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'Why-?"
'Shhh, love," Ashe said, resting his finger on her lips, then replacing it with his own. "Don't ask why
tonight; leave that for the morning."
She returned his kiss without hesitation of any kind.
The lanternlight within the fiery cylinder that shone on the falling water of the fountain mirrored their
movements, a slow, gentle dance of melding, opposing elements, improbable in their attraction, beautiful
in their union.
Those bonds of elemental power, tied inexorably to their souls, sang deep within each of them; the
crackling passion of the fire that was she, the patient relentlessness of waves of the sea that was nascent
in him, oscillating, undulating, building and cresting as it joined with her, warmed by the pure, gleaming
fire within, forming a new element, one that burned with heat, ebbed with the tides of the sea, remaining
stalwart, unending, as their love for one another.
The element of Time.
In a fleeting moment of conscious thought amid the blissful oblivion of lovemaking, Rhapsody felt a
tone sound within her, a melodic note that was different fromda , her own Naming note, andsol , the
musical pitch to which Ashe was attuned. This new tone resonated through her body and mind, then
disappeared, leaving a mark she could sense, but only distantly.
It was the most beautiful sound she ever remembered hearing.
The water in the fountain on the table leapt with joy; the fire in the lantern burned brightly in time with
it, until its fuel was spent. Then it resolved to a gentle glow, reflecting in the ripples in the basin, no longer
leaping, but smooth as glass.
The moon crept over the horizon's edge, bathing the red clay of Yarim in white light, making the city
shine as if in a dream, the silent brick buildings and empty market stands gleaming in its radiance.
The moonlight glided through the open balcony window and came to rest on the two lovers, wrapped
in sleep and the arms of each other, spreading to lovers like them all across the city.
It tiptoed into the apertures beneath which children slept, blanketing them in its light, shining in their
dreams.
It shone around the sad, lifeless relic that stood in the center of a disrupted fountainbed, illuminating it
to dazzling as the tiny flakes of mica in its surface reflected the light.
From the depths of the now-cleared earthen passageway came a whisper, then a gurgle, and finally a
sigh.
A particularly bright moonbeam caught the first mist around the Fountain Rock's summit; it sparkled in
the haze of the glistening vapor, bathing it with an ethereal radiance of mist.
And as the dry, weary city slept in the cool wind of an otherwise warm summer night, life-giving water
began to pour forth, once more, from Entu-denin.
CV't'tVorning clanged in on the clamor of the bells from the Judiciary's tower ringing over a swell of
shouting in the still-dark streets.
Groggily Ashe sat up, deep in the fog of dragon-sleep, his head humming unpleasantly at the ruckus.
He muttered an inaudible curse, then rubbed his eyes with one hand as he propped himself up with the
other, the blissful ease of the night before dissipating around him.
His dragon senses came to awareness first; the fire in the room had gone out, and the heat of day had
not yet come to dispel the chill of dawn from the chamber. In the scope of his awareness he could feel
the water coursing forth from Entudenin a few street corners away, hear the glad tidings being shouted
and acclaimed by voice, the ringing of bells, the clashing of pots, and the banging of drums as Yarim Paar
awoke to the miracle. The minutiae of it all was mammoth; each individual in the square four hundred
twenty three, four hundred twenty four, the dragon counted each of the three hundred and seven,
no, nine, noise makers, each of the one hundred and eleven sparks in the fireplace, each drop of newly
flowing water seven hundred million, four hundred sixty seven thousand, three hundred thirty six,
seven, eight counted obsessively by his dragon nature. The resulting din made his head hurt, made him
struggle to subdue his innate awareness, shielding it from his conscious mind so he would not end up with
a colossal headache.
Rhapsody slept fitfully beside him, pale and whispering to herself. After spending half the night in deep
slumber she had become restless, edgily twitching from side to side in the bed, embroiled in dreams that
he could not chase away. He had, as a result, not gotten a great deal of rest, and he was certain, based
on the reverberations from her body and the alabaster hue of her face, that she had not, either.
He leaned over her and kissed her neck, his lips warm against her cold skin; it was moist, perspiring.
He laid his hand on her side and shook her gently.
'Rhapsody? It's almost dawn. Are you going to sing your aubade?"
She moaned in response, drawing her knees up and curling into a ball.
Alarm rushed over him. Ashe sat up, shaking off the tremors of cold worry and gathered him wife into
his arms. She was breathing shallowly, face beaded in sweat.
'Rhapsody?"
Weakly she pushed away from him and rolled onto her side, then dragged herself to the edge of the
bed. She stumbled as she stood, then hurried to the privy closet, slamming the door behind her.
The alarm that had gripped him was replaced a moment later with realization as the sounds of retching
issued forth from behind the bathroom door.
He rose quickly and dressed, waiting for her to return. After a few minutes had passed he walked to
the privy and stood outside the door.
'Rhapsody? Are you all right?"
Her answer was weak. "Go away, please."
'Can I get you something?"
'No. Go away."
He ran a hand nervously through his red-gold hair. "Do you "
'Ashe." Her voice came through the door more loudly this time, still ragged but a little stronger. "Go
away for a while, or I will have to kill you when I come out of here."
'Oh. Well, since I don't want to die just yet, I suppose I will go out on the balcony for a bit," he said,
his smile fighting with the furrows of worry in his brow. "If you need anything, just snap your fingers, and I
will be there."
'Thank you. Go away."
'All right."
'Now."
'At your will, m'lady."
The Lord Cymrian turned away from the renewed sound of retching and went out onto the balcony.
Dawn was breaking over the city, coming to light over the red buildings and making them gleam with
morning fire. Ashe took a deep breath, inhaling infinitesimal drops of moisture that had coated the air in
the night, leaving it heavy, sweet.
In the streets below a crowd was gathering, larger than the crowds that had pushed into the
Marketway to stare at the Bolg. There was an almost palpable violence mixed with the joy as the
townspeople at the edge of the central streets, those who had obviously heard the news from those
closer to the city square, shoved themselves forward, carrying jars and clay vessels for harvesting the
liquid bounty that had returned in the night.
Ashe noted, lacking any genuine interest, that the Shanouin priestesses had been summoned; a thin
corridor in the pressing crowd had been opened to allow a dozen or so of the veiled women in their pale
blue ghodins into the town square where the fountainbed had already begun to overflow, spilling precious
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