2016 Nebula Award finalist for Best Novelette 2017 Hugo Award finalist for Best Novelette From Fran Wilde, the Andre Norton and Compton Crook Award-winning author of Updraft. The kingdom in the Valley has long sheltered under the protection of its Jewels and Lapidaries, the people bound to singing gemstones with the power to reshape hills, move rivers, and warp minds. That power has kept the peace and tranquility, and the kingdom has flourished. Jewel Lin and her Lapidary Sima may be the last to enjoy that peace. The Jeweled Court has been betrayed. As screaming raiders sweep down from the mountains, and Lapidary servants shatter under the pressure, the last princess of the Valley will have to summon up a strength she's never known. If she can assume her royal dignity, and if Sima can master the most dangerous gemstone in the land, they may be able to survive. "The central fantastical idea is pretty cool... nicely written... I suspect the world it's set in might yield more fine stories." - Locus "[A] story about power. Although this one's about loss, friendship, and responsibility. Two young women, one magically bound to protect and obey the other, are the last survivors of the ruling class of a kingdom defended up to now by magic. Captives of an invader, they alone must keep the magic of the gems out of enemy hands. It's a novella about love and duty, at its heart: elegant and affecting." ~ Liz Bourke, Sleeps with Monsters "You are a tourist in a seemingly plain valley which has a deceivingly rich story behind it.... A pleasure to read. In fact, I have read it multiple times." ~ Geek Ireland Two-time Nebula Award-winner Fran Wilde ’s novels and short stories have been finalists for six Nebula Awards, a World Fantasy Award, four Hugo Awards, three Locus Awards, and a Lodestar. They include her Nebula- and Compton Crook Award-winning debut novel Updraft , and her Nebula award-winning, Best of NPR 2019, debut Middle Grade novel Riverland . Her short stories appear in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Tor.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Shimmer, Nature, Uncanny Magazine, and multiple years' best anthologies. Fran teaches for the Genre Fiction MFA concentration at Western Colorado University and the Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She also writes nonfiction for publications including The Washington Post , The New York Times , and Tor.com. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and at franwilde.net. The Jewel and Her Lapidary By Fran Wilde, Patrick Nielsen Hayden Tom Doherty Associates Copyright © 2016 Fran Wilde All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-7653-8983-1 Contents Title Page, Copyright Notice, Dedication, Begin Reading, Acknowledgments, About the Author, Also by Fran Wilde, Copyright Page, CHAPTER 1 Strips of soft cloth bound the Jewel Lin's hands behind her back, knotted as if they'd been tied in a hurry. When her head cleared enough for her to think of it, Lin slid her hands back and forth until the bindings loosened and she was able to bend her wrists and tug at the ties. Her mouth felt dry as a stone. Her legs and feet tingled, as if she'd been sitting on them for hours at a strange angle. Sima, she thought. Where is Sima? Lin could not see anything. What happened? Sima would know. Or Aba. An elbow pressed Lin's side in the darkness. Lin heard her lapidary grunt and wriggle, trying to release herself. Sima's kicking dislodged something heavy and dry that rattled like bones across the floor. When Lin had freed her hands, she touched the cloth that covered her eyes and ears, then pulled at that knot too. The blindfold fell into her hands. It was strips from the veil Lin had worn since she was eleven. On the rough ground nearby, the ancient bone Sima had kicked stared at them: a skull turned to opal, eye sockets stuffed with raw yellow topaz. Lin knew where they were now. Far from her private quarters, where they'd drunk their evening tea and gone to sleep. They were below the moonstone hall, in the pit beside the throne. Where Aba had always threatened to put her as a child when she misbehaved. Lin bit down on her fist, stifling a scream. She looked around the pit, expecting to see the rest of the Jeweled Court similarly bound. Light flickered through the grate above her head. Sima still wriggled beside her in the dark. But beyond Sima, she saw nothing but darkness and more ancient bones. She reached for her lapidary's hands. She felt the cloth that bound them and discovered that it had been looped around the metal cuffs and chains that marked Sima not just as a gem-speaker but as a lapidary — Lin's own lapidary: the bound courtier to a royal Jewel. Sima had been blindfolded too, with cloth ripped from her blue lapidary's cloak. She'd been gagged as well. Lin worked at the knots. We have been betrayed. The court. The valley. No one else sat in the pit with them. Above, the muffled sounds grew louder. L