Infanta by Louise Cooper

Author:Louise Cooper [Cooper, Louise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780586213353
Google: 66fDAAAACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Grafton
Published: 1990-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XV

“Indigo! Oh, Indigo, come and look! Come and see!”

The high, clear voice was vibrant with excitement, and Jessamin was away, running across the dunes toward the beach that stretched in a vast, smooth-washed crescent under the morning sun. More sedately, her companions climbed out of the two closed litters that had brought them, and Hild, who was far too stout to run after her young charge, shrilled, “Beba-mi! Not to the water, or I shall scold!”

“Oh, let her be, Hild.” Phereniq smiled as she slipped off her shoes and curled her toes appreciatively in the warm sand. “She so rarely has such freedom, and she can come to no harm.”

Luk fidgeted and looked up at Indigo. “I can go with her,” he suggested hopefully. “I’ll look after her.”

Indigo smiled. “Go, then, Luk. See if you can outrace Grimya.”

The boy grinned broadly. “That I shall never do!”

As Luk and the shewolf ran off after Jessamin, the three women stood watching them, enjoying the sunlight and the sea breeze and the magnificent vista spread out before them. Though autumn weather in Khimiz was hot by many standards, the heat was far kinder than the searing furnace of high summer, and the day had a delightfully mellow edge. Far away across the smooth sand the gulf glittered dazzlingly; breakers boomed on the distant low tideline, and the horizons were bathed in a dusty, bronzed haze. Indigo found it hard to believe that only a single headland separated them from Simhara’s harbor; and harder still to credit how long it had been since she last set foot on the beach. Grimya still visited it regularly, more often than not with Luk, whose love of the outdoor life showed no signs of diminishing with dawning adolescence, but since the epidemic of two years ago Indigo had lacked both the energy and the inclination to join the wolf on her walks. Now though, as she gazed at the three diminishing figures racing across the sand, she felt a sense of physical and mental renewal. The changing season, too, was a great relief, for the feverish dreams she had yet again been suffering had diminished, and she was able now to rely less heavily on the narcotics that were her only means of keeping the nightmares at bay. For the first time in many months, she felt cleansed-and felt, too, the tug of her old empathy with the sea returning after a long absence.

“They are so carefree at that age, aren’t they?” Phereniq had moved to stand beside Indigo, and smiled, adjusting her sun-veil slightly. “We should indulge them while we can. The Mother knows they’ll have enough of duty and convention when they’re older.”

Indigo glanced over her shoulder. Beyond the dunes’ edge she could see the palace guardsmen who had been detailed to keep onlookers away. They had needed to exercise a good deal of subterfuge in arranging this outing; if word had got out in Simhara that the Infanta was to visit the beach

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