Window Wall by Melanie Rawn

Author:Melanie Rawn [Rawn, Melanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Titan Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

15

In a low, intimate drawl, Lord Rolon Piercehand murmured, “It has come to my attention that you and I share certain tastes.”

He said this with one arm slung companionably about Mieka’s shoulders, leaning down from his great height so that his words could not be overheard. Mieka hated it when really tall people loomed over him like that (well, not Yazz or Cade, except when they were angry with him). Lord Piercehand made things worse with the sharp curl of his fingers into Mieka’s right shoulder. But worst of all was the truly astonishing smell of the man’s breath, caused in part, as he had learned last night when Piercehand opened his mouth wide to roar with laughter, by several back teeth that were succumbing to black-rot. Mieka forced himself to smile rather than screw up his face in disgust at the odor of bad teeth, stale liquor, the spices from last night’s dinner, and the sickly scent of sweet violet candies. Like an unwashed whore who soaked herself in strong perfume instead of a bathtub, His Lordship mistakenly believed that the violets masked any other smells.

“And those tastes might be?” Mieka asked politely. A wink was the only answer. He was propelled by that powerful, heavy arm along a hallway from the breakfast room to a staircase, up to another hallway, around several turns (one of which took them past the library), and at last to a painted wooden door. Every time Mieka parted his lips to speak, Piercehand hushed him with a shake of the head or another wink, conspiratorial now, as if some delicious secret awaited him.

The arm was removed as Piercehand delved in both jacket pockets, muttering about a key. The door was painted with the scene of the family name’s origin: a battle, a king in armor, a young squire with one palm held out at the level of the king’s chest, and an arrow shot through the middle of that palm. The dripping blood was made of dark crimson rubies set into the wood.

Noting Mieka’s interest, Piercehand said, “Yes, saving a king’s life turned out quite profitable in terms of lands and castles. I wonder that more people don’t do it. Here we are—it always takes me half of forever to find the damned key.” Applying it to the lock, he flung open the door.

The room was long and rather narrow, paneled in pale wood, lit by three hanging candle-branches of a dozen lights each, and cluttered with wide couches, deep chairs, spindly tables, glass-shaded lamps, thick carpets of violent and mutually antagonistic designs, tall shelves displaying a thousand different trinkets and trifles, and a deeply carved wooden desk below the middle window. All three windows were festooned with ropes of fat, shiny glass beads. The outer two were done in patterns of gold, blue, green, and purple, arranged in squares and rectangles and diamond shapes. The middle window, above the desk, was hung with scarlet only, as if someone had strung together solid drops of blood.

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.