Saturday, July 31st, 2010

Time	Event
12:24a	She'd had no good ideas about what else she could... She'd had no good ideas about what else she could do, though And so it was that a few nights later, in the largest of the taverns in Fort Sinave, a cheerful crowd of young people watched their new friend drink more than was good for her for the first time since she'd arrivedMore than one of the men saw cause for cautious optimism in that, with respect to possibilities later in the evening "You've settled it then!" Dianora cried in her attractive, south-country voiceShe leaned for support against the shoulder of a bemused cartwright"Hand to the new plow for me tomorrowI'm over the border as soon as I can to visit The Queen of Ygrath! Triad bless her days!" Triad shelter and hold my soul, she was thinking as she spoke, absolutely sober, cold to her bones with the sense of the words she was so glibly shouting They silenced her, laughing uproariously, in part to cover her wordsIn Barbadian Certando it was a long way cartier pasha watch from the path of wisdom to thus salute Ygrath's QueenDianora giggled quite endearingly but she subsidedThe cartwright and another man tried to see her up to her room afterwards, but found themselves charmingly put off and drinking together amid off-duty mercenaries in the one all-night tavern Fort Sinave possessed She was just a little too untutored, too country, to succeed in her ambitious hopes, they agreed sagelyThey also agreed, a few drinks later, that she had the most extraordinarily appealing smileSomething about her eyes, what happened to them when she was pleased In the morning Dianora was dressed and packed and waiting very early at the main gate of the fortShe struck a bargain for passage to Stevanien with a pleasant-enough middle-aged merchant from Senzio carrying Barbadian spices for the luxury tradeHis only reason for going to dreary, flattened Stevanien, she learned as they started west, was chanel bags pink because of the new restaurant, The QueenShe took that coincidence as a good omen, closing the fingers of her left hand over the thumb three times to make the wish come true The roads were better than she remembered; certainly the merchants traveling them seemed to feel saferRolling along in the cart, she asked the Senzian about itHe grinned sardonically "The Tyrants have cleaned out most of the highway brigandsJust a matter of protecting their own interestsThey want to make sure no one else robs us before they do with their border tariffs and taxes He spat, discreetly, into the dust of the road"Personally I preferred the brigandsThere were ways of dealing with them Not long after that she saw evidence of what he was talking about: they passed two death-wheels beside the roadway, the bodies of would-be thieves spreadeagled upon them, spiraling lazily in the sun, severed hands rotting in their mouthsThe smell was very vintage omega watches bad The Senzian stopped just across the border to do some dealing in the fort of ForeseHe also paid his transit duties there scrupulously, waiting patiently in line to have his cart examined and leviedThe death-wheels, he pointed out to her after, in the acerbic Senzian manner, were not reserved for highway thieves and captured wizards Thus delayed, they spent the night at a coach-house on the well-traveled road, joining a party of Ferraut traders for dinnerDianora excused herself early and went to bedShe'd paid for a room alone and took the precaution of pushing an oak dresser in front of her doorNothing disturbed her though, except her dreamsShe was back in Tigana and yet she wasn't, because it wasn't thereShe whispered the name to herself like a talisman or a prayer before falling into a restless sleep shot through with images of destruction from the burning year They spent the second night at another inn beside mens gucci watches the river, just outside the walls of Stevanien, having arrived after sundown curfew closed the city gatesThey ate alone this time, and she talked to the Senzian until lateHe was decent and sober, belying the cliches about his decadent province, and it was clear that he liked herShe enjoyed his company, and she was even attracted to his dry, witty mannerShe went to bed alone thoughThis was not the village in Certando: she had no obligations Or not those kinds of obligationsAnd as for pleasure, or the ordinary needs of human interaction she would have been honestly uncomprehending if anyone had mentioned them to her She was nineteen years old and in Tigana that-had-been In the morning, just inside the city walls, she bade farewell to the Senzian, touching palm to palm only brieflyHe seemed somewhat affected by the night before but she turned and walked away before he could find whatever words his eyes were reaching montre cartier tank f (Comment on this)
12:24a	There had been over seventy towers once, Dianora... There had been over seventy towers once, Dianora knew, crowned in glory by that green and white preeminence What, Dianora thought, her vision hurting for that absence, is a person who moves through her days as she has always moved, who speaks and walks and labors, eats, makes love, sleeps, sometimes even finds access to laughter, but whose heart has been cut out from her living body? Leaving no scar at all to be seenNo wound by which to remember the sliding blade The rubble had all been cleared awayThere was no smoke, save from over by the dyeworks, to mar the clear blue of the skyThe day was mild and bright, birds sang a welcome to the coming warmthThere was nothing, nothing at all to show that there had ever been towers in this placeIn this low, steadily omega 18k watch dwindling town of Stevanien here in its remote corner of the Peninsula of the Palm, in the most oppressed province of them all What is such a person? Dianora thought againThat person whose heart was gone? She had no answer, how could she have an answer? Loss coiled to life within her, and hate followed it again, as if both of them were new-born, colder and sharper than before She walked up that wide boulevard into the center of StevanienShe passed the soldiers' barracks and the doors of the Governor's PalaceNot far away she found The QueenShe was hired immediatelyTo start that same nightHelp was badly neededHelp was hard to findArduini of Ygrath, who did all his own hiring, decided that this pretty creature from Certando had a certain style to herShe would have to do gucci hobo something though, he admonished her, about that wretchedly vulgar highland accent Within six months she was speaking almost like a native of the city, he observedBy then he had her out of the kitchen and into the front room waiting on tables, clad in the cream and dark-brown colors around which he had designed his establishmentColors that happened to suit her very well She was quiet, deft, unassuming, and politeShe remembered names and patrons' preferencesFour months later, in the spring before she turned twenty-one, Arduini offered her the coveted position at the front of The Queen greeting guests and supervising the staff in the three rooms of dining She astonished him by refusingShe astonished a great many peopleBut Dianora knew that this would be far too chloe bag prominent a position for her own purposesWhich had not changedIf she was to travel north into Corte soon, and clearly marked by now as being from Certando, she needed to have been associated with The Queen, but not so very prominentlyProminent people had questions asked about them, that much she knew So she feigned an attack of country-girl anxiety the night Arduini made his offerShe broke two glasses and dropped a platterThen she spilled Senzian green wine on the Governor himself Tearfully she went to Arduini and begged for more time to grow sure of herselfIt helped that he was in love with her by thenHe invited her, gracefully, to become his mistressIn this, too, she demurred, pleading the inevitable tension that such a liaison would elicit within the staff, badly chanel white purse damaging The QueenIt was the right argument; his establishment was Arduini's true mistress In fact, Dianora had resolved to let no man touch her nowShe was in Ygrathen territory and she had a purposeThe rules had changedShe had tentatively decided to leave in the fall, north towards CorteShe had been weighing possibilities and excuses for doing so when events had overtaken her so spectacularly Slowly circling the Audience Chamber, Dianora paused to greet Doarde's wife whom she likedThe poet seized the opportunity to present his daughterThe girl blushed, but dipped her head, hands pressed together, in a creditable mannerDianora smiled at her and moved on A steward caught up to her, bearing khav in a black chalice set with red gemstonesA gift, years ago, from chanel bags to buy Brand (Comment on this)

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