17.
 As he stared at his daughters, Ramyon became speechless. He boiled with suffering and anger, until he bit down on his protruding tongue. It was a Shurian's way of expressing anguish upon betrayal by a loved one. He would bite his tongue until the pain equaled that in his heart. Then he would say what he had to say before the tongue swelled his mouth shut, so that he long could not speak.
“You fools," Ramy heard Father speak chokingly. After a long taut silence in the gloomy room, he spoke of the sisters' late mother. "The only blessing tonight is that your mother and her saintly baba are in paradise and do not know these things you have done within this air they gave you to breathe."
Ramy looked up startled at the sudden sound of his voice, as if someone had poked her with a sharp object.
"You," Father said to the baba, "what jealousy possessed you? Did you want the monkey's mouth on yours also?"
"No, Father!" the baba wailed in her syrup-thick, almost masculine voice.
Ramy sighed as Father yelled at her sister.
All three of them knew that she loved her baba, and that the baba was as much her spouse as was young Lord Dumonhi.
Ramy blamed herself as the First Cause. She had seduced her loyal, gentle companion, Jory, out of some inner anger at Dumonhi, not so much because he was mostly away, but because when he made love he was callous as if he were milking cattle.
Now she had brought the wrath of the Universe down. She understood the outcome.
Best case, and least likely, she would have her tongue cut off and be sent into exile at a far monastery, to live silently in a cell alone.
Worst case, her father would kill both her and the baba any moment now.
In any case, poor Jory would die. Judging by the way his scabbarded sword lay loosely by Father's side, and by the condition of the large linen-storage basket, their lives had no value anymore.
"And you, Cause of Celestial Disharmony!"
She felt the hurt inside his anger, and knelt upright, buttocks resting on her heels.
She wiped her face with the ends of her plain linen robe and said: "Whatever my fate, I accept it, Father. I only have the wish to tell you once more that I love you and I am sorry I caused this hurt."
As she spoke, she stared at his fearsome face, his huge eyes and rippling jaws like a dragon's—and only understood his silence when thick blood flowed from the downturned corners of his mouth. His eyes were wild holes, and blood spiderwebbed on his clothing.
The baba threw her hands up and wailed anew.
Ramy jumped up and ran to wipe his mouth with the hem of her long robe.
But he rose.
The sword flashed in the air. He froze in a gesture as if to slice her in half down the middle, which he easily could have, as he had once slain his enemies in battle—and some of them in leather or wooden armor!
She knelt on the floor directly before the dais, opened her robe at the chest, and pulled it back to expose her neck.
She inclined her head deeply, until her forehead touched the floor, and waited for the swish of a final, fatal, sudden wind.
|
Thank you for reading. If you love it, tell your friends. Please post a favorable review at Amazon, Good Reads, and other online resources. If you want to thank the author, you may also buy a copy for the low price of a cup of coffee. It's called Read-a-Latte: similar (or lower) price as a latte at your favorite coffeeshop, but the book lasts forever while the beverage is quickly gone. Thank you (JTC).
|
TOP
|
MAIN
Copyright © 2018 by Jean-Thomas Cullen, Clocktower Books. All Rights Reserved.
|
