Will they remember that most about us, do you...
Will they remember that most about us, do you think, after we are gone?"
"Perhaps," Saevar said"But they will rememberThe one thing we know with certainty is that they will remember usHere in the peninsula, and in Ygrath, and Quileia, even west over the sea, in Barbadior and its Empire
"And we leave our children," Valentin saidSons and daughters who will remember usBabes in arms our wives and grandfathers will teach when they grow up to know the story of the River Deisa, what happened here, and, even more, what we were in this province before the fallBrandin of Ygrath can destroy us tomorrow, he can overrun our home, but he cannot take away our name, or the memory of what we have been
"He cannot," Saevar echoed, feeling an odd, unexpected lift to his heart"I am sure that you are rightWe are not the last free generationThere will be ripples of tomorrow that run down all the yearsOur children's children will remember us, and will not lie tamely under the yoke
"And if any of them seem inclined to," Valentin added in a different tone, "there will be the children or grandchildren of a certain sculptor who will smash their heads for imitation chanel handbag them, of stone or otherwise
Saevar smiled in the darknessHe wanted to laugh, but it was not in him just then"I hope so, my lord, if the goddesses and the god allowThank you for saying thatNot between us and not this nightThe Triad guard and shelter you tomorrow, and after, and guard and shelter all that you have loved,"
Saevar swallowed"You know you are a part of that, my lordA part of what I have loved
Valentin did not replyOnly, after a moment, he leaned forward and kissed Saevar upon the browThen he held up a hand and the sculptor, his eyes blurring, raised his own hand and touched his Prince's palm to palm in farewellValentin rose and was gone, a shadow in moonlight, back towards the fires of his army
The singing seemed to have stopped, on both sides of the riverSaevar knew he should be making his own way back and settling down for a few snatched hours of sleepIt was hard to leave though, to rise and surrender the perfect beauty of this last nightThe river, the moons, the arch of stars, the fireflies and all the fires
In the end he decided to stay there by the waterHe sat alone in the summer darkness on the banks of the River chloe paddington handbag chocolate Deisa, with his strong hands loosely clasped about his kneesHe watched the two moons set and all the fires slowly die and he thought of his wife and children and the life's work of his hands that would live after him, and the trialla sang for him all night long


PART ONE - A BLADE IN THE SOUL

Chapter 1

IN THE AUTUMN SEASON OF THE WINE, WORD WENT FORTH from among the cypresses and olives and the laden vines of his country estate that Sandre, Duke of Astibar, once ruler of that city and its province, had drawn the last bitter breath of his exile and age and died
No servants of the Triad were by his side to speak their rituals at his endNot the white-robed priests of Eanna, nor those of dark Morian of Portals, nor the priestesses of Adaon, the god
There was no particular surprise in Astibar town when these tidings came with the word of the Duke's passingExiled Sandre's rage at the Triad and its clergy through the last eighteen years of his life was far from being a secretAnd impiety had never been a thing from which Sandre d'Astibar, even in the days of his power, had shied away
The city was overflowing with people from the outlying chanel bags collection distrada and far beyond on the eve of the Festival of VinesIn the crowded taverns and khav rooms truths and lies about the Duke were traded back and forth like wool and spice by folk who had never seen his face and who would have once paled with justifiable terror at a summons to the Ducal court in Astibar
All his days Duke Sandre had occasioned talk and speculation through the whole of the peninsula men called the Palm, and there was nothing to alter that fact at the time of his dying, for all that Alberico of Barbadior had come with an army from that Empire overseas and exiled Sandre into the distrada eighteen years beforeWhen power is gone the memory of power lingers
Perhaps because of this, and certainly because he tended to be cautious and circumspect in all his ways, Alberico, who held four of the nine provinces in an iron grip and was vying with Brandin of Ygrath for the ninth, acted with a precise regard for protocol
By noon of the day the Duke died, a messenger from Alberico was seen to have ridden out by the eastern gate of the cityA messenger bearing the blue-silver banner of mourning and carrying, no one doubted, carefully omega speedmaster watches chosen words of condolence to Sandre's children and grandchildren now gathered at their broad estate seven miles beyond the walls
In The Paelion, the khav room where the wittier sort were gathering that season, it was cynically observed that the Tyrant would have been more likely to send a company of his own Barbadian mercenaries, not just a single message-bearer, were the living Sandreni not such a feckless lotBefore the appreciative, eye-to-who-might-be-lis-tening, ripple of amusement at that had quite died away, one itinerant musician, there were scores of them in Astibar that week, had offered to wager all he might earn in the three days to come, that from the Island of Chiara would arrive condolences in verse before the Festival was over
"Too rich an opportunity," the rash newcomer explained, cradling a steaming mug of khav laced with one of the dozen or so liqueurs that lined the shelves behind the bar of The Paelion"Brandin will be incapable of letting slip a chance like this to remind Alberico, and the rest of us, that though the two of them have divided our peninsula the share of art and learning is quite tilted west towards fake louis vuitton handbag Chi