Rainbow Snippets: Lively for a dead man..

_{^{Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.}}

This’ll be my last snippet from To Poison a Prince for a while. Next month, I’ll be posting bits from my work-in-progress, Tracking Trouble.

For those of you who are new or catching up… Darshan and Hamish are a pair of thirty-something princes from two vastly different lands. Their tale starts with them travelling through the ginormous Udynea Empire that Darshan is from on their way to the capital. This piece carries directly on from last week where Darshan’s half-sister is speaking ill of Tirglasian cuisine…

“They do indeed,” Katarina piped up as grumbles of distaste trembled along the table. “And the stomachs of cows and pigs.”
“There’s little from an animal we dinnae eat or use,” Hamish added, ferocious pride for his homeland’s self-sufficiency puffing his chest. “And what’s left goes to feed our dogs and pigs. We dinnae let a thing go to waste.”
“Clearly, trade relations with a superior people isn’t listed as one of those things.” Onella sipped at her wine, her gaze boring into him. “But I suppose you’re not privy to such matters, being dead and all.”
A woman part way down the table flung her head back and guffawed.
“He seems very lively for a dead man,” pointed out the woman sitting next to her as her neighbour continued to wheeze.
“Clearly not in the literal sense,” Onella said, her gaze remaining firmly on Hamish. “But it would seem that the news of how the current queen of Tirglas disowned her younger son hasn’t reached all present company.”
Darshan straightened in his chair. “Has it not?” He took up his glass and tapped his forefinger against it, waiting whilst a servant topped up the wine. “What is the rumour mill coming to if it cannot keep up with such trivial concerns?”

I’ll be back next weekend to share from Tracking Trouble. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.