Read The Crystal Chalice (Book 1) for Free Online Page B

parcel. She sat on the floor of her little, round room
surrounded by the bounty, feeling overwhelmed by such generosity.
     When she read the note again she discovered a post
scriptum that she had overlooked before, suggesting that she might like to
accompany the Prince on a ride that afternoon. She realised that his generosity
extended to his time as well as to material things. With so many more weighty
matters on his mind, she fully appreciated the extent of his kindness.
      Anxious to share her good fortune with
someone, she lifted her favourite tunic - the blue one - and tumbled down the
spiral stair in search of Relisar.
     He was in his study as usual, and as usual he was
bent over some weighty tome, holding it to the light at the tiny window, peering
at it short-sightedly, his nose almost touching the page. Skah was perched on
the back of a chair watching him with a bored expression. When Elorin burst
into the room, the owl’s head revolved to look at her in that rather
disconcerting way that owls do.
     “Look Relisar!” she exclaimed, holding up the tunic.
“Look what Prince Andarion has sent me! And there is more upstairs - clothes,
hairbrushes, everything a person could wish for.”
     Relisar looked up, clearly preoccupied. “Yes, yes,
very nice. Go and put it on,” he suggested, in a not very sophisticated attempt
to get rid of her.
     “But wasn’t it kind?”
     His attention had already returned to his book.
“Yes, indeed, the Prince is most considerate........now, I wonder.....” he
added in a musing tone, and crossing the room, lifted another book and stuck
his nose in it.
     “He’s asked me to go riding with him,” she
persisted, but on receiving no response, gave it up as a bad job and returned
to her room to find that Keesha had at least signified her approval by hanging
up all the clothes and arranging the hairbrushes on the dressing-table.
      Soon she stood waiting in the mild autumn sunshine
by the door of the tower, her entire person clothed in sapphire blue, her long
hair brushed with the silver brushes until it shone.
      The sound of hooves from beyond the ivy-covered
archway alerted her to the Prince’s presence. He rode a beautiful bay horse,
its coat rippling glossily in the sunshine and led a rather fresh-looking
chestnut. When he drew level with her, he swung his leg over the pommel and
slid out of the saddle.
      “Why, Elorin,” he declared mischievously, “you look
almost presentable.”
     She laughed. “How can I ever thank you.....” she
began, but he brushed her gratitude aside with a characteristic gesture of his
hand.
     “You have nothing to thank me for. It is hardly
adequate compensation for all you have gone through, for all you have lost.” He
led the chestnut horse forward. “Come, let’s enjoy what might be the last of
these golden afternoons. Winter is approaching fast - I can feel it. The 
first frost was on the lawn this morning and all the swallows have gone. It
won’t be long before I, too, must be gone.”
     He helped her to mount and led the way out of the
palace, down through the steep, crowded streets. He had to respond to so many
greetings and smiles that he was unable to converse with her. People came out
of their houses to see him, some leaning over the pretty, flower bedecked
balconies that graced many of the houses at first floor level. The Prince had a
smile or a pleasant word for all of them and Elorin was conscious of a
proprietorial sense of pride in him. However, their descent might have been
more pleasant if she had been regarded in the same way, but the smiles of the
crowd became hard stares when they rested on her and the pleasant remarks
became muttered imprecations. She guessed disappointment at Relisar’s mistake
ran deep.
     When they emerged from the city walls and crossed
the elegant, arching bridge over the river, Andarion took the eastern road, a
long, white, dusty scar that stretched its pale finger towards some