The Last Ring-bearer - Kirill Yeskov [149]
"That?" She stood still, eyes closed and hands clenched on her chest, as if really listening to something. "You know, it does sound a lot better! Say it again."
He said it again, first in front of her on one knee, then while slowly twirling her around the room. Then she did have a bit of hysterics, laughing and crying at the same time… When they got back to bed, she first put a finger to his lips and then took his hand in hers and carefully pressed it to her belly, whispering: "Shh! Don't scare him!"
"So you… I mean, we…" was all he could say.
"Yes! Remember, I said that I was more farsighted this time than four years ago? Now, no matter what else happens, I'll have him. You see," she clung to Tangorn with a quiet laugh and tenderly rubbed her cheek against his shoulder, "somehow I know that it will be a boy, just like you."
He lay there in silence for some time, futilely trying to bring his thoughts into a semblance of order – too much at once. Tangorn the adventurer's old life is over, that much is clear, but perhaps a quiet family idyll with Alviss is precisely the end that the Higher Powers meant? Or, conversely, am I being paid off to abandon Haladdin? But I can't do anything else for him, my mission in Umbar has failed… Really? What if you had an opportunity right now to replay this and give your life in exchange for victory over Elandar? I don't know… half an hour ago I would've given it without a doubt, but now – I don't know. Chances are, I would've found some decent way of weaseling out of it, to be honest. Some trap this is… Oh, to hell with it all! he thought fatalistically, I have no strength left to figure out those puzzles, trying to imagine what the Higher Powers want. Let it all be however it will be.
He finally gave up trying to gather his thoughts, since all kinds of trivialities kept coming up anyway. "Listen, won't you be bored in Emyn Arnen? To be honest, it's quite the backwater."
"You know, I've had quite enough fun over my twenty-eight years here, in our capital of the world, enough for three lives. Don't worry about it. Anyway, Baron," she stretched alluringly, putting her hands behind her head, "isn't it time for you to perform your marital duties?"
"Absolutely, dear Baroness!"
Chapter 54
At dawn a vivino was singing in the garden. The bird perched on a chestnut branch right outside their open bedroom window; at first, his sad melodic trills seemed to Tangorn to be threads plucked out of the fabric of his dreams. He slipped out of bed (carefully so as not to disturb Alviss) and stole up to the window. The tiny singer put up his head so high that the yellow throat feathers formed a frothy collar around his neck, and finished with an excellent resounding note; then he turned his head in mock modesty and expectantly glanced at the baron: did you like it? Thank you, little friend! I know that vivinos are forest dwellers that hate the city. Did you fly here to say good bye?
Right! the bird winked mockingly and flitted into the garden; the vivino was a true Umbarian, stranger to Nordic sentimentality.
Bare feet pattered almost noiselessly, and warm Alviss clung to him from behind, brushing her lips across his shoulder blades.
"What did you see out there?"
"A vivino was singing – a real vivino in the city, can you imagine?"
"Oh, that's my vivino. He's been here for almost a month."
"I see…" Tangorn drawled, feeling, funnily enough, something like a pang of jealousy. "And here I thought that he came here for me…"
"Listen, maybe he really is yours? He showed up in my garden the same time you did… Yes, right around the first of the month!"
"In any event, it's the best goodbye one can wish from Umbar… Hey, Aly, look – there's another goodbye!" he laughed, pointing at a gloomy sleepy policeman stationed across the street beside Chakti-Vari's jewelry shop. "The Secret Service politely reminds me to tread carefully until I leave… All right. Have you changed your mind about going today? Maybe you want to settle your affairs here first?"
"No way!"