air, like brown grass. Beneath her boots the path felt dry and crunchy.
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Gavin wanted to go home. He was sick of this city, and sick of L’Marc. He was mad at the driver. They had been all over, looking for this place, up and down the streets of Kalden. The driver was a fat and lazy man. Gavin hated him and everything else in this city.
His mouth hurt.

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