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 I, ah . . . should be very pleased to borrow that book, when you re finished
with it, Cazaril said hopefully.
 I ll have it sent up to you, my lord.
Cazaril made his farewells. He recrossed the five-sided Temple Square and
headed uphill, but turned aside before the Zangre came in sight and made his
way to Provincar dy Baocia s town palace.
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The blocky old stone building resembled Jironal Palace, though much smaller,
with no windows on its
lower floor, and its next floor s casements protected by wrought-iron grilles.
It had been reopened not only for its lord and lady but also the old
Provincara and Lady Ista, who had arrived from Valenda. Full to bursting, its
former sullen empty silence was turned to bustle. Cazaril stated his rank and
business to a bowing porter, and was whisked inside without question or delay.
The porter led him to a high sunny chamber at the back of the house. Here he
found Dowager
Royina Ista sitting out on a little iron-railed balcony overlooking the small
herb garden and stable mews.
She dismissed her attendant woman and gestured Cazaril to the vacated chair,
almost knee to knee with her. Ista s dun hair was neatly braided today,
wreathing her head; both her face and her dress seemed somehow crisper, more
clearly defined than Cazaril had ever seen them before.
 This is a pleasant place, Cazaril observed, easing himself down in the
chair.
 Yes, I like this room. It is the one I had when I was a girl, when my father
brought us up to the capital with him, which was not often. Best of all, I
cannot see the Zangre from it. She gazed down into the domestic square of
garden, embroidered with green, protected and contained.
 You came to the banquet there last night. He had only been able to exchange
a few formal words with her in that company, Ista merely congratulating him on
his chancellorship and his betrothal, and departing early  You looked very
well, too, I must say. I could see Iselle was gratified.
She inclined her head.  I eat there to please her. I do not care to sleep
there.
 I suppose the ghosts are still about. I cannot see them now, to my great
relief.
 Nor I, with sight or second sight, but I feel them as a chill in the walls.
Or perhaps it s just the memory of them that chills me. She rubbed her arms
as if to warm them.  I abhor the Zangre.
 I understand the poor ghosts much better now than when they first terrified
me, said Cazaril diffidently.  I thought their exile and erosion was a
rejection by the gods, at first, a damnation, but now I
know it for a mercy. When the souls are taken up, they remember themselves . .
. the minds possess their lives all whole, all at once, as the gods do, with
nearly the terrible clarity that matter remembers itself. For some . . . for
some that heaven would be as unbearable as any hell, and so the gods release
them to forgetfulness.
 Forgetfulness. That smudged oblivion seems a very heaven to me now. I pray to
be such a ghost, I
think.
I fear it is a mercy you shall be denied.
Cazaril cleared his throat.  You know the curse is lifted off of Iselle and
Bergon, and all, and banished out of Chalion?
 Yes. Iselle has told me of it, to the limit of her understanding, but I knew
it when it happened. My ladies were dressing me to go down to the Daughter s
Day morning prayers. There was nothing to see, nothing to hear or feel, but it
was as though a fog had lifted from my mind. I did not realize how closely it
had cloaked me round, like a clammy mist on the skin of my soul, till it was
lifted. I was sorry then, for I
thought it meant you had died.
 Died indeed, but the Lady put me back into the world. Well, into my body. My
friend Palli would have it that She put me back in upside down. His smile
flickered.
Ista looked away.  The curse s lifting made my pain more clear, and yet more
distant. It felt very strange.
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He cleared his throat.  You were right, Lady Ista, about the prophecy. The
three deaths. I was wrong with my marriage scheme, wrong and determined to be
so, because I was afraid. Your way seemed too hard. And yet it came right
despite myself, in the end, by the Lady s grace.
She nodded.  I would have done it myself, if I could have. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]