[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Why should that training be wasted?Rather, let her continue as heir to our family holdings.I am free to prepare,with no previous bias and no distractions, to follow our father, after his ownlong reign, onto the throne. Doubtless Sapphire knew her brother s feelings on the matter.As sheglowered at him, too well trained to pull his hair as she would have whenthey were in the nursery, Elise wished that someone, something, would breakthis uncomfortable moment.Her wish was granted.A footman came to the door of the parlor where thegrandnieces and grandnephews had been sequestered to await the end of theirelders counsels. His Majesty, the man boomed, looking at the carved paneling on the farwall rather than at any one of the ten eager faces now turned toward him, requests that you attend him in the Eagle s Hall. Suddenly meek and obedient, the cousins set down goblets and tankards,smoothed hair, surreptitiously checked reflections in mirrors and polishedglass.Then, falling into order as they had so many times before, in so manygatherings like, but unlike, this one, the cousins filed from the parlor.Onlyone voice broke the silence.Kenre Trueheart, at the age of seven the youngest of the cousins,whispered to his older sister, Now, Deste, now we ll find out what it s allabout. Smiling softly to herself, Elise could not help but think that little Kenrewas uttering the words imprinted on each of their hearts sometimes, Firekeeper thought she would go insane.It was the noise.Or perhaps it wasthe smells.Maybe it was some undefined sense of too many people just thepeople, just the humans forget their dogs and cats, horses and mules, cows,goats, sheep, chickens&She would go mad.Each day when she bathed in the metal tub that Derian filled for her in thegreat stone-walled chamber that was her haven in Earl Kestrel s mansion, shechecked herself for bite marks.Surely she must have been bitten by somerabid fox or possum.Surely, it was that, something in her blood, runningthrough her mind, setting it afire.There could not be so many people in all the world.But the falcon Elation told her with sardonic calm that there were thatthis city of Eagle s Nest was large, but not the only such swarming ofhumans, not the largest even.But Firekeeper had long been the only human in all the world.She neverrealized that this was what she had believed.Now she must acknowledge thatshe had believed herself unique.Even the evidence of the artifacts the knife and the tinderbox thesehad not convinced her that there were other humans in the world.Now shemust face humans in their varied colors, shapes, sizes, and smells.She would go mad.Derian entered the room to find her sitting on the floor, her head buriedagainst Blind Seer s flank.She ignored the man.Hoped that he would goaway.Knew from the gusting exhalation of the breath beneath her brother sribs that he would not. Firekeeper? A finger poked her gently in the side.She growled. C mon, kid. Hands on her shoulders. Today is the day.You don t dare disappoint Earl Kestrel. Why not? she thought.She had disappointed herself.Why shouldn t shedisappoint that small, hawk-nosed male with his arrogant, proprietaryattitude? Please? Derian sounded more unhappy than annoyed.Reluctantly, Firekeeperpermitted the smallest tendril of sympathy for him and his predicament tofinger through her own misery.Earl Kestrel was always patient with her,even kind in a stiff, wooden fashion that owed more than a little to his fear ofBlind Seer.He was not always so with Derian.More than once Firekeeperhad heard him yelling at the younger man, berating him for failuresincomprehensible to her.She raised her head from the comforting fur.Derian was kneeling on the floor beside her.To his credit, he was ignoring Blind Seer s baleful bluegaze, having learned that the wolf could be trusted on his terms.As long asDerian did not make what the wolf interpreted as a threatening gesturetoward the woman, he was safe. Firekeeper, Derian said, catching her gaze and holding it when shewould look away, today you meet the king.Tonight you dine in his halls.Itis for this that Earl Kestrel brought you from the wilds.You can t back outnow. I can, she threatened. You can, he agreed, but I wouldn t like to be you if you do.EarlKestrel has always had his own uses for you, no matter what pretty speecheshe makes for other ears.If you fail him& She said nothing.Derian shrugged. The best you can hope for is being turned out into thestreets.You might be fine.So would the falcon, but I wouldn t give BlindSeer a chance, not even at night. Firekeeper knew too well what he meant.She had seen the city streets,had been taken out into them cloaked and after dark under Derian and Ox sescort.(Fleetingly she wondered why the big man permitted his own to callhim after a castrated bull.)Using curtains of heavy fabric, Derian had made her a concealed placefrom which she could watch the city traffic without being seen by either theinmates of the manse or the passersby.So many people!She felt the mad panic returning and stamped it back.Even so, it filled hervoice as she challenged Derian. He turn us out, she said sharply. How he do that? Little man, big voice,no teeth. There you are wrong, Lady Blysse. Derian surged to his feet andcrossed to where a new gown has been spread on the bed. Earl Kestrel hasmany teeth.You just don t know how to see them.Do you think Ox is theonly big man he commands or Race the only one who can use a bow? She snarled.Derian continued as if she had not. You are probably meaner than any one of them maybe than any two.But in the end, they would win.You would be gone.Blind Seer would bedead. He shrugged [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Why should that training be wasted?Rather, let her continue as heir to our family holdings.I am free to prepare,with no previous bias and no distractions, to follow our father, after his ownlong reign, onto the throne. Doubtless Sapphire knew her brother s feelings on the matter.As sheglowered at him, too well trained to pull his hair as she would have whenthey were in the nursery, Elise wished that someone, something, would breakthis uncomfortable moment.Her wish was granted.A footman came to the door of the parlor where thegrandnieces and grandnephews had been sequestered to await the end of theirelders counsels. His Majesty, the man boomed, looking at the carved paneling on the farwall rather than at any one of the ten eager faces now turned toward him, requests that you attend him in the Eagle s Hall. Suddenly meek and obedient, the cousins set down goblets and tankards,smoothed hair, surreptitiously checked reflections in mirrors and polishedglass.Then, falling into order as they had so many times before, in so manygatherings like, but unlike, this one, the cousins filed from the parlor.Onlyone voice broke the silence.Kenre Trueheart, at the age of seven the youngest of the cousins,whispered to his older sister, Now, Deste, now we ll find out what it s allabout. Smiling softly to herself, Elise could not help but think that little Kenrewas uttering the words imprinted on each of their hearts sometimes, Firekeeper thought she would go insane.It was the noise.Or perhaps it wasthe smells.Maybe it was some undefined sense of too many people just thepeople, just the humans forget their dogs and cats, horses and mules, cows,goats, sheep, chickens&She would go mad.Each day when she bathed in the metal tub that Derian filled for her in thegreat stone-walled chamber that was her haven in Earl Kestrel s mansion, shechecked herself for bite marks.Surely she must have been bitten by somerabid fox or possum.Surely, it was that, something in her blood, runningthrough her mind, setting it afire.There could not be so many people in all the world.But the falcon Elation told her with sardonic calm that there were thatthis city of Eagle s Nest was large, but not the only such swarming ofhumans, not the largest even.But Firekeeper had long been the only human in all the world.She neverrealized that this was what she had believed.Now she must acknowledge thatshe had believed herself unique.Even the evidence of the artifacts the knife and the tinderbox thesehad not convinced her that there were other humans in the world.Now shemust face humans in their varied colors, shapes, sizes, and smells.She would go mad.Derian entered the room to find her sitting on the floor, her head buriedagainst Blind Seer s flank.She ignored the man.Hoped that he would goaway.Knew from the gusting exhalation of the breath beneath her brother sribs that he would not. Firekeeper? A finger poked her gently in the side.She growled. C mon, kid. Hands on her shoulders. Today is the day.You don t dare disappoint Earl Kestrel. Why not? she thought.She had disappointed herself.Why shouldn t shedisappoint that small, hawk-nosed male with his arrogant, proprietaryattitude? Please? Derian sounded more unhappy than annoyed.Reluctantly, Firekeeperpermitted the smallest tendril of sympathy for him and his predicament tofinger through her own misery.Earl Kestrel was always patient with her,even kind in a stiff, wooden fashion that owed more than a little to his fear ofBlind Seer.He was not always so with Derian.More than once Firekeeperhad heard him yelling at the younger man, berating him for failuresincomprehensible to her.She raised her head from the comforting fur.Derian was kneeling on the floor beside her.To his credit, he was ignoring Blind Seer s baleful bluegaze, having learned that the wolf could be trusted on his terms.As long asDerian did not make what the wolf interpreted as a threatening gesturetoward the woman, he was safe. Firekeeper, Derian said, catching her gaze and holding it when shewould look away, today you meet the king.Tonight you dine in his halls.Itis for this that Earl Kestrel brought you from the wilds.You can t back outnow. I can, she threatened. You can, he agreed, but I wouldn t like to be you if you do.EarlKestrel has always had his own uses for you, no matter what pretty speecheshe makes for other ears.If you fail him& She said nothing.Derian shrugged. The best you can hope for is being turned out into thestreets.You might be fine.So would the falcon, but I wouldn t give BlindSeer a chance, not even at night. Firekeeper knew too well what he meant.She had seen the city streets,had been taken out into them cloaked and after dark under Derian and Ox sescort.(Fleetingly she wondered why the big man permitted his own to callhim after a castrated bull.)Using curtains of heavy fabric, Derian had made her a concealed placefrom which she could watch the city traffic without being seen by either theinmates of the manse or the passersby.So many people!She felt the mad panic returning and stamped it back.Even so, it filled hervoice as she challenged Derian. He turn us out, she said sharply. How he do that? Little man, big voice,no teeth. There you are wrong, Lady Blysse. Derian surged to his feet andcrossed to where a new gown has been spread on the bed. Earl Kestrel hasmany teeth.You just don t know how to see them.Do you think Ox is theonly big man he commands or Race the only one who can use a bow? She snarled.Derian continued as if she had not. You are probably meaner than any one of them maybe than any two.But in the end, they would win.You would be gone.Blind Seer would bedead. He shrugged [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]