Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault

Author:Mary Renault [Renault, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4804-3287-1
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2013-08-14T22:03:00+00:00

7

AT THE FOOT OF the painted stairway, the bodyguard leaned on his spear. It was Keteus, a stocky iron-bearded veteran rising sixty. It had not been thought seemly for youths to guard the Queen, since the King had ceased to visit her.

The young man in the black cloak paused in the shadowed passage with its floor-mosaic of black and white. He had never been so late to his mother’s room.

At his footfall, the guard threw up his shield and pointed his spear, bidding him declare himself. He showed his face, and went up the stairs. When he scratched on the door there was no answer. He drew his dagger, and rapped sharply with the hilt.

A sleepy bustle sounded within, followed by a breathing silence.

“It is Alexander,” he said. “Open the door.”

A blinking rumpled woman, a robe dragged round her, put out her head; behind her the voices rustled like mice. They must have thought, before, that it was the King.

“Madam is sleeping. It is late, Alexander, long past midnight.”

His mother’s voice from beyond said, “Let him in.”

She stood by the bed, tying the girdle of her night-robe, made of wool the color of curded cream edged with dark fur. He could just see her by the flickering night-light; a maid, clumsy from sleep, was trying to kindle with it the wicks of the standing lamp-cluster. The hearth was swept clean, it was summer now.

The first wick of the three burned up. She said, “That is enough.”

Her red hair mixed on her shoulders with the dark sleekness of the fur. The slanting lamplight etched the frown-creases between her brows, the lines that framed the corners of her mouth. When she faced the light full, one saw only the fine structure, the clear skin and the firm closed lips. She was thirty-four years old.

The one lamp left the room’s edges dark. He said, “Is Kleopatra here?”

“At this hour? She is in her room. Do you want her?”

“No.”

She said to the women, “Go back to bed.”

When the door closed, she threw the embroidered coverlet over the tumbled bed, and motioned him to sit by her; but he did not move.

“What is it?” she said softly. “We have said goodbye. You should be sleeping, if you march at dawn. What is it? You look strange. Have you had a dream?”

“I have been waiting. This is not a little war, it is the beginning of everything. I thought you would send for me. You must know what brings me here.”

She stroked back the hair across her brow, her hand masking her eyes. “Do you want me to make a divination for you?”

“I need no divination, Mother. Only the truth.” She had let fall her hand too quickly, his eyes had seized on hers. “What am I?” he said. “Tell me who I am.”

She stared. He saw she had expected some other question.

“Never mind,” he said, “whatever you have been doing. I know nothing about it. Tell me what I ask.”

She saw that in the few hours since they had last met, he had grown haggard.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.