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.“I imagine we’ve both been thinking.”“No, listen.You’re right.I can never be happy as long as Smollings has a hold on me.I have no future here.I was thinking.we should just leave.”“Leave?”“I have money enough to keep us up.We can travel the world.We can see the Floating City and the God’s Gate—travel the spice routes—my God, think what a life that would be.It would be such an adventure.We’d never think about all this again.”Everything he said to me, he had once said to Annalie.His words echoed the inscription I’d found in the book he’d given her.“This is.this is all very sudden—”“I don’t think it’s sudden.I think it was inevitable,” he said.“The looks you give, Nim.Your eyes tell me to trust you.”How could I accept when his wife still lived! Yet, how could I refuse? “I’m not sure—”“Love isn’t sure,” he said, now taking my hands in his.I felt their warmth even through our gloves.“It’s frightening.But it’s full of possibility.And hope.”Oh, how I agreed! But it was not for Hollin that I hoped, and I couldn’t pretend otherwise.“It’s just, I’m still young, and.and are you sure you really feel this way? You’ve seen how Smollings looks down on me.He won’t be the only one.I don’t have anything to offer you.” I was blurting out things I thought should be said, but they had nothing to do with my real hesitations.“What must I say to convince you, Nimira? I asked you the other night what you need to be happy.What is it? I’ll do everything in my power to grant it to you.We could go back to Tiansher and start your own dancing troupe—anything.”The thought of Hollin in Tiansher running a dancing troupe almost made me laugh.“No.That isn’t it.”“What is it?”I could say the word and Hollin would take me away from New Sweeling.He would cheer up if he saw the sun rise in the Shai Valley.I could taste mangos again.To say nothing of the world’s riches I had never seen—the floating cities where the winged people lived, or the temples of Karadul, with shining minarets, tombs for long-forgotten kings.We could drink coffee in a waterfront café in Sormensen like the heroine of my favorite mystery novel and watch the sailboats on the glittering water.But even the sweetest mango would taste bitter, knowing I had left Erris in Smollings’s hands.“Do you believe the automaton is really the lost fairy prince?”Hollin pulled back against the seat.“Why?”“Don’t look so suspicious.” I spoke fast, as if I could outrun my sadness.“I’ve just spent a lot of time with it and I’ve never seen it do anything strange, but it’s a beautiful piece of art.I hate the idea that it could end up torn apart or gathering dust somewhere.And if it is the fairy prince, wouldn’t destroying it be murder?”“It would be.assassination.To prevent something even worse from happening.”“Is that what you really want? To be accomplice to an assassination? Is that really the kind of man you are?”Hollin drove his fingers through his hair, yanking the roots.“Nimira, you don’t understand—”“Then help me understand.Explain it to me.If I’m going to go away with you, I need to know you’re not the kind of man who would stand by and let an innocent man be killed.”His forehead wrinkled with pain, and he pressed it against the side of the carriage, which could hardly have been comfortable with all the rattling.“My father used to quarrel with Mother over the choices he’d made on the council.He would tell her she was just a woman, she couldn’t judge, and he’d give me a certain look and ask me to bring him a glass of brandy.I wanted to please him.But at the same time, I felt a horrid stab of guilt as my mother would rush from the room.”He took a deep breath.“I don’t want to be that way.If you can just be a little patient with me.You won’t be sorry, Nimira.my darling Nimira.I swear I’ll make you happy.”I wanted to tell him that I wasn’t his darling.I wanted to take Annalie’s diamonds from my neck.But if he sent me away, I’d never have a chance to save Erris.“Then, before we go.please make sure the automaton is safe.”“Is Smollings right? Have you talked to it? Is it alive?”His suspicion was hard to deny in the intimate confines of the carriage.Maybe the time had come to hint at the truth.“How would I talk to it? It’s a machine.It can’t talk.But sometimes.I think I feel it.I feel it living, and looking at me.When Smollings first suggested it was alive.I believed him, although I didn’t want to.If he is alive.then what a horrible fate, Hollin.”“A horrible fate,” he echoed.“Oh, Nimira, you are soft-hearted.I can’t do anything to help a fairy prince.If Smollings wants him, he will have him.We can only free ourselves.Please say you’ll go.I promise you won’t think of it with the fine sea air in your nose and the fine meals on your tongue.”If I agreed, I would have one chance to save Erris [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]