The Seascape Tattoo Read Online Free PDF Page A

and I wish to know portents for fortune and weather.”
    Neoloth’s mind whirled. “Travel … north to Nandia?” The northern kingdom was linked to Quillia by blood and custom, as well as by a shared language. It was a prosperous trading and shipping community clustered around a glittering bay.
    â€œYes. We’ve tried to keep it secret until now, but she departs day after tomorrow. Please, I ask that you pierce time’s veil.” For all her years and burdens, the queen was still a stunning beauty, still possessing much of the charm and vitality she had held in her youth, now tempered with the strength of judgment and experience that had accompanied her office.
    If Neoloth did not have the younger woman to compare with, he might have been entranced. But Tahlia was alive, and present, and it was all he could do not to stare at her.
    And she knew it.
    Tahlia smiled at him, with the sort of impish confidence only young women of supreme beauty and status ever seemed to know.
    â€œI will need as much information as you feel safe sharing with me,” he asked. “And also … I request a moment alone with the princess herself.”
    The queen’s eyebrow raised, and she looked at her daughter, who leaned back in her golden throne, smiling speculatively. Tahlia nodded.
    â€œGood,” the queen said. “Good. It is best that this was in the open.”
    â€œMay I ask,” he said. “What the fear might be?”
    The queen’s lips curled downward. “Since childhood,” she said, “I have been able to see small signs and portents. I knew the dress I needed to wear when I met Tahlia’s father.” That thought seemed to summon an old and fond memory. “I knew we would be wed. But also that we would not have many years together.” Tahlia’s father had died of a brain fever. Their court magician had not been able to stave it off, and that had been the beginning of Neoloth’s tenure. If only they had called him sooner …
    Well, it would have made little difference in an age when a wizard had to depend upon roots and herbs and leeches to effect his healings. And no mere medicines would have sufficed against the king’s ailment.
    Needless to say, he hadn’t mentioned that to the grieving widow. On the contrary, he had sworn that he would have saved her beloved, if only he had been called and trusted. The former royal witch had been fortunate to escape with her life. If he was not mistaken, she had sheltered in Shrike, north of Nandia.
    The queen exited accompanied by her maids in waiting, leaving the princess and Neoloth alone in the room, save for her guards. When the door closed behind the royal mother, the princess nodded to the guards, and they retreated as well, giving them privacy.
    The door clicked. As Neoloth approached the princess, she rose. He dropped to one knee and took her hand.
    It was warm and soft, and something inside him cried out for the beauty of it. “My princess,” he said, and touched his forehead to her hand. Odd how her skin was warm against his hand, but cool against his forehead. He knew not what to make of that, but felt just a little as if he were drowning.
    â€œWalk with me,” Tahlia said, and, taking his arm lightly, allowed him to escort her to the parapet.
    From there, they could look out over Quillia’s capital city. The morning shadows were long now, as the city shook off the cobwebs of slumber. Thousands of tradesmen, laborers, slaves attending to the business of their masters, young ones off to teachers or mentors to learn a trade.
    The scent of fresh bread wafted in the air, mingling with the clean scent of the western ocean. That ocean lay beyond the maze of roofs, just beyond his sight, and its ancient, endless rhythms would soon carry her away.
    Neoloth lowered his eyes.
    â€œI look forward to Zatch’s wedding,” she said. “Soon it will be my own time.