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| Tajji |
Tajji, our retired seeing eye dog, has made such a difference in our (sighted) lives that I wanted to feature a dog like her in a story. Being a fantasy writer, and one who loves strong women characters, I came up with a blind swordswoman and her guide dog. The whole story appears in
Sword and Sorceress 30 (in print and ebook editions at
Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, other venues)
. Here's the opening:
Four Paws To Light My
Way (excerpt)
The curse lay heavy on
the Shining City. Jian could smell it in the dust and the sourness of the
leaves of the ginkgo trees that lined the approach to the royal palace. They
fluttered unseasonably to the ground and crunched under her feet. Here and
there, the paving stones, once so level and smoothly joined that she had felt as
if she were walking on glass, had buckled. From time to time, Dog nudged her
knee in one direction or tugged on the heavy leash in the other, guiding her along
the crowded streets.
Dog didn’t like this
place. Jian could tell from the stiffness in his muscles, the staccato tapping
of his nails on the stones. He preferred bare earth or the windswept hillsides
around their home, where wild cattle grazed. Jian did not allow herself the
luxury of an opinion; she came when the Emperor commanded, and she would
continue to so until he released her from her oath.
The quality of air and sound changed as they passed
the outer gates. Here was naked wall, there the many-times-lacquered wood of
the gate, here the density of living flesh. Guards would be posted, watchful
and still.
Dog slowed, a slackening
of the leash. Jian bowed. The guards did not ask her name. How could there be
two of her — a blind woman dressed in patched and faded soldier’s garb, a sword
in its battered sheath tucked into her sash, a scarf of imperial silk tied around
her neck? At least, they were not so foolhardy as to suggest she leave Dog
outside the palace.
“Forward,” she said, and
Dog guided her inside.
Footsteps on the raked
dirt of the courtyard came nearer, then stopped in front of her. She paused,
nostrils flaring even though she lacked Dog’s keen sense of smell. There was
something familiar about that stride…but she’d been sighted when she’d last
heard it.
