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Out of the corner of his eye he saw the priest of Morian clench his chubby, ringed fingers at his sidesHe accepted the blessing and protection of Adaon, the priestess's index finger tracing the god's symbol on his brow, in the knowledge that he had successfully defused one priest's burgeoning desireWhen he rose and turned, it was to catch a wink, dangerous in that room and among that company, from Alessan di Tregea, at the back with the othersHe suppressed a grin, but not his surprise: the shepherd was disconcertingly perceptive Menico's first price was immediately accepted by Tomasso d'Astibar bar Sandre, confirming in Devin's mind what a sorry creature he was to bear such a magnificent name and lineage It would have interested him, and led him a step or two further down the head road towards maturity, to learn that Duke Sandre himself would have accepted the same price, or twice as much, and in exactly the same mannerDevin was not quite twenty though, and even Menico, three times his age, would loudly curse himself back at the inn amid the celebratory wine for not having quoted even more than the extortionate sum he had just received in full Only Eghano, aged and placid, softly drumming two wooden spoons on their trestle table, said, "Leave well enoughWe need not hold out a greedy palmThere will be more of these from now onIf you are wise you'll leave a tithe at each of the temples tomorrowWe will earn it back with gucci canvas bag interest when they choose musicians for the Ember Days Menico, in high good humor, swore even more magnificently than before, and announced a set intention to offer Eghano's wrinkled body as a tithe to the fleshy priest of Morian insteadEghano smiled toothlessly and continued his soft drumming Menico ordered them all to bed not long after the evening mealThey'd have an early start tomorrow, pointing towards the most important performance of their livesHe beamed benevolently as Aldine led Nieri from the roomThe girls would share a bed that night Devin was sure, and for the first time, he suspectedHe wished them joy of each other, knowing that they had come together magically as dancers that afternoon and also knowing, for it had happened to him once, how that could spill over into the candles of a late night in bed He looked around for Catriana but she had gone upstairs alreadyShe'd kissed him briefly on the cheek though, right after Menico's fierce embrace back in the Sandreni PalaceIt was a start; it might be a start He bade good night to the others and went up to the single room that was the one luxury he'd demanded of Menico's tour budget after Marra had died He expected to dream of her, because of the mourning rites, because of unslaked desire, because he dreamt of her most nightsInstead he had a vision of the god He saw Adaon on the mountainside in Tregea, naked and magnificentHe saw him torn apart in frenzy and in flowing chanel classic flap bag replica blood by his priestesses, suborned by their womanhood for this one autumn morning of every turning year to the deeper service of their sexShredding the flesh of the dying god in the service of the two goddesses who loved him and who shared him as mother, daughter, sister, bride, all through the year and through all the years since Eanna named the stars Shared him and loved him except on this one morning in the falling seasonThis morning that was shaped to become the harbinger, the promise of spring to come, of winter's endThis one single morning on the mountain when the god who was a man had to be slainTorn and slain, to be put into his place which was the earthTo become the soil, which would be nurtured in turn by the rain of Eanna's tears and the moist sorrowings of Morian's endless underground streams twisting in their needSlain to be reborn and so loved anew, more and more with each passing year, with each and every time of dying on these cypress-clad heightsSlain to be lamented and then to rise as a god rises, as a man does, as the wheat of summer fieldsTo rise and then lie down with the goddesses, with his mother and his bride, his sister and his daughter, with Eanna and Morian under sun and stars and the circling moons, the blue one and the silver Devin dreamt, terribly, that primal scene of women running on the mountainside, their long hair streaming behind them as they pursued the man-god to that high chasm above rolex day date the torrent of Casadel He saw their clothing torn from them as they cried each other on to the huntSaw branches of mountain trees, of spiny, bristling shrubs, claw their garments away, saw them render themselves deliberately naked for greater speed to the chase, seizing blood-red berries of sonrai to intoxicate themselves against what they would do high above the icy waters of Casadel He saw the god turn at last, his huge dark eyes wild and knowing, both, as he stood at the chasm brink, a stag at bay at the deemed, decreed, perennial place of his endingAnd Devin saw the women come upon him there, with their flying hair and blood flowing along their bodies and he saw Adaon bow his proud, glorious head to the doom of their rending hands and their teeth and their nails And there at the end of the chase Devin saw that the women's mouths were open wide as they cried to each other in ecstasy or anguish, in unrestrained desire or madness or bitter grief, but in his dream there was no sound at all to those criesInstead, piercing through the whole of that wild scene among cedar and cypress on the mountainside, the only thing Devin heard was the sound of Tregean shepherd pipes playing the tune of his own childhood fever, high and far away And at the end, at the very last, Devin saw that when the women came upon the god and caught him and closed about him at that high chasm over Casadel, his face when he turned to his rending was that chanel mens watches j12 of Alessan Chapter 3 EVEN BEFORE THE COMING OF CAUTIOUS ALBERICO FROM OVERSEAS in Barbadior to rule in Astibar, the city that liked to call itself "The Thumb that Rules the Palm" had been known for a certain degree of asceticismIn Astibar the mourning rites were never done in the presence of the dead as was the practice in the other eight provinces: such a procedure was regarded as excessive, too fevered an appeal to emotion They were to perform in the central courtyard of the Sandreni Palace, watched from chairs and benches placed around the courtyard, and from the loggias above, leading off the interior rooms on the two upper floorsIn one of those rooms, marked by the appropriate hangings, grey-blue and black, lay the body of Sandre d'Astibar, coins over his eyes to pay the nameless doorman at the last portal of Morian, food in his hands and shoes on his feet, for no one living could know how long that final journey to the goddess was He would be brought down to the courtyard later, so that all those citizens of his city and its distrada who wished to do so, and who were willing to brave the recording eyes of the Barbadian mercenaries posted outside, could file past his bier and drop blue-silver leaves of the olive tree in the single crystal vase that stood on a plinth in the courtyard even now The ordinary citizens, weavers, artisans, shopkeepers, farmers, sailors, servants, lesser merchants, would enter the palace gucci men watches lat