and wet with sweat even down his legs. He squinted on leaving the dimness of the
temple, for the time was mid-afternoon, not night at all.
Had it begun then, even in daylight?-the hallucinations, the false feeling of
importance that was a lie swarming up like a nest of spiders from the lees of
swilled wine?
Or did I hear-could I have heard … a god? . The god?
He had walked from the temple, seeing nothing and no one. A person apart and an
island indeed! Until, as if a hood had been lifted off his head to bare his
eyes, he saw Mignureal.
She came directly toward him, looking at him, that S’danzo daughter of his
friend Moonflower of the Seeing eyes. Moonflower who so well knew him-and did
not want him having aught to do with her daughter. Mignureal. Heading
purposefully toward him, gazing at him. A girl who looked thirteen and was
older, long since pubertous and interested in Hanse-fascinated with Hanse as a
woman is ever fascinated by and with the rascal. It pleased her to act as if she
was thirteen, not a woman of sixteen, most of whose age-peers were wedded or at
least bedded.
“My daughter is very young and thinks you are just so romantic a figure,” that
great big woman said, who was such a pretty little woman inside the masses of
flesh her husband so loved. “Will you just pretend she is your sister?”
“Oh you would not want that,” Hanse had assured her, in one of those rare
revelations as to the sort of childhood he must have had. “She is my friend’s
daughter and I shall call her cousin.”
Hanse meant that promise. Besides, Mignureal had seen him quaking and blubbering
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289