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The old chancellor went on and on. Cori
A golden monkey appeared on the balcony. It must have jumped from someplace high above, and it seemed startled to find them in the shaded alcove. It called out in a high, birdlike chirp. It was brilliantly colored against the blue background of the sky. Cori
“Hanish is returning tomorrow. He is bringing the Tunishnevre with him. He wants me to help him perform the ceremony that will end the curse. He says when this is done, much of the rift between Meins and Acacians will be healed. It will be history, he says. Not the present or the future anymore. What do you think of that?”
“He is bringing the Tunishnevre here?” Thaddeus asked. He sat in silence for a time, mouth hanging open, eyes glazed. “I should have known that. Of course he is… He’s had the time to prepare a chamber here. He sent his brother to fight Aliver, not because he did not take the threat seriously, but because he had a greater purpose for himself. He has had you safely here all along… I should have foreseen this. We have looked back into our own myths for allies; why would Hanish not do the same?”
He looked up at Cori
“Is that why you came here,” Cori
“I came for another reason,” the former chancellor said. He told her about the Santoth and the corruption of their knowledge and about the great, great need for The Song of Elenet. He had found it, he explained, because he finally put together the clues that Leodan had left for them. Aliver did not yet know of his success. He did not even know he had come here. He needed to get the book to him as quickly as possible, but now it was just as important that she flee the island with him. It would be risky, but if they escaped via the route he had come into the palace, they would emerge not far from the Temple of Vada. He could cross to the temple and, he was sure, he could convince the priests to give him some small vessel. He would return and pick her up and then they would fly with the wind. Perhaps he could even send word to Aliver from the temple, so that he could act accordingly.
Cori
Guardedly, he nodded.
She stretched out her hands toward it.
“Princess, we don’t have much time,” Thaddeus said. “I gather Hanish is to return tomorrow. We must-”
“Let me see the book,” she said, keeping her eyes focused on the chancellor’s and making sure her words had the ring of command to them. She was sure that if she had not been looking at him so intently he might have refused, delayed somehow, thought of an excuse, or changed the subject. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could she pulled the book from his grasp and moved away a few steps.
The book was much lighter than it looked. It opened with the slightest pull of her fingers. From the moment she looked upon its contents she knew for a certainty that nothing in her life would ever be the same. The page was full of script, curling, looping, dancing words. They moved before her eyes, growing and changing as she watched, becoming one word and then another, written in a foreign, beautiful language. The words she read struck her like notes ringing in her soul. She did not know what they meant, but as her eyes touched them, they rose off the page and filled her with song. They welcomed her. They praised her. They danced in the air around her like exotic birds. They assured her that they had been waiting for her. Waiting for her. Now everything would be all right. She, she, she could make it all all right. They rubbed the entirety of her being with the sensuous, humming intensity of a hungry housecat. She could not explain how she knew or heard or understood any of these sensations or declarations or promises at that moment. But the messages and the sublime radiance of the voices that spoke them were undeniable. This book was, without doubt, the very gift she had waited her entire life to receive.
When she folded it closed and the room returned to normal and she could again focus on Thaddeus, she already understood things she had not before. She already saw with clarity what had to be done. “This is wonderful,” she said, meaning it completely. “Tell me the truth-does anybody know of this book? That you have it and that it is here, with me?”
“No, you need not fear that. Only you and I know. By the look on your face…You-you saw something in it?”
She smiled warmly but did not answer him. “You have done a great thing. My father was right to love you.”
Whatever his doubts, this assertion brushed them away. His old eyes instantly brimmed with moisture. “Thank you,” Thaddeus said. “Thank you for saying so. You can forgive me, then?” Cori
Cori
“Enough, Thaddeus,” she said. “I see no stain on you. Understand?” She reached forward and touched her hand gently to his chin. “You are unblemished. We need say no more about it. I’ll get you something to eat and drink. Rest here. When I return we’ll figure out what to do and how to do it.”
Sensing that he might protest, she pressed The Song of Elenet back against his chest. This seemed to ease him. A moment later, after having stepped out of her barred door and sent a servant for tea and light fare, Cori