Anna von Wessen Read Online Free PDF Page A

she had shifted from her own chamber, to the room where the portrait was tucked safely away. She did not turn on the light; for her eyes did not need it. She merely reached to displace the bit of wall that Greyson had once carved away; dragged out the portrait, removed its cloth, and looked hard at its beautiful occupant. She was so perfect, so proud. Her hair was black as Anna’s, and her eyes were just as dark – but her skin was not pale and cold-seeming. Rather it was a warm olive-colour, bestowed upon her by the poor Clarisa Bartoli. The steel in her gaze, and the fearlessness in her bearing, however, were surely all Ephram’s.
    Princess Vaya Eleria – Ephram’s true daughter. Anna looked long upon the portrait, but could not seem to change her own opinion, that she herself was a poor substitute. She knew, as did most others, why Ephram loved her so – and she knew that it was not for herself.
    She sighed heavily (a thing, for a Lumarian, which has only to do with the expelling of a sound of mighty discontent, and nothing at all to do with the breath that it does not have to give; though certainly this does not mean that Anna’s sigh was any less mournful than a human’s would have been), and replaced the portrait in the wall. A moment later, and she was back in her chamber, lying upon her great cold bed. Blackness filled the room, and was interrupted only by a bit of silver light streaming between the curtains. This light, however, did nothing to relieve the darkness. It only showed that it was there.
     
     

IV:
    Feasting Night
     
    A s Anna had rightly predicted, the monthly banquet fell upon the following Wednesday. The thirty inhabitants of the manor poured together into the dining room at approximately nine o’clock, settling themselves according to custom at the great table, beside the dark windows and beneath the glowing chandelier. The light from its golden sconces fell shimmering over a floor of polished black oak, where the many footsteps quickly ceased to vibrate, as all the chairs at the table were filled.
    “Good evening, my children!” said Ephram, as he reached out to take the hands of those nearest him (Valo on his left, and Anna on his right). Beside Valo was Ari; and beside Anna was Greyson. Then there came, in no specific order which had much of anything to do with their place or rank, the remaining five-and-twenty members of the household – all of whom we will not go to the trouble of naming, as most of them will never have even the slightest impact upon this narrative.
    “McGee and Sons” (as you have no doubt inferred by now, was not their real name at all) arrived that very afternoon with the delivery. They tipped their caps to Ephram, who stood as always to oversee the process; and then carried the great packages of meat into the kitchen, where the servants were waiting to prepare it. Not to cook it, no – but merely to lay it out on shining platters, from which the members of the house would dine with knives and forks of polished silver, just to feel that much more civilised.
    All down the centre of the gleaming wooden board there were laid dishes filled with boneless, lukewarm, bloody meat. Both sides of the table laid their napkins neatly over their laps, took their utensils up in their hands – and went to work like ravenous tigers.
    There was a generous quantity available that night, and everyone ate their fill. There were even several instances, after quite all of the meat had been cleared from the trays, of the table’s leaning heavily back in their chairs, to place contented hands upon their full stomachs – and the scene was very similar, to that of the aftermath of a large Sunday-night pot roast, with which we inexperienced humans are doubtless more familiar. 
    Greyson gave a deep and happy sigh, as he nudged at Anna with his elbow. “How about that?” he asked. “This month might not be so difficult!”
    Anna made him no answer, for she was staring very intently