La Musique

Sunday, December 16, 2007

As always, being the usual lazy, indolent sluggish slug I am, I cannot be bothered to stir up my creative juices on a wet Sunday evening to come up with something (hopefully) witty or cynically amusing.

And then there was a hazy nebulous luminosity in the air at the foot of the dying Emperor's bed. The glow grew brighter, and she was there. Ce'Vanne had been a bit taller than her daughter, but Garion saw instantly why Ran Borune had doted on his only child, Ce'Nedra. The hair was precisely the same deep auburn; the complexion was the same golden-tinged olive; and the eyes were of that exact same green. The face was wilful, certainly, but the eyes were filled with love.

Ce'Vanne reached out her hand to her husband. Ran Borune's face was filled with wonder, and his eyes with tears. "Ce'Vanne," he said in a trembling whisper, struggling to raise himself from his pillow. He pulled his shaking hand free from Garion's grasp and reached out toward her. For a moment their hands seemed to touch, and then Ran Borune gave a long, quavering sigh, sank back on his pillows, and died.

Ce'Nedra sat for a long time holding her father's hand as the faint, woodland smell and the echo of the little golden bells slowly subsided from the room and the light from the window returned. Finally she placed the wasted hand gently back on the coverlet, rose, and looked around the room with an almost casual air. "It's going to have to be aired out, of course" she said absently. "Maybe some cut flowers to sweeten the air." She smoothed the coverlet at the side of the bed and gravely looked at her father's body. Then she turned. "Oh, Garion," she wailed, suddenly throwing herself into his arms.

Garion held her, smoothing her hair and feeling the shaking of her tiny body against him and looking all the while at the still, peaceful face of the Emperor of Tolnedra. It may have been some trick of the light, but it almost seemed that there was a smile on Ran Borune's lips.

Taken from Guardians of the West, by David Eddings.

9:47 PM