The Towers of the Sunset - L. E. Modesitt [88]
“She is rather . . . striking.”
“Yes, ser.”
Again the words conceal more than they reveal, true as they sound.
“Good afternoon, Creslin.”
Megaera’s voice is not quite husky; its tones carry the sound he recalls from that night whose events may never have occurred. Could they have ever occurred as he recalls them? With Megaera’s present attitude toward him?
She glides toward the window. The unlit lamp has been lifted onto the window seat, and a small mirror rests in the middle of the high octagonal table. Creslin follows, realizing for the first time how slender she is, with fine and delicate bones.
“Sit down. Whatever happens, you need to know a few things. You can go, Aldonya.” The dismissal is soft, almost gentle, especially in contrast to the level tones she has directed at Creslin.
He steps toward the table, then sits down. The door closing is the only sound of the serving girl’s departure.
Megaera sits down opposite Creslin, her back to the half-open window. “I’m sorry about the other day, but I still don’t like you very much.”
“I can’t say that I understand, because you’re not telling the truth, either to me or to yourself.” He pauses, then adds quickly, “If it helps, you’re probably right about me. I haven’t thought a lot of things through.”
“I attempt to apologize, and you attack me.” Her eyes drop to the mirror on the table. “So tell me, Ser Storm Wizard, what I feel.” The words are like blocks of ice.
“It wasn’t meant as an attack. You don’t know what you feel about me,” he guesses and waits for her reaction. His guts remain calm, indicating that he, at least, believes what he says.
Megaera remains silent, her green eyes cool.
“You hate your sister,” he tells her, “and you hate the fact that you’re tied to me. You feel that you ought to hate me, but deep inside you don’t. And you hate that, too.” He raises his hand, in case her hand is headed for his cheek again.
“I owed you for one thing, Creslin. Hatred doesn’t enter the picture.”
“I did not say that you liked me. I did not say that you were secretly in love with me. I said that you did not hate me.”
“I could easily hate you, especially for your arrogant assumptions.”
“As you wish . . .” he sighs. “You had something you wanted to tell me?”
“Only because I wish to live, and that is clearly impossible if you do not. I have no desire to be mindless, or partly mindless, either.”
“Why don’t we just find a wizard who can undo this lifeline?” he suggests.
“Because it’s too late. Sister dear was clever. I was imprisoned until you had returned to Westwind. Now-even by the time of the betrothal—breaking the tie would kill me. Sister had no idea of what you are, and she had to ensure that you remained alive to further her plans for using your mother’s troops. What better way?”
Creslin shivers, but the tension between them has dropped.
“Do you recall how you felt when you were in the road camp?” Her voice is brisk again.
“No. I have two sets of memories, one without a past.”
“They call it the White Prison. That’s what the books say. Korweil’s library is good, at least.” She frowns before she continues. “But it’s effective only with people who don’t know what it is or how it works . . . or with someone who’s been injured or hurt.”
“I was naive.” Creslin looks warily at the small mirror on the table.
The redhead shakes her shoulder-length hair, flowing free except for the combs above and behind her small, delicate ears. A brief smile touches her lips at his admission.
Creslin swallows as he looks at the creamy skin of her neck and the fine collar bones showing above the scoop-necked, pale green dress she wears. This is the first time he has seen her without a neck-high tunic, a riding jacket, or a full-closed cloak. He swallows again, and his heart beats faster.
“Stop it!” She is flushing.
“Oh . . .” Her reaction strikes him like the ice gales of the Roof of the World, cold enough to freeze him in his tracks.
The blush leaches from her cheeks.
“You feel everything I feel or think?”
She turns toward the leaded panes of the window.