About The Floating World
by Wheeler Scott
87 pages / 38500 words
ISBN: 1-933389-47-8
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc
Kai has been trained all his life to serve a great lady, so when he is sent to serve one, it is considered quite an honor. The honor doesn’t seem to mean much, though, as he starts his new life, because the lady has little use for him. Kai soon realizes he’s nothing more than a puppet in a game he has no control over.
That’s not his only problem. When bandit Chojiro kidnaps him to use as a bargaining piece in a very private negotiation, Kai finds himself in the awkward position of desiring his captor, wanting to be with Chojiro more than he wants to serve his lady. Wrapped up in a dangerous game of cat and mouse, will Kai find a way to happiness, or is he destined to be a pawn forever?
Review
Cynthia Potts, editor of the upcoming anthology Play Ball, writes: Alternative reality stories are tough – especially those challenging works set against the cultural norms and expectations of the alternate universe. Yet in The Floating World, by Wheeler Scott, Asiatic norms are turned on their heads to create a female-dominated society. The rigid social structure remains, saturated through with the traditions, honor codes, and the love stories that somehow prevail.
We travel through this realm with Kai, a pleasure boy who is destined to serve as a great noble lady’s beloved. He sets off well prepared for his mission – only to discover that things aren’t always what they seem. Scott thrusts us into the intimate workings of an intrigue-filled household, masterfully capturing the length families will go to to keep their most cherished secrets. Meanwhile, the bandit Chogiro seems to have his own designs upon the household – designs that most definitely include Kai.
The romantic storyline develops as Kai matures and comes to fully understand not only his role in the Lady’s household, but in the culture as a whole. Erotic scenes are well done, with strong emotional overtones and superlative language. Well worth devoting your evening to, The Floating World is sheer pleasure to read.
Sample
He sat down on a wooden stool by the low table that held everything he needed to finish getting dressed. Boy rubbed sweet almond oil into his hair to shape it, pushing all the curls down with surprisingly strong fingers. Some of them still sprang back anyway and Kai showed him how to push them under the rest of his hair, tucking them in. When Boy was done smoothing Kai's hair he pushed it back behind his ears and then rubbed oil on his earlobes to make them shine. Kai told him to rub what was left on his fingers onto the skin of Kai's throat to make it gleam as well. It was nice that Boy didn't know how to do everything.
Next were his eyebrows. Kai showed Boy how to mix the pigments, how to take the brush and wet it, pull it into a sharp point and then dip the brush into the paint, then carefully line the skin under Kai's eyes and along the edges of his brows. Boy's eyes were wide with wonder when he was done.
''You look just like a painting!'' he said, and the smile he gave Kai was a boy's grin. For a moment he looked like the child he was.
''Go get some water,'' Kai said. ''We'll wash it off and then you can try.''
He looked out the window when Boy left. The mountain towered all around him, capped white and gray. The ground was black and rocky. Kai missed his father's house, the comforting view of sky and ocean, the warm brown sand. He didn't miss the city. He took a few deep breaths. His lungs still burned a little.
There was a man walking across the rocks, two horses trailing behind him. He was holding a bridle in each of his hands, whistling softly under his breath. Kai stared at the horses. They didn't look at all like he thought they would. Their faces were long and pointed, and their coats were dull-colored, spotted. He leaned out of the window to get a better look.
''You look like a bird,'' the man holding the horses said. Kai stared at him. He was short and had the splayed legged gait of a fisherman. Kai thought of his father's home, of himself as a boy mending fishing nets while sitting on a boat riding across the gentle swell and dip of the waves, and smiled.
''I've never seen a horse before,'' he said.
The man laughed. ''You weren't missing much. They're stubborn. Eat a lot.''
''Where are you taking them?'' The man wasn't wearing the dark tunic and pants that the Steward and Boy wore, was instead dressed in the flax-colored clothes of a priest. ''Are they a donation to a temple?''
The man smiled. He had the grin of a prankster, wide and mirthful. His hair stuck up crazily, shorn in short dark spikes all over his head. Kai had only seen solemn monks with shaved heads and begging bowls before. He wondered if other gods were worshipped here. His father had said the people that lived up on the mountain were different.
''Yes,'' the man said. ''A donation of sorts. I haven't seen you before. New to the house?''
Kai nodded. Finally, someone who seemed to know less than he did. It was nice. ''I'm Kai. I mean, the Beloved.''
The man stopped and looked up at him again, squinting. ''Oh,'' he said, and his smile grew broader. ''When you see the Lady, tell her Chojiro sends her greetings and compliments her on her fine taste.''
Kai knew how to answer that. He dipped his head, just enough to tease, to show the part of his hair and a hint of the bare line of his neck, and then closed the window. He heard Chojiro chuckle outside, then the clatter of the horses' feet as they climbed over the rocks.
Kai looked out the window again a few moments later. The horses were at the edge of a path that led off into the short scrubby pines that passed for trees in the mountains, and Chojiro had turned back, was looking at the window. He bowed low, a formal gesture of recognition. His hair was glossy in the sunlight, dark like a raven's wing. Kai shut the window quickly and heard the faint lilt of a laugh reach his ears.