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There were leafy pools one might stumble upon,...
5:47 AM, Tuesday, January 26, 2010
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There were leafy pools one might stumble upon, with overhanging trees for shade in the summer's heatThe King's Garden was a strange place now, not overgrown and most certainly not neglected, but deliberately shaped to give a sense of stillness and isolation and even, at times, of danger
Times such as this, with the dawn wind still cold and the scarcely risen sun just beginning to warm the airOnly the earliest buds were on the branches of the trees, and only the first flowers of the season, anemones and wild caiana roses, adding flashes of color to the wan morningThe winter trees stood tall and dark against the grey sky
Dianora shivered and closed the glass doors behind herShe took a deep breath of the sharp air and looked up at the clouds piled high above the mountain, hiding the peak of SangariosOver to the east the clouds were beginning to break up; it would be a mild day laterShe stood at the edge of the wildness of an end-of-winter garden and tried to guide herself towards steadiness and calm
She knew there was a gate in the orange prada bag northern wall, but she wasn't sure she remembered whereBrandin had showed it to her one summer's night years ago when they had walked for miles aimlessly amid fireflies and the drone of crickets and the sound of unseen water splashing in the darkness beyond the torchlit pathsHe had brought her to a gate he'd stumbled upon one day, half-hidden by climbing vines and a rose bushHe had shown it to her in the darkness, with torches behind them and blue Ilarion overhead
He had held her hand that night as they walked, she remembered, and talked to her about herbs and the properties of flowersHe had told her an Ygrathen fairy tale of a forest princess born in some far distant otherworld, on an enchanted bed of snow-white flowers that bloomed only in the dark
Dianora shook her head, pushing the memory away, and set off briskly down one of the smaller, pebbly paths leading northeast through the treesAfter twenty strides she could no longer see the palace when she looked backOverhead the birds were beginning to singShe put up her hood, feeling, as white chanel bag she did so, like the brown-robed priestess of some unknown sylvan god
And thinking so, she prayed to the god she did know and to Morian and Eanna, that the Triad might send her wisdom and the clear heart she had come out this Ember morning to findShe was intensely aware of what day this was
At almost exactly the same moment, Alessan, Prince of Tigana was riding out from Castle Borso in the Certandan highland towards a meeting in the Braccio Pass that he thought might change the world
Dianora walked past a bed of anemones, much too small and delicate yet to pickThey were white, which made them Eanna'sThe red ones were Morian's, except in Tregea where they were said to be stained by the blood of Adaon on his mountainShe stopped and looked down at the flowers, their fragile petals shaken by the breeze; but her thoughts were back with Brandin's fairy tale of the far away princess born under summer stars, cradled on such flowers
She closed her eyes then, knowing that this would not do
And slowly, deliberately, searching out pain as a new cartier watches spur, a goad, she built up a mental image of her father riding away, and then of her mother, and then of Baerd among the soldiers in the squareWhen she opened her eyes to go on there were no fairy tales in her heart
The paths twisted hopelessly, but the main cloud mass was to the north over the mountain and she kept that in front of her as best she couldIt was strange to be wandering like this, almost lost among the trees, and Dianora realized, with a start, that it had been a great many years since she'd last been so alone
She had only two hours and a long way to goShe quickened her paceA little later the sun came up on her right and the next time she looked up part of the sky was blue above her and gulls were wheeling against that blueShe pushed back her hood and shook her long hair free, and just then she saw the thick, high grey stone of the northern wall through a screen of ohve trees
Vines and clumps of laren moss were growing along the wall, purple and dark greenThe path ended at the olives, forking east and westShe stood a gucci men watches moment, irresolute, trying to orient herself within a memory of summer and torches at nightThen she shrugged and went west, because her heart always did that
Ten minutes later, winding past a pool and a ruffled reflection of white clouds within it, Dianora came to the gate
She stopped, suddenly cold again, though the morning was warmer now with the sunShe looked at the arched shape and the rusted iron hingesThe gate was very old; there seemed to have been something carved on it once, but whatever image or symbol had been there was almost entirely worn awayThe gate was overgrown with ivy and vinesThe rose bush she remembered was bare yet on this first day of spring, but the thorns were long and sharpShe saw the heavy bolt, as rusted as the hingesThere was no lock, but she was suddenly uncertain whether she would even be able to move the corroded boltShe wondered who had last gone through this gate into the meadows beyondShe thought about climbing, and looked upThe wall was ten feet high, but she thought there might be hand and toeholds louis vuitton duffle bags ther
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