The truer measure of power, Brandin had once said...
The truer measure of power, Brandin had once said to her, wouldn't be found in having twenty heralds deafen a room by proclaiming one's arrivalAny fool in funds for a day could rivet attention that wayThe more testing course, the truer measure, was to enter unobtrusively and observe what happened
What happened was what always happenedThe Audience Chamber had been collectively poised as if on the edge of a cliff for the past ten minutes, waitingNow, just as collectively, the court plummeted into obeisanceNot one person in the whole crowded room was still speaking by the time the herald's muted staff of office proclaimed the KingIn the silence the two discreet raps on the marbled floor sounded like echoing thunder
Brandin was in high good humorDianora could have told that gucci bags leather from halfway across the room, even if she hadn't had a hint from Rhun alreadyHer heart was beating very fastIt always did whenever Brandin entered a room where she wasEven after twelve yearsEven still, and despite everythingSo many lines of her life led to or from this man or came together, hopelessly intertwined, in him
He looked to d'Eymon first, as always, and received the other's expressionless bow, sketched low in the Ygrathen fashionThen, as always, he turned and smiled at SoloresBraced as she was, as she always tried to be, she still could not quite master what happened to her when the grey eyes found and held her ownHis glance was like a touch, a gliding presence, fiery and glacial both, as Brandin was
And all this from a look across a very crowded room
Once, in bed, gucci monogram wallet years before, she had dared to ask him a question that had long troubled her
"Is there sorcery involved when you love me here, or when we first meet in a public place?"
She hadn't known what answer she wanted, or what to expect by way of reactionShe'd thought he might be flattered by the implication, or at least amusedYou could never be sure with Brandin though, his mind ran through too many different channels and with too much subtletyWhich is why questions, especially revealing ones, were dangerousThis had been important to her though: if he said yes she was going to try to use that to kindle her killing anger againThe anger she seemed to have lost here in the strange world that was the Island
Her expression must have been very grave; he turned on his pillow, head propped hermes bags on one hand to regard her from beneath level brows
"Not in any way you are thinkingNothing that I control or shape with my magic, other than the matter of childrenI will not have any more heirs, you know that She did know that; all his women didHe said, after a pause, carefully, "Why do you ask? What happens to you?"
For a second she thought she'd heard uncertainty in his voice, but one could never be sure of such things with Brandin"Too much," she'd answered And she'd been speaking, for that one time, the unshielded truth of a no longer innocent heartThere was an acute understanding in his clear eyesShe moved herself, moved by all the layers of her need, to slide over against his body again and then above and upon it that it might begin once more, the whole processAll of rolex oyster it: betrayal and memory mixed with yearning, as in the amber-colored wine the Triad were said to drink, too potent for mortals to taste
"Are you truly serious about that posting in Asoli?" Rhamanus's voice was softBrandin had not gone to the throne but was making a relaxed circuit of the room, more evidence of his benign moodRhun, with his lopsided smile, shambled in his wake
"I confess I had never even given it a thought," the former Tribute captain added
With an effort Dianora forced her thoughts back to himFor a second she had forgotten her own queryBrandin did that to herIt was not a good thing, she thoughtFor many reasons it was not a good thing
She turned again to Rhamanus"I'm quite serious," she said"But I'm not sure if you would want the position, even if it were tiffany bracelets possi