[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Park turned. They had ascended only the lowest of Saxawaman's walls. Other curtains of unmortared
stone, pale in the starlight, climbed the hill behind them. And beyond those walls were the greater stone
ramparts of the Andes, black against the sky.
The sky In the north and overhead lay the constellations with which Park was familiar, though here
they looked upside down. But to the south the stars were new to him, and made strange patterns. And
there were so many of them! In Kuuskoo's thin, clear air, they seemed almost close enough to reach out
and touch.
Kuuskoo's air was also chilly. Park had been sweating as he went up the stone stairs, but a few minutes
of quietly looking about were plenty to make him start shivering. "Now I see why you wanted towalk the
walls," he said, matching action to word. "We'd freeze if we just stood here."
"This is a fine mild night," Kuurikwiljor protested; but she fell in step beside him. "Are all people from
Vinland so sensitive to cold?"
"It's like I told your brother: I don't think all people from anywhere are any one thing. In Vinland, though,
most people would not think this night is mild."
"How odd," Kuurikwiljor said. "In what other small ways are our folk different, I wonder? Color is plain
at first glance, and faith soon becomes clear, but I never would have thought we might find different kinds
of weather comfortable."
"Tawantiinsuuju has provinces that get much hotter than Vinland, and stay hot the whole year around,"
Park said. "How do people from those lands like it here?"
Kuurikwiljor laughed. "They shake all the time, and wrap themselves up in blankets even at noon. I did
not think you were so delicate."
"I'm not, but it's " Park paused, trying to work out how to say it'sa matter of degree, not kind in
Ketjwa. He was still thinking when he heard someone kick a pebble not too far away. "What was that?"
His fists bunched. Kuuskoo had to have a few footpads, and no one was close by to hear him if he
needed to shout for help.
But Kuurikwiljor laughed again. "Just someone else or rather, some two else walking the walls of
Saxawaman. Did you think we were the only ones?"
"I hadn't thought about it at all." Now Park did, hard. So she'd taken him to the local lovers' lane, had
she? In that case . . . His arm slid round her waist. She didn't pull back. In fact, she moved closer. That
was doubly nice. Not only was she a pleasant armful of girl, she was also warm.
He kissed her. She put her arms around his neck. When at last they separated, she stared up at him,
eyes wide and wondering. "You really do still care for me, knowing I am a widow?"
"Yes, I care for you," Park said. "And what does your being a widow have to do with anything? I'm very
sorry you lost your husband, but "
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Kuurikwiljor's soft, breathy laugh made him stop. She said, "Another of those small differences between
your people and mine, I see. In Tawantiinsuuju, most widows stay chaste, and most men want little to do
with them. Indeed, if I had children it would be against the law for me to marry again."
"That's a foolish law," Park blurted. Then, lawyerlike, he hedged: "At least, it would be in Vinland. As
you say, our people are not the same."
He noted that she'd told him she wasn't forbidden to remarry, which probably meant she wanted to. He
thought marriage a fine institution for people who liked living in institutions. That didn't mean he had
anything against some of its concomitants. He kissed Kuurikwiljor again; she responded with an ardor he
found gratifying. But when he slid a hand under her tunic, she twisted away.
"It's fine to feel cared for, wanted," she said, "but I do not give myself to a man I've known only a day. If
that is all you want from me, better you should find apampairuuna, a woman of the marketplace."
"Of course it's not all," Park protested, hoping he sounded indignant. "I like your company, and talking
with you. But forgive me, because I do not know how to say this in fancy talk you are a widow, and
you know what goes on between men and women."
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
