“THAT WINTER, JUST BEFORE MID-WINTER-Mass, Queen Arpazia went out in her former way of the summer, to look for her lover. Draco had sent messengers: he would visit Belgra Demitu for the Mass. There was the usual uproar of preparation, which gushed round Arpazia like a swarm of ghosts. She walked from the palace on a glassy morning, when the keen wind brought the smell of snow from the mountains. Dressed in her furs and jewels, she expected, as formerly, no one would challenge her. It shocked her... therefore when they did. First guards in the palace, on the terrace walks. Then, as she crossed some open ground, a laborer gaping, and in the town itself the people scattering away from her, and soon she heard the sniggering of men. For sure they knew her, but now showed her no regard. They thought her a freak, and funny. Naturally this would be because she had fallen out of favor with the Woods People; she grasped this, but did not care. She had waited, in vain, for only one person, having sent him, by servants, or more naively, urchins, gifts to show her love, and three ill-written letters.MoreLessRead More Read Less
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