Spoiler Alert.

The character than made me rethink even writing this book was Yuah Korlann.  She is at her high point in Book 3, and then is revealed in her lowest in Book 5.  I wasn’t sure I wanted to write the details of that fall.  In the end though, I think that it worked out.  In this scene we find that Yuah has become a user of the same drug that so afflicted her husband.

Yuah Dechantagne peered out through the large window at the front of Mr. Parnorsham’s Pfennig Store.  Her eyes narrowed as she watched Senta talking to her brother-in-law across the street.  That witch was evil.  She had seen it with her own eyes.  Yuah’s husband Terrence had been addicted most of his adult life to White Opthalium.  The drug was not readily available in Birmisia, and for a time Yuah thought that he had managed to defeat his addiction.  Then she had followed him and had seen Senta and Zurfina supplying poor Terrence.  What kind of person would sell such a horrible substance to another?  Now Terrence was dead, but Yuah’s hatred for Zurfina and her ward was alive and well.  And what the hell was she wearing?  That dress looked as though it was made from the same thing as steam carriage tires.

“Can I help you with something, Mrs. Dechantagne?”

Yuah started, but it was only Mr. Parnorsham.

“What?”

“I was just wondering if there was anything else you needed.  I have the toiletries and notions from your list all gathered.  What else can I get for you?”

“If there’s anything else, I’ll send a lizzie for it.”  Yuah’s tone sounded harsh in her own ears, and the look on Mr. Parnorsham’s face confirmed it.

She glanced quickly out the window again and saw that Senta had left.

“Good day.”

Outside her steam carriage was waiting.  Marzell Lance, her driver, had stepped to the rear of the vehicle to add coal to the firebox.  When he saw her, he quickly wiped his hands on a handkerchief and hurried around to help her climb up into the passenger seat.

“Be a dear and get my crate.”

Marzell dashed into the store and returned with a wooden crate filled with her purchases, which he put in the back seat.  He paused briefly before climbing into the driver’s side to look at a pair of teenage girls walking by.  This made Yuah click her tongue.

“Sorry Mrs. D,” said the chastened driver as he maneuvered the car out of the square and down First Avenue toward the Dechantagne estate.

Marzell drove through the open gate of the Dechantagne-Staff property.  The huge, stately house was still one of the largest buildings in the colony, featuring a large portico supported by four two-story columns in front, a double gabled roof, and more than a dozen stone chimneys.  Every side of the house was covered with large dual-paned windows.  The young driver brought the steam carriage all the way around the left side of the home, to the shed in the rear.  Jumping down, he helped Yuah to the ground.  She walked quickly to the back door.  Her snapping fingers were the only signal for the lizzie standing by—she thought it was Garrah but wasn’t sure—to fetch the crate from the car and to bring it inside.

In the kitchen two more lizzies were cleaning but the crowd that she had expected was not there.  Just past the kitchen, Yuah almost ran into Mrs. Colbshallow.  The former cook now occupied a position in the household akin to a dear aunt.

“Shouldn’t they be preparing tea, Yadira?” she asked.

“It’s already on the table.  I was just about to summon everyone to the dining room.  How was your shopping trip?”

“Barely acceptable.”

Mrs. Colbshallow paused and peered over her glasses.  “Then I’m barely glad to hear it.”

Neither Iolanthe nor Radley were at home for tea.  Yuah had expected as much of course, since she had just seen the latter in town and seldom found the former at home during the day.  Mrs. Colbshallow was seated on one side of the table next to Iolanthe’s daughter Iolana.  Yuah, between her two children, sat opposite them.  Augie was now almost two and a half and had mastered the intricacies of family dining, though he had to sit on a stack of books to reach the table.  He looked so much like his father it made Yuah’s heart ache to look at him.

“Good afternoon Mama,” he said.  “Did you bring me a tin soldier?”

“Of course I did.  You may play with it after you eat.

“Mine?” asked Augie’s little sister Terra.

The girl was a less than a year younger than her brother.  She had a round little face framed by thick black hair and brown eyes.  She was unusually thin for a child her age.  This along with her pale skin and scratchy little voice made her mother constantly worried for her health, despite the best medical opinions which said she was completely fine.  She, like her brother, was quite advanced for her age.

“I brought you some blocks.”

The girl tipped her head back, opened her mouth, and shrieked.

“I want a soldier!”

“Girls don’t play with soldiers,” said Augie.

“I want a soldier!”

“No they don’t,” said Yuah, brushing the little girl’s hair.  “Boys play with soldiers because they grow up to be soldiers.”

 Terra shrieked again.

“What is it now?”

“I don’t want to be a block!”

“Quit crying!  You’re going to grow up to be a princess.”

“The warrior-priestesses of Ballar were soldiers,” offered Iolana from across the table.

“You be quiet,” snapped Yuah.  “I won’t have any of that nonsense in this house.  You’re five years old.  How come you talk like a college professor?  No man’s going to want to marry a know-it-all.”

Iolana slumped down in her chair.  Terra climbed out of her high-chair, still crying, and into the lap of the seventh diner, who was quietly sitting on the other side of her from Yuah.  Though many humans might not have been able to tell Cissy from the other lizzies in the Dechantagne home, she occupied a special place there.  She was slightly less than six feet in height, about average for members of her sex and species.  Her skin was smooth, without the mottling and scars of many of the reptilians.  Her face and the top of her head were a deep forest green which down her back, punctuated with darker stripes just below her shoulders.  Beneath her long powerful jaw, on her dewlap, and extending down her front, was a lighter, pale green.  Her chair had been modified so that she could sit without discomforting her long, powerful tail.  She reached out a scaly hand and picked up a cucumber sandwich, which she fed to the tiny human now curled up in her lap.  Terra was forced to stop crying to eat.

Yuah scarcely paid attention to what she ate, but not because the food wasn’t good.  Mrs. Colbshallow was known far and wide for her culinary skill, and while she no longer cooked herself, she still supervised the kitchen.  There were cucumber and cress sandwiches, chips, sliced tomatoes, a cold noodle and cheese dish, and no less than three types of fruit salad.  But Yuah cared less about food now than she ever had, and she had never cared over much about it.  She picked at her food and then got up, throwing her napkin on the table.

“Children, take a nap when Cissy tells you.  I’m going to go lie down.  I have a headache.”

“Help with your dress?” asked Cissy.

“No, I’ll get one of the lizzies.”

At the top of the stairs, Yuah found one of the new lizzie servants, a female named Narsa.  She had already been trained to help the women don and doff their clothes and now she helped Yuah remove her dress and then to unlace her corset, though once loose, Yuah left it on.  She shooed Narsa out of her bedroom and locked the door after her.  Lying down on the bed, she took three deep breaths, and then retrieved a small wooden box from beneath her mattress.  Opening the box, she pulled out one of three small indigo bottles and pulled off the stopper.  She could just detect the florid smell of the contents.  Placing a finger on the tiny open mouth, she overturned the bottle to moisten her finger with the milky white liquid inside.  Then she reached up and rubbed it directly onto her left eyeball, and then her right, quickly recapping the bottle and tossing it next to her on the bed as the room suddenly drained of color.