[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Lesser House. The view from our rooms took in the scattered houses and
pavilions set within the wooded lower slopes of Palace Hill. These buildings
gradually increased in number while the distances between them shrank until
they merged against the ancient walls of Mizui city itself, which filled the
flat bottom of the valley immediately beneath the palace. On the valley floor
to either side of Mizui could be seen numerous farms, fields and water
meadows, while behind these climbed gently forested hills, themselves
surmounted by the round, snow-covered mountains in the distance.
The King had indeed fallen off his mount while hunting near Lep-Skatacheis
Page 71
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
(though it had been on the last day of our stop there, not the first) and had
been hobbling round since then on a badly twisted ankle. The Doctor had
strapped the ankle and done what she could, but the King's duties were such
that he could not rest the limb as much as the
Doctor wanted him to, and so it took a while to heal.
'You. Yes, more wine. No, not that stuff. That. Ah. Adlain. Come and sit by
me.'
'Majesty.'
'Wine for the Guard Commander. Come on. You have to be quicker than that. A
good servant acts to carry out a master's wishes even as the wish is still
being formed. Isn't that so, Adlain?'
'I was about to say that myself, sir.'
'I'm sure you were. What news?'
'Oh, mostly the woes of the world, sir. Hardly fit to be revealed in a fine
place like this. It might spoil the view.'
We were in the Hidden Gardens behind the Great Palace, almost at the summit of
the hill.
The red, creeper-covered garden walls hid all but the highest towers of the
palace. The view from the little hanging valley which contained the gardens
led the eye down to the distant plains, which were blue with distance and
faded out into the light of the sky at the horizon.
'Any sign of Quettil?' the King asked. 'He's supposed to be giving me
something or other.
All has to be arranged of course, being Quettil. Can't just happen. No doubt
we're due to get the full pomp.'
'The Duke Quettil is not one to murmur when a shout might attract more
attention,'
Adlain agreed, taking off his hat and setting it on the long table. 'But I
understand the map he intends to present to you is a particularly fine one,
and long in the making. I
expect we shall all be most impressed.'
Duke Quettil occupied the Duke's Palace within the grounds of Palace Hill. The
Province and Dukedom of Quettil, of which the city of Mizui and the Yvenage
Hills were but a modest part, was entirely his to command, and he was, by
repute, not shy about imposing his authority. He and his retinue were due to
enter the Hidden Gardens shortly after the midday bell to present the King
with his new map.
'Adlain,' the King said. 'You know the new Duke Ulresile?'
'Duke Ulresile,' Adlain said to the thin, sallow youth at the King's left
side. 'I was sorry to hear about your father.'
'Thank you,' the boy said. He was barely older than I, and less substantial,
more wispy.
The fine clothes he wore looked too big for him, and he appeared
uncomfortable. He had, I thought, yet to take on the look of a powerful man.
'Duke Walen,' Adlain said, bowing to the older man, who sat to the King's
right.
'Adlain,' Walen said. 'You look as though the mountain air suits you.'
'I have yet to find air that does not, thank you, Duke.'
King Quience sat at a long table set within a shady pergola, attended by the
Dukes Walen and Ulresile, a smattering of lesser nobility and various
servants, including a pair of
Palace serving girls who were identical twin sisters and to whom the King
seemed to have taken a particular shine. Each had gold-green eyes,
yellow-white tangles of hair and seemed to be almost but not entirely in
control of tall, sinuous bodies that in places appeared to defy the law of
gravity. Each was clothed in a cream-coloured dress edged with red piping and
ruffled with lace, which, if not exactly what a rustic shepherdess might wear,
was perhaps what a famously handsome and well-endowed actress might have worn
Page 72
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
if she was taking part in an expensively produced Romantic Play which featured
rustic shepherdesses. One such creature might have caused a normal fellow's
heart to melt into his boots. That there were two such beauties capable of
occupying the same world at once seemed unfair. Especially as both seemed
quite as taken with the
King as he did with them. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]