
PodCastle Miniature 89: Lapis Lazuli
Show Notes
PG-13
by Tania Fordwalker
read by Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali
In Sesara, only the rich wear bright colours. My knight shines in the armour I buff for him nightly, glossy as a jewel. My clothes and skin are the colours of the earth. We stand together with two days of desert at our backs and a forest of black thorns before us. My heart is a bird in my chest.
I was twelve when the slave traders came from the ocean and stole me away. To the Sesarans we Arn all look the same. I was always tall and strong. An unscrupulous trader shaved my head and sold me as a boy to fetch a higher price, and I live as a boy still, because it is better than what waits for me as an Arn girl in this country.