She wanted her father back from the Deisa, she...
She wanted her father back from the Deisa, she wanted Prince Valentin back and alive, her mother back from whatever country she wandered throughTo bear witness and remember, knowing even then that such things were going to matter, if anything mattered in the days and years to come
The soldier with the drawn blade placed the tip of it very carefully against her brother's breastThe afternoon sunlight glinted from itIt was a working blade, a soldier's swordThere came a small sound from the people gathered around the edges of the square
Her brother said, a little desperately, "They cannot hold the nameYou have destroyed usIs it necessary to go on causing pain? Is it necessary?"
He is only fifteen, Dianora prayed, gripping the ledge like death, her hand a clawHe was too young to fight
The four Asolini traders, as one man, 18k omega watch stepped quickly out of rangeOne of the soldiers, the one with the high laugh, shifted uncomfortably, as if regretting what this had come toBut there was a crowd gatheredThe boy had had his fair chanceThere was really no choice now
The sword pushed delicately forward a short way and then withdrewThrough a torn blue tunic a welling of blood appeared and hung a moment, bright in the springtime light, as if yearning towards the blade, before it broke and slid downwards, staining the blue
"The name," said the soldier quietlyThere was no levity in his voice nowHe was a professional, and he was preparing himself to kill, Dianora realized
A witness, a memory, she saw her younger brother spread his feet then, as if to anchor himself in the ground of the squareShe saw his hands clench into fists at his sidesShe saw his head go back, prada replica handbags lifting towards the sky
And then she heard his cry
He gave them what they demanded of him, he obeyed the command, but not sullenly or diffidently, and not in shameRooted in the land of his fathers, standing before the home of his family he looked towards the sun and let a name burst forth from his soul
"Tigana!" he cried that all should hearAll of them, everyone in the squareAnd again, louder yet: "Tigana!" And then a third, a last time, at the very summit of his voice, with pride, with love, with a lasting, unredeemed defiance of the heart
"TIGANA!"
Through the square that cry rang, along the streets, up to the windows where people watched, over the roofs of houses running westward to the sea or eastward to the temples, and far beyond all of these, a sound, a name, a hurled sorrow in the brightness of the air
And though the four prada fairy bag merchants could not cling to the name, though the soldiers could not hold it, the women at the windows and the children with them and the men riveted stone-still in street and square could hear it clearly, and clutch it to themselves, and they could gather and remember the pride at the base of that spiraling cry
And that much, looking around, the soldiers could see plainly and understandIt was written in the faces gathered around themHe had done only what they themselves had ordered him to do, but the game had been turned inside out, it had turned out wrong in some way they could but dimly comprehend
They beat him of course
With their fists and feet and with the flats of their cared-for bladesNaddo too, for being there and so a part of itThe crowd did not disperse though, which would have been the usual thing when a beating gucci bangle watch took placeThey watched in a silence unnatural for so many peopleThe only sound was that of the blows falling, for neither boy cried out and the soldiers did not speak
When it was over they scattered the crowd with oaths and imprecationsCrowds were illegal, even though they themselves had caused this one to formIn a few moments everyone was goneThere were only faces behind half-drawn curtains at upstairs windows looking down on a square empty save for two boys lying in the settling dust, blood bright on their clothing in the clear lightThere had been birds singing all around and all through what had happenedDianora could remember
She forced herself to remain where she wasNot to run down to themTo let them do this alone, as was their rightAnd at length she saw her brother rise with the slow, meditated movements of a very old rolex submariner 50th anniversary m