| Devin remembers the Prince the afternoon his mother diedHe wipes at his eyes with the backs of his handsTurns to Rovigo: "We are too many to stay togetherYou and Sandre take AlaisThey may recognize her, she was with Catriana when the Governor saw themWe'll go another way and meet you in our rooms
Then he takes Alessan by the arm, and turns him, the Prince does not resist, follows his leadThe two of them start south, stumbling down a lane that will take them away from the castle, from the garden where she liesHe realizes he is still holding Sandre's bloodied daggerHe jams it into his belt
He thinks about the Duke, about what Sandre has just done to himselfHe remembers, his mind playing its familiar tricks with time and memory, a night in the Sandreni lodge last fallHis own first night that has led him hereWhen replica chanel jewelry Sandre told them he could not take Tomasso out of the dungeon alive because he lacked the powerBecause he'd never sacrificed his fingers in the wizard's bindingFor Catriana, not his son, and to no good at allThere is something that hurts so much in all of thisTomasso is nine months dead, and now she lies in a garden in Senzio, dead as any of the men of Tigana who fell in war by the Deisa years ago
Which was the whole point for her, Devin knowsShe had told him as much in Alienor's castleHe begins to cry again, unable to stop himselfA moment later he feels Alessan's hand upon his shoulder
"Hold hard, for a little longer yet," the Prince saysHis first words since her fall"You lead me and I'll lead you, and afterwards we will mourn together, you and I He leaves the hand on Devin's shoulderThey make their way through dolce |
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