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It was a landscape much like what they had been riding through for the past two daysHilly, with dense forests ranging in the south on the rising slopes, and the mountains visible beyondHe saw a deer lift its head from drinking at a streamIt froze for a minute, watching them, and then remembered to flee
They had seen deer in Certando, too
This is home! Devin told himself again, reaching for the response that should be flowingIn this land his father had met and wooed his mother, he and his brothers had been born, and from here Garin di Tigana had fled northward, a widower with infant sons, escaping the killing anger of YgrathDevin tried to picture it: his father on a cart, one of the twins on the seat beside him, the other, they must have taken turns, in the back with what goods they had, cradling Devin in his arms as they rode through a red sunset darkened by smoke and fires on the horizon
It rolex diamond watch seemed a false picture in some way Devin could not have explainedOr, if not exactly false, it was unreal somehowThe thing was, it might even be true, it might be exactly true, but Devin didn't knowHe had no memories: of that ride, of this placeThis was home, but it wasn'tIt wasn't really even Tigana through which they rodeHe had never even heard that name until half a year ago, let alone any stories, legends, chronicles of its past
This was the province of Lower Corte; so he had known it all his life
He shook his head, edgy, profoundly unsettledBeside him Erlein glanced over, an ironic smile playing about his lipsWhich made Devin even more irritableAhead of them Alessan was riding aloneHe hadn't said a word since the border
He had memories, Devin knew, and in a way that he was aware was odd or even twisted he envied the Prince those images, however painful they might beThey would be rooted and cheap louis vuitton absolute and shaped of this place which was truly his home
Whatever Alessan was feeling or remembering now would have nothing of the unreal about itIt would all be raw, brutally actual, the trampled fabric of his own lifeDevin tried, riding through the cheerful birdsong of a glorious spring morning, to imagine how the Prince might be feelingHe thought that he could, but only just: a guess more than anything elseAmong other things, perhaps first of all things, Alessan was going to a place where his mother was dyingNo wonder he had urged his horse ahead; no wonder he wasn't speaking now
He is entitled, Devin thought, watching the Prince ride, straight-backed and self-contained in front of themHe's entitled to whatever solitude, whatever release he needsWhat he carries is the dream of a people, and most of them don't even know it
And thinking so, he found himself drawn out of his own confusion, cartier mens watch roadster his struggling adjustment to where they wereFocusing on Alessan he found his avenue to passion again to the burning inward response to what had happened here, and was still happeningEvery hour of every day in the ransacked, broken-down province named Lower Corte
And somewhere in his mind and heart, fruits of a long winter of thought, and of listening in silence as older and wiser men spoke, Devin knew that he was not the first and would not be the last person to find in a single man the defining shape and lineaments for the so much harder love of an abstraction or a dream
It was then, looking all around at the sweep of land under the wide arch of a high blue sky, that Devin felt something pluck at the strings of his heart as if it were a harpHe felt the drumming of his horse's hooves on the hard earth, following fast behind the Prince, and it seemed to Devin that that drumming was with the cartier man watch harp-strings as they galloped
Their destiny was waiting for them, brilliant in his mind like the colored pavilions on the plain of the Triad Games that took place every three yearsWhat they were doing now mattered, it could make a differenceThey were riding at the very center of events in their timeDevin felt something pull him forward, lifting and bearing him into the riptide, the maelstrom of the futureInto what his life would have been about when it was over
He saw Erlein glance over again, and this time Devin smiled back at himHe saw the habitual, reflexive irony leave the wizard's lean face, replaced by a flicker of doubtDevin almost felt sorry for the man again
Impulsively he guided his horse nearer to Erlein's brown and leaned over to squeeze the other man's shoulder
"We're going to do it!" he said brightly, almost gaily
Erlein's face seemed to pinch itself together"You are a fool," he said miu miu charm bag ter |
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