Scott Cleveland - Pale Boundaries

Den Tun and the tree had compromised.

The quiet shuffle of feet drew Den Tun’s attention to his visitor, whose patience had finally lost out to the urgency of his news. General Cha’Cain bowed deeply in apology.

“The gaijin Sorenson is dead,” he announced with unusual bluntness. “Killed by the Onjin .”

“This is grave news,” Den Tun replied. “And the young gaijin who carried the Tiger Opal to him?”

“Lost to the wilderness.”

Den Tun closed his eyes again. The reversal of fortune was bitterly disappointing. Tree fronds rustled overhead; the tree cared nothing for those who guided it—left alone, it would slowly wake to its wild nature and continue on until confronted by something that mattered. Lack of water. Too little light.

“Eminance,” Cha’Cain asked urgently, “what shall we do?”

“We were in error to seek the assistance of gaijin ,” Den Tun announced. “This is a matter of honor between Minzoku and Onjin . We must look to ourselves, revisit…old plans.”

“There was no honor in that,” Cha’Cain objected, shocked. “You put an end to it for that very reason!”

“The dishonor lay in the intent,” Den Tun replied. “The method… the method bears consideration.”

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Scott Cleveland holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Eastern Washington University. Consequently his day jobs have included house painter, radar maintenance technician, and he is currently employed as a network management and cryptographic systems technician. He resides in Eastern Washington with his wife, Carol. Pale Boundaries is his first published novel.

The files for this book were created on a PC. The pages were created in Microsoft Word, and the cover in Microsoft Powerpoint. PDF files were created with Adobe Acrobat Pro. The interior text font is 11-point Garamond with 14-point linespacing. The chapter title font is 24-point OCR-A II. The cover typeface is OCR-A II and Neuropol.

Copyright © 2010 by Scott Cleveland and licensors

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced except in the case of brief quotations used for the purpose of critical articles or reviews.

Front cover art by Corey Ford

www.coreyfordgallery.com

Rear cover art by Kirill Alperovich

www.alperium.com

Images licensed via www.BigStockPhoto.com

Cover design and layout by Scott Cleveland

Interior design and layout by Scott Cleveland

ISBN-13: 978-1-449-99495-2

ISBN-10: 1-449-99495-4

Genre: Science Fiction

First Edition: January 2010

Second Edition: February 2010

Kindle Edition: February 2010

Printed in the United States of America