The Myst Reader by Rand Miller

Author:Rand Miller [Miller, Rand]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4013-8221-6
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 1997-06-23T16:00:00+00:00

ON THE BOAT ACROSS TO K’VEER, ANNA BEGAN to have second thoughts about meeting so many strangers at the ceremony.

With Aitrus it was fine, for it was only the two of them, as it had been with her father, but with all others, even with Aitrus’s parents, she felt ill at ease. She was not by any means a social creature. How she should act and what she should say, these things were a complete mystery to her.

It does not matter, Aitrus had said to her. They do not expect you to behave as they behave.

Now, as the island grew nearer and she could see the great host of boats queuing to enter the tiny harbor, she felt her nervousness return.

Last night, before her conversation with Aitrus, there had been a strange little scene in Kahlis’s study. Knowing that his father knew nothing of their ventures into Ko’ah, Aitrus had had his father “explain” about Books to Anna, and she, schooled by Aitrus in what to say and how to react, had pretended that it was all completely new to her.

Kahlis had clearly been concerned; not only at Anna’s possible reaction but by the problem of just how much to tell her. Aitrus, however, had convinced him that had Lord Eneah not meant her to know, then he would have given explicit instructions to that effect. Kahlis would, indeed, have gone to see Lord Eneah had the great man not taken to his bed again with a recurrence of his illness.

And so Kahlis had “prepared” her, telling her that she must expect a great surprise, and that she was not to be afraid, for all that she would experience was quite normal. And she, prompted by Aitrus, had feigned that she understood, even though she would barely have recognized the process of “linking” from the description Aitrus’s father had given her. It had been vague almost to the point of willfulness.

As their boat joined the great queue of boats, Anna could see, on the decks, endless guildsmen and their wives and sons and daughters, all of them dressed in their best finery. Looking at them, Anna felt her spirits sink again. She should never have come. Then her father’s voice sounded clearly in her head.

Don’t worry, Anna. Just be yourself.

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