vein stone

Arriving in Zimia, a squad of female guards flanked her as she strode up the veined stone steps into the imposing government building.

Along the rear wall stood six black stone jars, each about three feet tall, and carved out of a veined stone whose surface showed brown streaks of rust.

The Stewart section of the building, called 402 Fifth Avenue, was of dark, veined stone and intricate metalwork, but the upper floors are what really set this building apart.

After a while they begin to feel a bit too precious and also mechanical, more like feats of craftsmanship than painting (or even feats of nature, like slices of finely veined stone).

They could not escape by the doors; for apparently the metal of the portals served like the metal veined stone altar to complete the circuit for whatever hellish power flashed like thunderbolts from the witch-wand the ancient waved in his hand.

In one place a craftsman had been carving a jar out of veined stone but had not had the time to finish it; the chisel had fallen from his hand, to be discovered thousands of years later, lying next to the unfinished work of art.

It was the hall, cool and dusky after the heat out- side, with a marble floor, whitewashed walls, a scat- tering of embroidered cushions, soft and opulent on the veined stone, and a low table-at its center, float- ing in a Jade bowl, a single blossom.