To Play Pluto

Wealthgiver chapter 20

This is the twentieth chapter of Wealthgiver, an alternate history serial romance about nationalism and cave-Thracians. For the back-of-the-book description and an index of chapters, click here. For the beginning, click here. For the previous chapter, click here.

MOOD MUSIC

Deep beneath the new border between Eastern Rumelia and Ottoman Macedonia, a doctor fled through the darkness.

Blind inside and out, mind consumed by frustration and dread, he let his feet carry him. And he still held the mask.

It was gold, ridiculously thick and heavy, sewn with heavy rawhide straps into the open front of a hood of black-dyed leather. The hood was relatively crude, but the mask was clearly the work of an ancient master. Every wrinkle in the skin was perfect, every whorl of hair on the forehead and chin. Cheek bones like cliffs overhanging gaunt cheeks, eye-holes deep under severe, jutting brows. Thin lips around a narrow slot of a mouth-hole. Was that a faint smile he felt there?

A sudden breeze rushed…