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.Remembering how pleased he’d been to hear that, Rion could have cried.Back then he’d had no idea he was being cursed rather than blessed, chained rather than freed.Moth-er had always made a point of keeping her deliberately given word, and in that nothing had changed.There’d been a letter waiting for him when he’d returned to his room after lunch, written in her secretary’s flowing, familiar script.“My darling boy,” the letter had begun, just as though he were still ten years old.“I knew allowing you to come to Gan Garee without me would end badly, and so it has.Those trollops living in that so-called residence with you have obviously taken advantage of your sweet-natured innocence, but I refuse to abandon you in your hour of need.I’ve demanded an audience with the Blending, and this time I won’t allow them to sway me.One way or another I’ll soon have you out ofthere, and back with me where you belong.“As far as other things go, I must tell you frankly that I’m deeply disappointed.I sent word to Gan Garee ahead of you, to Dom Hoclan, my business manager.He arranged to have men keep watch over you, to protect you in case of trouble, and to discover what bad influences you might be exposed to.He was also supposed to keep you from those bad influences, but mistook my intention and merely had his men keep watch.When I received his report this morning, I immediately took to my bed.“My darling, how could you betray me so by indulging in the rutting practiced by animals and peasants? I realize you certainly had no idea how filthy and disgusting the thing you were made to do really was, but surely you should have known that what has my approval you have already been permitted to indulge in?That this very obvious truth failed to stop you I attribute to your being in the company of those nauseating peasants, and as soon as I have your word that it will never happen again, we’ll speak no more of it.“In the interim, I ordered Dom Hoclan to have the sickening female who desecrated you arrested by the guard and thrown out of the city.As soon as she’s found your honor will beavenged, and no one need ever know.The pain in my heart will remain, of course, but once you’ve returned to me and enough years have passed, the pain will surely do the same.“Be brave, my love, it won’t be long, you have my word on that.Until then, I remain, your adoring mother.”His adoring mother.Rion shuddered at that phrase as it rang over and over in his head.She’d decided to have Naran Whist arrested and thrown out of the city so Rion’s “honor” would be avenged, and that without knowing how much he burned to see the girl again.If she ever found out, Naran’s life would be worth less than acopper, and all because she’d generously turned a sheltered boy into a man.The boy’s mother didn’t want him to become a man, and all her considerable power and influence would be bent toward returning him to his place under her thumb.A wave of illness made Rion close his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them once more he was able to see Tamrissa and Ro again.The two had been walking in the garden since before Rion had come to the window, and something told him they had used a private part of the garden to share a kiss.He had very little experience in judging the matter, but he still had that definite feeling.And just a few moments ago, he’d seen Jowi hurrying to the bath house in a wrap.Ordinarily that would have meant nothing, but Coll had gone into the bath house a short while before her, and now the “occupied” sign hung very conspicuously on the door.Rion turned away from the window, frustration and anger rising dangerously within him.His mother’s minions would interfere with the woman he most wanted to associate with, and the only two other females he found the least interest in had refused his company before accepting that of other men-Was he so pitiful, then, that no decent relationship with a woman was possible for him? Was he doomed to be nothing more than “mother’s darling boy” for the rest of his days? He couldn’t bear that thought, he simply couldn’t,it was so damnably unfair!Anger turned so quickly to fury and rage that Rion would have been shocked if he hadn’t been so deeply caught up.Instead he snarled and lashed out with a fist as he’d been taught to do in his exercises.The motion was intended for the releasing of tension and pressures, a deliberate spilling of excess energy that might otherwise overwhelm him.He lashed out with his other fist even as he took another step— and the blow landed on something soft and yielding which was also invisible.For a brief moment Rion was startled, but then his wildly lunging thoughts found the answer.The exercise set he’d learned to form from solidified air as a boy; his mind had realized he needed it very badly now, and had formed the set without his being aware of it.Another blow in the same place showed Rion that the set really was there, so he began to use it as it was meant to be used.Pummeling the wide cushion until his breath came in gasps was the first step, and then he moved to the left, where the knobby pole was positioned.Grabbing the invisible pole and strangling and shaking it was immensely satisfying, and brought him to the point of being able to move to the right, again beyond the cushion.Separate sections of solidified air lay there, and he took one in each fist and began to raise and lower them.Their weight had been increased rather dramati-cally, so lifting them over and over was no easy thing.After the weights came the ladder, which he climbed up and down so many times that his leg muscles cringed at the thought of continuing on.His arms already felt that way, so he was finally able to leave the set and go to collapse on his bed.The fury and rage had been completely burned out of him, leaving his mind free to try rational thought again.But the anger wasn’t gone, far from it, and likely would never be gone again.Unless and until he found a way out of the madness his mother was determined to drag him back into [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]