Sunday, March 7, 2010 - We came back to the Palm and began to travelAnd...
We came back to the Palm and began to travelAnd as artisans, merchants, athletes one time in a Triad Game year, as masons and builders, guards to a Senzian banker, sailors on a dozen different merchant-shipsBut even before those journeys had begun, mother, even before we came back north over the mountains, it had all changed for meI was finally clear about what my task in life was to beAbout what had to be done, or triedYou know it, Danoleon knows; I wrote you years ago what my new understanding was, and I begged your blessing for itIt was such a simple truth: we had to take both Tyrants together, that this whole peninsula might again be free
His mother's voice overrode his steady passion then, harsh, implacable, unforgiving: "I rememberI remember the day that letter cameAnd I will tell you again what I wrote you then to that harlot's castle in Certando: you would dior saddle handbag buy Corte's freedom, and Astibar's and Tregea's at the price of Tigana's nameOf our very existence in the worldAt the cost of everything we ever had or were before Brandin cameAt the price of vengeance and our pride
"Our pride," Alessan echoed, so softly now they could barely hearI grew up knowing all about our pride, motherYou taught me, even more than father didBut I learned something else, later, as a manI learned about Astibar's prideAbout Senzio's and Asoli's and Certando'sI learned how pride had ruined the Palm in the year the Tyrants came
"The Palm?" Pasithea demanded, her voice shrill"What is the Palm? A spur of landRock and earth and waterWhat is a peninsula that we should care for it?"
"What is Tigana?" Erlein di Senzio asked bluntly, his harp silent in his hands
Pasithea's glance was withering"I would have thought a bound wizard should know that!" she miu miu nappa said corrosively, meaning to woundDevin blinked at the speed of her perception; no one had told her about Erlein, she had deduced it in minutes from a scattering of clues
She said: "Tigana is the land where Adaon lay with Micaela when the world was young and gave her his love and a child and a god's gift of power to that child and those who came afterAnd now the world has spun a long way from that night and the last descendant of that union is in this room with the entire past of his people falling through his hands She leaned forward, her grey eyes blazing, her voice rising in indictment"Falling through his handsHe is a fool and a coward, bothThere is so much more than freedom in a peninsula in any single generation at stake in this!"
She fell back, coughing, pulling a square of blue silk from a pocket in her robeDevin saw Alessan begin a movement up from his black chanel bag with white logo on the side knees, and then check himselfHis mother coughed, rackingly, and Devin saw, before he could turn his eyes away that the silk came away red when she was doneOn the carpet beside her Alessan bowed his head
Erlein di Senzio, from the far side of the room, perhaps too far to see the blood, said, "And shall I now tell you the legends of Senzio's pre-eminence? Of Astibar's? Will you hear me sing the story of Eanna on the Island shaping the stars from the glory of her love-making with the god? Do you know Certando's claim to be the heart and soul of the Palm? Do you remember the Carlozzini? The Night Walkers in their highlands two hundred years ago?"
The woman in the armchair pushed herself straight again glaring at himFearing her, hating her words and manner and the terrible thing she was doing to her son, Devin nonetheless felt humbled in the face of so much courage and knockoff chanel jewelry such a force of will
"But that is the point," she said more softly, sparing her strength"That is the heart of thisCan you not see it? I do remember those storiesAnyone with an education or a library, any fool who has ever heard a troubadour's sentimental wailing can remember themCan hear twenty different songs of Eanna and Adaon on SangariosDon't you see? Not Tigana anymoreWho will sing of Micaela under the stars by the sea when we are gone? Who will be here to sing, when one more generation has lived and died away in the world?"
"I will," said Devin, his hands at his sides
He saw Alessan's head come up as Pasithea turned to fix him with her cold eyes"We all will," he said, as firmly as he couldHe looked at the Prince and then, forcing himself, back to the dying old woman raging in her pride"The whole Palm will hear that song again, my ladyBecause your son is not a louis cartier cow
|
|
|
|
About Me
« May 2012 »
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
Friends
|
