Or What You Will by Jo Walton

Author:Jo Walton [Walton, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2020-07-17T16:00:00+00:00

20

IF NOT HEREAFTER

After the funeral, Orsino feels a strong desire to go riding out alone over the countryside, taking a hawk and a hound with him for company. Normally he would indulge this impulse, saying to himself that he is too tired to work well, the sun is shining after the storm, and there will not be many more mild autumnal days before the frosts. Today he wonders whether he will ever have another carefree afternoon of hunting, hardly caring whether he finds any game or not. He has had so many of them, ranging here and there over the Thalian hills, sometimes greeting farmers as they go about their business, sometimes speaking to nobody until the walls of the city come back into view. He enjoys hunting in a party for deer or wild boar, but riding alone with a falcon delights him more. When he goes out with others he always feels they are looking to him for a lead. If he is the one to make the kill, he wonders if the others allowed it because he is the lord. A hunting party with visiting dignitaries or his own courtiers is a social occasion, and one that needs to be finessed. Hunting alone has no pressure of any kind. He sometimes brings home rabbits, or partridges, or quails, but even if he finds nothing at all he thoroughly enjoys an afternoon with horse and dog and hawk amid the ever-changing beauty of nature. He comes back refreshed to the city and his duties.

Even today he asks himself whether it would clear his mind and make it easier to see what to do about the dilemma of Geryon and Caliban. But as they walk back through the streets he sees Drusilla skip a step, then remember the solemnity of the occasion and look around to see whether anyone has noticed. Viola has, and is trying not to smile. It wouldn’t be fair to keep this news from his family any longer. It affects them too.

As soon as they are indoors, as the courtiers begin to disperse, Olivia turns to him. “We need to talk. Would some random Antean churn up Ficino’s house and kill his apprentice? Why? Or is Caliban loose?”

“Let’s go somewhere private,” Orsino says, including Sebastian and Viola in his glance. Sebastian, at this hint of real trouble, has straightened up and somehow intensified, so he now looks dangerous rather than relaxed—as a cat stretched out by the fire might all of an instant at a passing sound twitch into alertness and show her true predator self.

“I want to come too,” Drusilla says.

“It’s time for your Greek lesson,” Viola objects.

“No it isn’t, I did it this morning.” Orsino makes eye contact with her tutor, a promising young man from Yavan who is also one of his Greek secretaries. He nods, confirming what Drusilla says. Orsino sighs, and waves the tutor away. “I’ve been to the stable and seen Leander, and he’s wonderful, but I know you’re going to discuss something important and I want to be there.

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