The Towers of the Sunset Read Online Free PDF

gestures to the guard at the end of the dais.
    Creslin takes the inside stairs to his quarters, leaving the sleeping arrangements for the minstrel to his sister.
     
     
    VIII
     
    THE RED-HAIRED woman wearing the iron bracelets glances into the mirror, her lips tight. The surface wavers, but no image appears. In time she loses her concentration and plunges her wrists into the bucket beside her chair.
    The hiss of the steam mingles with her sigh.
    Later, after pulling the combs from her long red hair, she looks over at the miniature portrait of herself where it rests atop the ornate wooden desk. Ryessa had insisted that the artist paint her hair short, even though she has never bowed to the military fashion sweeping Sarronnyn. Her sister the Tyrant has never let reality interfere with the images necessary for a successful reign.
    The redhead's fingers stray toward her left arm. She wills the itch to depart, as she has willed for too long. Imagination? Her blood swirls with the roar of the winds.
    "Still getting stronger, isn't it?" The voice coming from the woman who has just entered is cold, as cold as though her ice-blond hair were indeed fashioned partly from the winter ice.
    "I don't feel much of anything," the redhead lies.
    "You're lying."
    "So I'm lying. Hang me. You'd like to. You're just offering me another form of bondage . . . maybe one that's even worse than these." She holds up her arms, letting the silks draw back. The iron slides away from the welts and scars. She lowers her arms, and the silks again conceal the marks.
    "You still don't give up?"
    "How can I?" The redhead looks down. There is silence before she looks up. "I was thinking . . . remembering, really, back before . . . Anyway, you and I used to play in the old courtyard, and you used to get so mad because I could always find you, no matter where you hid. But then you'd laugh, at least some of the time-"
    "That was when we were children, Megaera."
    "Aren't we still sisters? Or did your ascension make me illegitimate?"
    "The White has never been legitimate under the Legend."
    "Am I any different now, because my talent is classified as White?"
    "That was never the question." The blonde shakes her head. "In any case, the negotiations with Westwind may offer you a way out."
    "A way out? By enslaving me to a mere man? How could a real sister do that?"
    "You think my choice is unfair?"
    "When have you ever been fair, Ryessa?"
    "I do what is best for Sarronnyn." The blonde shrugs. "In any case, this is fairer. I don't trust Korweil, and I especially don't trust Dylyss."
    "You don't trust the Marshall, deadliest fighter in Candar? How skeptical of you."
    "Not skeptical. Just practical. Dylyss fights hard, and I'll bet she loves as hard as she fights. He is her son."
    "You think she will turn you down?" Megaera laughs harshly.
    "After the way you set up Dreric? And Creslin's reaction?"
    "Creslin is good, almost as good as a guard."
    "From what I saw, he's better than some." The Tyrant smiles.
    "He doesn't think so."
    "You think Dylyss would let him know? It doesn't make any difference. From what I hear from Suthya, Cerlyn, and Bleyans, they're not likely to welcome such a wolf in lamb's clothing. They'll use the Legend as an excuse."
    "You believe it's only an excuse? You're a bigger hypocrite than Dylyss, or Korweil."
    "None of us were alive in the time of Ryba."
    "How convenient for you."
    The Tyrant smiles. "It's convenient for you as well. If I really believed in the Legend and the demons of light-"
    "Please don't remind me again."
    "Can you sense what he feels?"
    "I sense nothing. I told you that. Just go back to your scheming."
    "It's for your benefit too, sister. Who else could stand to your fury, to the power within you, bracelets or not?"
    "And how long will either of us last once I'm with child?"
    "You with child? Without your consent? Spare me."
    "Against a blade better than your best, sister dear? You act as if I really had a choice."
    There is no