The Ruby In Her Navel

Author:Barry Unsworth
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: prose_history
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

XV

The list came, her name was there, and strange it was to see it so indifferently mixed among the others when it sounded with golden trumpets and the voices of angels when my eyes came to rest on it. Day followed day, till that one came, the much-awaited. I rode out of the city while it was still early, before the sun grew too hot. The sky was clear, the larks were singing, my heart was high with anticipation. The waters of the Oreto sparkled as I crossed it by the Admiral's Bridge, as they call it, a bridge of many arches that was made on the orders of the Emir George Antiochenus, the same who afterwards raided Thebes and carried off the silk workers, among them my Sara. Before long, I thought, I will free myself from these silken strings; one last present, in gold, a keepsake; then all my heart and homage for Alicia…

This thought raised my spirits further, and as I left the river behind me I lifted my head and broke into song: Lady, my heart, the best friend that I have, I leave in your keeping, till we can love with all our bodies I ceased, however, not feeling the words to be fitting, as I passed by the Church of San Giovanni dei Leprosi, which lies not far beyond the river. This church was built by our King's uncle, Robert Guiscard, on the very spot where the Norman army first encamped before Palermo, which was then still in the hands of the Saracens.

The outer gates to the palace were reached by a roadway with forest on either side. I announced my name to the guards and they knew it without needing to look at any list, something of extreme rarity in my life up to then. I was conducted by one of them, who walked alongside, holding my horse, this also being far from common in my experience. I wondered whether I might in future take my father's title and call myself Thurstan of Mescoli.

We came to the lakeside and the arcaded front of the palace rose before me, set amidst groves of orange trees. There was a causeway, built up with stone, that led across the water to the gilded gates of the palace itself – the only way to reach them by land. Passing over this, I saw a ripple and a flash of gold as some great carp turned near the surface.

There was a strange, sudden impression of extended distances and doubled perspectives, as if the lake itself, the sunlit waters and the dark-leaved trees and the interleaving arches of the palace were shifting and receding as I drew nearer.

It was a confusion of the senses very fleeting, ceasing as I came before the gates. Glancing aside before entering, I saw a group of men and women walking together at the borders of the lake, dressed in light-coloured clothes. I wondered if one of the ladies might be Alicia, but it was too far for me to see clearly.

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