1632 Snippets

Death Lives In The Water - Snippet 23 The three women stared at the diary. Bolotnik? "What in the three hells is a bolotnik?" asked Bridgette. "I have no idea," replied Charity. "We will have to look it up later." But Bridgette already had her phone out and was Googling bolotnik. She gasped and then snorted in derision. "This can't be for real," she said, even though she knew it was this very kind of thing for which she had been training the last three years. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolotnik:  "In Slavic mythology, bolotnik...

Legions Of Pestilence - Snippet 22 **** "The only thing I really hate about this marriage," Claudia said the evening before the ceremony, "is having to leave the children behind. They belong in Tyrol, of course, but still... It was hard to leave Vittoria behind when I married Leopold. She was only four years old. But I knew there was no way that the Tuscan authorities would let me take her. As a special kindness, they allowed me to keep her with me during my widowhood, but I was living in Florence at the time--in a convent, under my family's...

Legions Of Pestilence - Snippet 21 **** "Grand Duke Bernhard wishes he were receiving better intelligence. Doesn't everyone?" Claudia commented, holding the letter up to the light. "Part of this is water damaged." "The messenger who delivered it was soaked to the skin," Marcie said. "There are some kinds of drenching rain that will go through just about anything--plastic raincoats just as much as waxed leather, so it isn't an up-time versus down-time kind of thing. The wet will find any available crack." "He has fired a disobedient commissary...

1637 - The Polish Maelstrom - Snippet 57 Chapter 24 Poznań Poznań Voivodeship Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth By now, after hours of negotiations spread out over several weeks, Jozef had come to recognize Walenty Tarnowski's little tics--"tells," to use the American idiom. The young man might be a brilliant mechanical engineer, but he'd make a terrible poker player. "All right," Walenty said, rubbing his jaw. That mannerism indicated that he'd come to a decision and the vigorous way he was doing it suggesting it was a big decision. Jozef...

Legions Of Pestilence - Snippet 20 Schwarzach "The intended marriage is going to be something of a shock to the USE officials. Especially the provisions in regard to the Breisgau and the Sundgau. If you are serious about the proposed modus vivendi," de Melon suggested, "what about a sweetener?" Bernhard raised a bushy eyebrow. "Throw in the agreement of both parties, yourself and Claudia de' Medici, that if the two of you leave no surviving children, aside from what reverts to Tyrol and will thus be an integral part of a USE state anyway, the...

Legions Of Pestilence - Snippet 19 **** "It's your problem, Kanoffski." The grand duke of Burgundy looked exasperated. "Though it's a real nuisance that now you won't be available for the Lorraine campaign. Barring the unexpected, the Sundgau and Breisgau are entirely your problem. Consult with Erlach on general policy, of course. However, make sure that everyone--the Landesadel, the city officials from Freiburg down to the most rural of country towns, the village councils--everyone who is anyone--is fully aware that they are now part of...

Legions Of Pestilence - Snippet 18 Chapter 10 Too Much Going On to Write Regularly Hüfingen in Fürstenberg, Swabia "Das ich bishero etwas unfleisig in schreiben gewesen, bitte ich nicht in ungutem zu vernehmen, und hatten mich abgehalten die stets werenden occasionen und travailli." Count Egon von Fürstenberg, the eighth of his line to bear that name, was born a younger son. Fully realizing that the income he drew from his family's mountainous hereditary lands could never support the family he hoped some day to have, he entered the service...

1637 - The Polish Maelstrom - Snippet 56 "Shut up, Baurer," said the young major. His tone now was not pleasant in the least. "He's just a kid." Kozlowski would have sighed in relief, except he was too intent on remaining expressionless. A man as young as this major who was both calm and given to kindness was not the sort who'd kill someone unless he had to--which he certainly didn't here and now. Finally, someone came down the stairs. It was Nicolai, though, not the captain. "This is the unit's senior sergeant, Nicolai Korczak," Kozlowski...