Elizabeth Haydon Rhapsody 4 Requiem for the Sun

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Ashe poured the gem-colored liquid into the snifters, then swirled them both gendy.
'Your birthday."
Rhapsody cocked her head and looked askance at him. "My birthday is not for another two months."
'Not the upcoming one, Aria. Next year's."
'Next year's birthday? Why?"
He ambled across the room and stopped in front of her, handing her a glass.
'Because the gift I plan to give you for your birthday next year will take time to craft; about thirteen
months, I think. I need to be certain you will want it before it is started."
Rhapsody lifted the glass to her lips and took a sip. The liquid was warm, like fire, and it burned
pleasantly in her mouth. She swallowed, inhaling over the fiery sensation in her throat. "Why don't you tell
me what it is?"
Ashe took a sip himself, then stood, regarding her, one hand in his pocket. After a moment he pulled
out a small leather drawstring bag and tossed it to her. She caught it, sending rolling waves through the
brandy in her glass.
'Goodness; you'll make me spill," she chided, setting the glass down on the table and opening the
pouch. She shook the contents out into her hand.
Five heavy gold pieces, older coinage than she had seen in Roland, slid out, clinking pleasantly as they
came. Rhapsody turned the top one over slowly and examined it.
'
'Malcolm of Bethany,' " she read, squinting at the inscription, then looked up at Ashe, a puzzled
expression on her face. "Was this Tristan's father?" Ashe took another sip of his brandy and nodded.
"Thank you," Rhapsody said doubtfully.
'Do you remember ever seeing coins like this before?"
'I don't think so."
He sighed in disappointment. "Ah well. I had antiquities merchants scrambling all over Yarim to find
them. What a waste."
'Where would I have seen them?" Rhapsody asked, her voice betraying a hint of impatience.
Ashe set his glass down and came over to her, taking her shoulders and staring down into her
questioning eyes.
'In a windy meadow, on the other side of Time," he said gently. "I offered you coins just like these,
because I had nothing else to give you on the eve of your birthday."
Rhapsody turned away, clutching the coins tightly in her hand. She braced against the flood of
emotions that swept over her, some stinging, others sweet, all treasured memories of their meeting in the
old world, a story that no person other than they knew.
Sometimes, even now, she wondered if it had all been merely a dream that lingered until it had formed
a memory.
Ashe took her by the shoulders and turned her around. He tucked his forefinger under her chin and
lifted her gaze to meet his own, the vertical pupils in his eyes expanding and contracting in the flickering
light of the candles.
'Through all the years, down all the roads I have traveled, after every nightmare, every dream, I have
never forgotten how you looked in the moonlight that night, Emily," he said softly, using the name her
family called her in the old world. "I still do not know what magic, what hand of Fate, plucked me from
the road to town that I was walking and deposited me where I could find you, outside that foreharvest
dance, but whoever it was, I owe them my soul. Because without you, I wouldn't have one."
'Do not be so quick to feel gratitude," Rhapsody said, her eyes on her fist, gripped tightly around the
golden coins. "Whoever it was must have been the cruel person who also ripped you away from me the
next day."
Ashe smiled broadly. "Exactly. And the pain nearly killed both of us all but ruined our lives."
'And you're grateful for that?"
'Yes. All of it. The good and the bad, the pain and the ecstasy. Because it was our beginning, Aria.
And in that beginning we knew, without question, what we wanted each other, in any way we could
have that. It was simple; there was no questioning it. You were willing to leave behind everything you had
to come away with me; I was willing to give up the life I had known in the Future, knowing the war that
was to come, in a heartbeat, to be with you. Risk was something we never even considered; that is what
is so pure, so holy, about a new beginning. And nothing not being dragged back to this time, not the
cataclysm that took Serendair to the bottom of the sea, not having to travel for centuries through the belly
of the earth, not separation, misunderstanding, pain, death, betrayal nothing has thwarted the love that
began that night." He reached out then and caressed her face, receiving a smile in return.
'And nothing will," she said.
'Each new beginning we've had in our lives has been a renaissance for us.
There is a risk that is weighed, then discarded, when we forge ahead, trusting in what we are doing,"
Ashe continued. "Look at your undertaking with En-tudenin. There was considerable risk there the ire
of the citizenry, the potential for conflict between the Bolg and the Yarimese, the possibility that you were
destroying an ancient holy relic, which I know as a Singer and student of lore would be devastating to
you and yet you understood that the need for the water outweighed the risk. You forged ahead, staked
your credibility with the dukes, the people, and with the Bolg, unable to promise any of them results or
protection, but undertaking it anyway. As you said to me in Navarne, what in life is not worth risk? Even
Achmed was willing to assume his part in that risk, for whatever his reasons were."
'What makes that so astounding is that, except for Grunthor and me, Achmed trusts no one,"
Rhapsody agreed. "Trust is the thing that allows you to risk, but the concept of risk is not in his
personality. He hates acting without a plan, without the ability to control every aspect of the situation,
even though he has so many skills that he can call upon in a crisis or an unexpected circumstance. He's
consummately impatient."
Ashe's smile faded a notch.
'I don't know if you are right about that, Aria," he said. "I think Achmed is more patient than we think.
It all depends on what he is waiting for."
Rhapsody laid her hand on top of his that lingered on her face.
'What are you telling me, Sam?" she asked softly.
Ashe entwined his fingers with hers. "That if you agree, if you are willing to undertake with me a new
beginning, I think we can set about ordering your birthday present tonight."
Rhapsody leaned closer so that her lips were just a breath away from his.
'And what do you plan to give me for my birthday?"
Ashe gazed into her eyes, the love in his own burning as brightly as the lanternlight, the candlenames.
'Someone to teach your morning aubade, your evening vespers to," he said.
of the worry, the concern that had plagued both their minds over the years was gone, banished from
the room as if by the hand of an unseen guardian, leaving nothing but the soft, inconstant light of the
candleflames, the scent of tuberoses, the crackle of the lantern fire, the splash of the fountain, and each
other.
And yet there was anticipation, a nervous, dizzying excitement that they had felt once before, so long
ago, on the other side of Time.
The sense of portent, the good cheer that Rhapsody had felt on the balcony, blew in on the evening
breeze and wrapped itself around the bedchamber; there was an utter lack of foreboding, a palpable
good cheer that drove any doubt from the room. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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