Monday, January 25, 2010 - How many more they could not tell
He was being...
How many more they could not tell
He was being reckless, he knewSwept away by the power of an Ember Night, by the undeniable truth of Donar's dream, the fact that they had been waiting for himBy, if he were honest with himself, the look in Elena's eyes when he had first come up to herA complex tempting of fate, that aspect of it, something he seldom did
But he was doing it now, or about to do itHe thought of Ales-san, and of all the times he'd chided or derided the Prince, his brother of the soul, for letting his passion for music take him down one dangerous path or anotherWhat would Alessan say now, or quick-tongued Catriana? Or Devin? No, Devin would say nothing: he would watch, with that careful, focused attention, and come to his own conclusions in his own timeSandre would call knockoff chanel jewelry him a foolBut something had responded deep within him to the words Donar had spokenHe had borne the caul of his birth in leather all his life, a minor, a trivial superstitionA charm against drowning, he had been told as a childBut it was more here, and the cup he held in his hands would mark his acceptance of that
Almost twenty years, Mattio had said
The Others from the west, Donar had said
There might be little in it, or a great deal, or nothing at all, or everything
He looked at the woman, Elena, and he drained the cup to the lees
It was bitter, deathly bitterFor one panicked, irrational moment he feared he was undone, poisoned, a blood sacrifice in some unknown Carlozzini rite of spring
Then he saw the sour face Carenna made as she drank from her own cup, and saw Mattio wince omega speedmaster watches ruefully at the taste of his, and the panic passed
The long table had been put away, lifted from its trestlesPallets had been spread about the room for them to lie uponElena moved towards him and gestured, and it would have been ungracious to hold backHe walked with her toward one wall and took the pallet she offered himShe sat down, unspeaking, on the one beside it
Baerd thought of his sister, of that clear image of walking hand in hand with Dianora down a dark and silent road, only the two of them abroad in the wide world
Donar the miller swung himself towards the pallet on Baerd's other sideHe leaned his crutches against the wall and subsided on the mat
"Leave your sword here," he saidBaerd raised his eyebrowsDonar smiled, a hieratic expression, devoid of mirth"It will be useless omega speedmaster white where we are goingWe will find our weapons in the fields
Baerd hesitated a moment longer; then, aware of even greater recklessness, of a mystic folly he could not have explained, he slipped the back-scabbard over his head and laid it against the wall beside Donar's crutches
"Close your eyes," he heard Elena saying from beside him"It is easier that way Her voice sounded oddly distantWhatever he had drunk was beginning to act upon him"It will feel like sleep," she said, "but it will not beEarth grant us grace, and the sky her light It was the last thing he heardWhatever it was, it was not sleep, for no dream could be this vivid, no dream-wind this keen in his face
He was in an open field, wide and fallow and dark, with the smell of spring soil, and he had no memory at all of coming fake fendi bag hereThere were a great many people, two hundred perhaps, or more, in the field with him, and he had no memory of any of them eitherThey must have come from other villages in the highlands, from gatherings in other homes like Mattio's
The light was strange
And Baerd saw that the moon in the sky was round and large and full, and it was green like the first green-gold of springIt shone with that green and golden light among stars in constellations he had never seenHe wheeled around, dizzied, disoriented, his heart pounding, searching for a pattern that he knew in the heavensHe looked south, to where the mountains should be, but as far as his eyes could track in the green light he saw level fields stretching away, some fallow, some fully ripe with summer grain in a season that should only be tiffany silver jewelry sp
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