Three possibilities were foundOne was of noble... Three possibilities were foundOne was of noble birth, her existence revealed by an informerShe was taken only after her father's manor in Corte had been, somewhat regretfully, burned to the ground
At length, in the autumn turning of the year, beautiful even in flat, unlovely Asoli when the rains chose to relent, the Tribute Ship slipped through the tricky passages of the Strait of Asoli and entered the waters of the Chiaran SeaA few days later, red and gold sails billowing triumphantly, it had sailed into the Great Harbor of the Island, celebrated in song for more years than could be counted
The Tribute Ship of Rhamanus had carried gold and gems and silver and coinage of various kindsIt bore leather from Stevanien and wood carvings from Corte and great huge wheels of saull cheese from the west coast of AsoliThey had spices and herbs and knives, stained glass and wool and wineThere were two women from Corte and one from Asoli, and besides these three there was another woman and this one was differentThis one was the dark-haired, brown-eyed beauty known throughout the peninsula by the time their voyage
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Dianora di Certando, her name was
Dianora, who had intended to come to the Island from the very first, from the earliest glimmerings of her plan when she had sat alone before a dead fire one summer night in her father's silent houseWho had hardened herself, as men in battle were said to have to do, to the thought of being captured and brought here and locked for life inside the saishan of the TyrantShe had worked it out that far five years ago, a girl with death in her heart, with a father dead and a brother gone and a mother gone even farther away: images of all three of them rising in her dreams from the ashes of the burning in her land
And death was still there, still with her on that shipShe still had those dreams, but with them now, as fabled Chiara drew nearer under the brightness of the sky was something else: a bemused, an almost numbed incredulity at how the line of her life had runHow things had fallen out so completely wrong, and yet so precisely as she had planned from the first
She had tried to see that as an omen, closing her left hand
chloe handbag three times over her thumb to make her wish come true, as she entered that new world
Chapter 8
IT WAS STRANGE, DIANORA THOUGHT, STILL MOVING THROUGH the crowded Audience Chamber as spring sunlight filtered down on Brandin's court from the stained-glass windows above, how the so clear portents of youth were alchemized by time into the many-layered ambiguities of adult life
Sipping from her jeweled cup she considered the alternativeThat she had simply allowed things to become nuanced and difficultThat the real truths were exactly the same as they had been on the day she arrivedThat all she was doing was hiding: from what she had become, and what she had not yet done
It was the central question of her life and once more she pushed it away to the edges of her awarenessThose thoughts belonged to nights alone in the saishan when only Scelto by her door might know how sleepless she was, or find the tracks of tears along her cheeks when he came to wake her in the morning
Night thoughts, and this was bright day, in a very public place
So she walked over towards the man she'd recognized and let her smile
gucci bag replica reach her eyesBalancing her chalice gracefully she sketched a full Ygrathen salute to the portly, soberly dressed personage with three heavy gold chains about his neck
"Greetings," she murmured, straightening and moving nearerIt is rare indeed that the so-busy Warden of the Three Harbors deigns to spare a moment from his so-demanding affairs to visit old friends
Unfortunately Rhamanus was as hard to ruffle or disconcert as he had ever beenDianora had been trying to get a rise out of him ever since the night he'd had her bundled like a brown heifer out of the street in front of The Queen and onto the river galley
Now he simply grinned, heavier with the years gone by and, latterly, his shore-bound duties, but unmistakably the man who'd brought her here
One of the few men from Ygrath she genuinely liked
"Not so much flavor from you, girl," he mock-growled"It is not for idle women who do nothing all day but put their hair up and down and up again for exercise to criticize those of us who have stern and arduous tasks that shorten our nights and put grey in our hairRhamanus's thick black curls, the envy of
omega constellation half the saishan, showed not a trace of greyShe let her gaze linger expressively on his dark locks
"I'm a liar," Rhamanus conceded with untroubled equanimity, leaning forward so only she could hear"It's been a dead-quiet winterNot much to do at allI could have come to visit but you know how much I hate these goings-on at courtMy buttons pop when I bow
Dianora laughed again and gave his arm a quick squeezeRhamanus had been kind to her on the ship, and courteous and friendly ever since, even when she'd been merely another new body, if a slightly notorious one, in the saishan of the KingShe knew he liked her and she also knew, from d'Eymon himself, that the former Tribute Ship captain was an efficient and a fair administrator
She had helped him get the posting four years agoIt was a high honor for a seaman, supervising harbor rules and regulations at the three main ports of Chiara itselfIt was also, to judge from Rhamanus's slightly threadbare clothing, a little too near the seat of power for any real gains to be extracted
Thinking, she clicked her tongue against her upper teeth, a habit Brandin teased her
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