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She could not have spoken after that, for desire and need crashed over her and bore her away as something, a chip of wood, a fragment of bark, carried by a huge and rushing waveBaerd was with her, thoughThey were together here in this place, and then they were naked among the newly sprung white flowers of that hill
And as she drew him down and into her, feeling the keenness of longing and an aching tenderness, Elena looked up for a moment past his shoulder at all the circling, luminous stars of the Ember NightAnd it came to her as a wonderful and joyous thought that every single diamond of those stars would have a name
Then Baerd's rhythm changed above her, and her own awakened desire with it, and all thoughts scattered from her like dust strewn between those starsShe moved her head so her mouth could seek and find his own and she closed her arms around him and gathered him to her and closed her eyes, and they let that high wave carry them into the beginning of spring
Chapter 12
THE COLD AND A CRAMPED STIFFNESS WOKE DEVIN ABOUT AN hour before sunriseIt took him a moment to remember where he wasIt was still dark in the roomHe massaged his neck and listened to Catriana's quiet breathing from under her blankets in the bedA rueful expression crossed his face
It was strange, he reflected, twisting his head from side to side to try to ease the soreness, how only a few hours in a soft armchair could leave one feeling more knotted and uncomfortable tiffany bean earrings than a whole night out on cold ground
He felt surprisingly awake though, given the night he'd just had and the fact that he couldn't have been asleep for more than three hours or soHe considered going back to his own bed but realized that he wasn't going to be able to sleep any more that nightHe decided to go down to the kitchens and see if any of the household staff could be induced to make him a pot of khav
He left the room, concentrating on closing the door silently behind himSo much so that when he saw Alessan standing in the hallway watching him from in front of his own door he jumped involuntarily
The Prince walked over, eyebrows arched
Devin shook his head firmlyGot a kink in my neck to show for it
"I'm sure," Alessan murmured
"No, really," Devin insisted
"I'm sure," Alessan repeatedIf you had essayed more I would have heard screaming, yours with an unpleasant injury, most likely
"Very likely," Devin agreedThey walked away from Catriana's door
"How was Alienor though?"
Devin felt himself going red?" he began, then gradually became aware of the condition of his clothing and the amused scrutiny Alessan was giving him,
"Interesting," he offered
Alessan smiled again"Come downstairs with me and help solve a problemI need some khav for the road anyhow
"I was on the way to the kitchens myselfGive me two minutes to change my clothes
"Not a bad idea," Alessan murmured, eyeing the torn shirt"I'll meet you down there
Devin ducked into his own knockoff chanel jewelry chamber and quickly changedFor good measure he pulled on the vest Alais had sent himThinking of her, of her sheltered, quiet innocence, took him back, by polarity, to what had happened last nightHe stood stock-still in the middle of his room for a moment and tried to properly grasp what he had done, and had done to him
Interesting, he had just called itThe process of sharing with words seemed such a futile exercise sometimesA remnant of the sadness he'd felt, leaving Alienor, washed back over him and it picked up Catriana's sorrows tooHe felt as if he'd been washed up by the sea on some grey beach at a bleak hour
"Khav," Devin said aloud"Or I'll never get out of this mood
On the way downstairs he realized, belatedly, what Alessan had meant by "for the road His meeting, wherever it was, was today, the encounter they'd been pointing toward for half a year
And after that he would be riding westWhere his mother lay dying in a Sanctuary of Eanna
Wide awake, his mind snapping from night reflections into the sharper agitations of the day, Devin followed a glow of light to the huge kitchens of Castle Borso and he paused in the arched doorway, looking within
Sitting by the roaring fire, Alessan was carefully sipping steaming khav from an oversized mugIn a chair beside him Erlein di Senzio was doing the sameThe two men were both gazing into the flames while all around them there was already a purposeful stir and bustle in the kitchen
Devin stood in the dolce and gabbana bags doorway a moment, unnoticed, and found himself looking closely at the two menIn their silent gravity they seemed to him to be a part of a frieze, a tableau, emblematic in some complex way of all such pre-dawn hours for those on the long roads
Neither man was a stranger to this hour, Devin knew, to sitting thus before a castle kitchen fire among the servants in the last dark hour before dawn, easing into wakefulness and a fugitive warmth, preparing for the road again and whatever turnings it might offer in the day that had not yet begun
It seemed to Devin that Alessan and Erlein, sitting together as they were, were bonded in some way that went beyond the harsh thing that had happened by that twilit stream in FerrautIt was a linkage that had nothing to do with Prince and wizard, it was shaped of the things they each had doneMemories they would each have and could share, if these two men could truly share anything after what had happened between them
For years they had each been travelingThere had to be so many images that overlapped and could evoke the same mood, emotions, the same sounds and smellsLike this one: darkness outside, the edge of grey dawn and the castle stir the sun would bring, chill of the corridors and knowledge of wind outside the walls, cut by the crackle and roar of the kitchen fire; the reassuring steam and smell rising from their cradled mugs; sleep and dream receding, the mind slowly turning forward to the day that lay ahead swathed chanel pearls in ground mistLooking at their stillness amid the bustle of the kitchen Devin felt another return of the sadness that seemed to be his legacy from this long strange night in the highlands
Sadness, and a distinct stir of longingDevin realized that he wanted that shared history for himself, wanted to be a part of that self-contained, accomplished fraternity of men who knew this scene so wellHe was young enough to savor the romance of it, but old enough, especially after this past winter and his time with Menico, to guess at the price demanded for those memories and the contained, solitary, competent look of the two men in front of him
He stepped through the doorwayA pretty servant noticed him and smiled shylyWithout a word she brought him a scalding mug of khavAlessan glanced over at him and hooked a third chair with his long leg, pulling it into a position near him by the fireDevin walked over and sank gratefully down near the warmthHis stiffened neck was still bothering him
"I didn't even have to be charming," Alessan reported cheerfully"Erlein was already here and had started in on a fresh pot of khavThere were people in the kitchen all night to keep the fires goingCouldn't have lit new ones on an Ember Day
Devin nodded, sipping carefully and with intense gratitude from his steaming mug"And the other question you mentioned?" he asked guardedly, with a glance at Erlein
"Solved," the Prince said promptlyHe seemed unnaturally bright, brittle as chanel bucket tote bag kind |
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