The Siren, the Song, and the Spy by Maggie Tokuda-Hall EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Maggie Tokuda-Hall
- Language: English
- Genre: Teen & Young Adult Mermaid Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
Thistler
For nearly as long as she could remember, it had been Thistle and Dai. Dai
and Thistle.
Dai Phan had been Thistle Vo’s best friend since their first day of school.
Dai had tried to push Thistle into the mud for the crime of being a girl, and,
refusing to go down without a fight, Thistle had wrestled him so they both
landed in a puddle, leaving them drenched and already in trouble by the
time they arrived for class. Sensing that they had met their equals, the two
became fast friends after that.
And now, all these years later, they were nearly grown, and often the
adults around Gia Dinh wondered when they’d be wed. They were only
thirteen, but marriages could be agreed upon around that age, and their
close friendship did give rise to the question not if their parents would have
a conversation about terms but what those terms would be. This was the
way of things in Quark.
Thistle didn’t find the idea of marriage all that appealing, but if she had
to be married to anyone, she’d rather it be Dai. That would be fun, at least.
And anyway, her mother had made it abundantly clear that she would not
let her daughter marry poorly. Dai was a good match and Thistle would be
grateful one day for the fine work her mother had done by her when she had
a big expensive house full of healthy children and probably even a servant
to do some of the cleaning like Dai’s mother had.
Thistle did not like this idea, but she knew better than to argue when her
mother took that tone, so she tried to push the reluctance deep into her
belly, where she stored all her inconvenient thoughts and desires. She liked
Dai. There was that. Not like that, but a complete lack of romantic desire
didn’t seem to matter when making life choices in Gia Dinh.
Though currently Dai was hard at work being as annoying a husband-tobe as husbands seemed universally to be. He’d promised a big surprise for
her that morning and had yet to arrive. It was midday already.
Thistle watched from the kitchen window as the Imperial soldiers
marched by. They did this each day at noon, the changing of the guard at
the Consulate, and whenever she could, Thistle would wait by the window
when the time came. She liked the orderly way their legs moved in unison,
the way the golden lion epaulets on their uniforms glinted in the sun.
A new guest would arrive at their house that night. Thistle’s mother was
off at the market to purchase better-quality ingredients— fresh fish from the
rivers, water spinach, and amaranth— than they would ever eat themselves.
The stone guesthouse they called home was larger than many other native
Quark homes; most of the largest estates had been taken over by Imperial
ownership after Quark was colonized. But all the best rooms were reserved
for paying guests. Thistle had busted her back this morning getting all the
rooms clean as fast as she could so that she’d be ready for Dai’s surprise,
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