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    The Scent of Rotting Roses
    The Scent of Rotting Roses
    The Scent of Rotting Roses
    Ebook34 pages29 minutes

    The Scent of Rotting Roses

    By Jay Lake

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    About this ebook

    Lost colony science fiction from award-winning writer Jay Lake, a tale of ancient killers and rose breeding in a forgotten world on the verge of rediscovery.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJay Lake
    Release dateDec 27, 2010
    ISBN9781458005762
    The Scent of Rotting Roses
    Author

    Jay Lake

    Jay Lake was a prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an award-winning editor, a popular raconteur and toastmaster, and an excellent teacher at the many writers' workshops he attended. His novels included Tor's publications Mainspring, Escapement, and Pinion, and the trilogy of novels in his Green cycle - Green, Endurance, and Kalimpura. Lake was nominated multiple times for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 2004, the year after his first professional stories were published. In 2008 Jay Lake was diagnosed with colon cancer, and in the years after he became known outside the sf genre as a powerful and brutally honest blogger about the progression of his disease. Jay Lake died on June 1, 2014.

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      Book preview

      The Scent of Rotting Roses - Jay Lake

      The Scent of Rotting Roses

      by Jay Lake

      Smashwords Edition by Jay Lake

      Copyright © 2002, 2010 Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

      Cover photograph copyright © 2006, 2010 Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

      Originally published at Strange Horizons, 2002.

      This ebook text varies slightly from the original edition.

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      The Scent of Rotting Roses

      by Jay Lake

      High in Deuce Landing Keep overlooking the market, Queen Marie’s Vizier twirled a perfect ivory rose with a fully doubled bloom. Martel could scarcely pay attention to the discussions, his attention fixed on the flower – Madame Legras de St. Germaine, an old French breed with a strong fragrance, long extinct among the worlds of the Reunification.

      The Queen’s histories record the Terran evacuation of this planet, the Vizier told his two off-world visitors. His Anglo-Terran was excellent, almost standard, his voice high for such a heavy man. They fled the Collapse like dogs in the night. Four centuries later, you come back to Eutychus offering Reunification, as if we were lost children crying for home.

      It is not that we consider you, um, children. Allis, their Speaker, always gave the pitch this way – her hesitant tone was part of the delivery. "Reunification brings trade, commerce, healthcare... many benefits you cannot derive alone. And we are interested in your progress since the Collapse. There are numerous... agendas, in the Reunification."

      Allis and Martel had tried repeatedly to see the Queen. It seemed no one saw the Queen but the Vizier. There wasn’t a court as such, either. Just this man, the world of Eutychus clenched in his pudgy fingers.

      The Vizier walked to the window embrasure, glancing outward, slick black curls of hair swinging as he moved. We don’t get back into the family unless Her Majesty brings something to the table, eh? No matter the social cost to us if we come up short.

      Allis frowned,

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