Once, she would have thought it far more likely...
Once, she would have thought it far more likely that she might grasp and hold the moons than ever hear him speak such words to her
She wept, unable to stop, for in his words it was all gathering now, she could see how it was coming together, and such clarity and prescience was too much for a mortal soulThis was the Triad's wine, and there was too much bitter sorrow at the bottom of the cupShe had seen the riselka, though, she knew what was coming, where the path would lead them nowFor one moment, a handful of heartbeats, she wondered what would have happened had he whispered these same words to her the night before instead of leaving her alone with the fires of memoryAnd that thought hurt as much as anything ever had in all her life
Let it go! she wanted to say, wanted so much to say that she bit her lip holding back the wordsOh, ladies omega watches my love, let the spell goLet Tigana come back and all the world's brightness will returnKnowing that he could not do so, and knowing, for she was no longer a child, that grace could not be come by so easilyNot after all these years, not with Tigana and Stevan twined together and embedded so deep down in Brandin's own painNot with what he had already done to her homeNot in the world in which they lived
Besides which, and above everything else, there was the riselka, and her clear path unfolding with every word whispered by the fireDianora felt as if she knew everything that was going to be said, everything that would followAnd each passing moment was leading them, she could see it as a kind of shimmer in the room, towards the sea
Almost a third of the Ygrathens stayedIt was more than he'd expected, Brandin told her, standing on omega ladies watch the balcony above the harbor two weeks later, watching most of his flotilla sail away, back to their home, to what had been his homeHe was exiled now, by his own will, more truly than he had ever been before
He also told her later that same day that Dorotea was deadShe didn't ask how, or how he knewHis sorcery was still the thing she did not ever want to face
Shortly after that came bad tidings thoughThe Barbadians were beginning to move north toward and through Ferraut, all three armies apparently heading for the border of SenzioHe had not expected that, she sawIt was too unlike careful Alberico to move with such decisiveness
"Something has happened thereSomething is pushing him," Brandin said"And I wish I knew what it was
He was weak and vulnerable now, that was the problemHe needed time and they all knew itWith the Ygrathen army chanel jewelry online mostly gone Brandin needed a chance to shape a new structure of order in the western provincesTo turn the first giddy euphoria of his announcement into the bonds and allegiances that would truly forge a kingdomThat would let him summon an army to fight in his name, among a conquered people lately so hard-oppressed
He needed time, desperately, and Alberico wasn't giving it to him
"You could send us," d'Eymon the Chancellor said one morning, as the dimensions of the crisis began to take shape"Send the Ygrathens we have left and position the ships off the coast of SenzioSee if that will hold Alberico for a time
The Chancellor had stayed with themThere was never any real doubt that he wouldFor all his trauma, he had looked ill and old for days after Brandin's announcement, Dianora knew that d'Eymon's deepest loyalty, his love, black chanel tote though he would have shied awkwardly away from that word, was given to the man he served and not to the nationMoving through those days almost numbed by the divisions in her own heart she envied d'Eymon that simplicity
But Brandin flatly refused to follow his suggestionShe remembered his face as he explained, looking up from a map and strewn sheets of paper covered with numbersThe three of them together around a table in the sitting-room off the King's bedchamber; Rhun a nervous, preoccupied fourth on a couch at the far end of the roomThe King of the Western Palm still had his Fool, though the King of Ygrath was named Girald now
"I cannot make them fight alone," Brandin said quietly"Not to carry the full burden of defending people I have just made them equal toThis cannot be an Ygrathen warFor one thing, they are not enough, we will tiffany co jewelry los