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.""A good thing because the food is very plain.""Hah, plain you call it? It's perfectly horrible, but it is food.""Yes, it is better than to go hungry.""And after I've eaten some perhaps we shall go and walk up one of these hills, eh, and you can tell me more about your homeland.I have missed our talks.""Yes, my lord, I will be happy to do so."CHAPTER FORTY-THREEThe Festival of First Snow was going very well, although snow seemed quite unlikely.Simona had received seven invitations, one for every important day of the festival.In addition, she was going to host a small dinner party for several close relatives on the Gsekk side.The party would be held on the third night of the festival, traditionally a quiet night, the least important of the seven nights of the main festival.So it was the perfect time for her own small affair, held in part to commemorate her mother, poor Chiknulba, who had died of the plague in a far-off land.Fortunately, her haughty relatives had accepted her invitations, which had been a great relief, though she suspected that Aunt Piggili might have applied a little pressure in that regard.Simona knew that her status as a girl with a strawberry birthmark on her breast was decidedly low among the Gsekk clan.The consensus was that Chiknulba had married beneath herself socially.Her husband was a sawbones of some sort, who had some kind of naval connection, and the Gsekk were not much involved in the navy, which was felt to have much less glamour than the army.Aunt Piggili was a great ally, however, and her opinion had high status.But all that was still days away.First there was The Last Night of the Year, which was always the time for the grandest events of all.Lord Iblesse of Fex held a huge party.Simona had been invited and on entering had been embraced by Lady Yeleema, hostess of Fex.Such marks of social favor had been rare and far between in Simona's life.A part of her treasured them, while another part despised them.The party was held in a great room divided into two sections by a gauze curtain hung down the middle of the ceiling.The men were on one side, the women on the other.The filmy gauze made it impossible for a man to clearly see the face of any of the women present.They could converse freely through the screen, of course, and even pass written notes to each other, but the rules of purdah were enforced.At such festival gatherings among the elite, it was customary for young men to pass notes to the most desired young women, begging for the chance to view their bodies with an eye to marriage.Young women expected to be so courted and were ready to reply, often with withering contempt.Of course, Simona knew that she would not receive such notes of desire.She had been viewed by eleven men already and was unwed.The strawberry mark was a well-known mark of witchery.No man of her own class would want her.She found it galling that sitting just on the other side of the gauze were several young men who had examined her body, the precursor to a marriage bid, but had refused to bid afterward."Nibbling the apple" it was called and was a mark of shame.These young men had enjoyed seeing her naked body and then had refused her because of the strawberry mark.They took no notice of the minor announcement of her arrival with her friends.However, other men did take notice.Messages were passed in to her from two of her Gsekk uncles.They wanted to hear all about the new world and also about the sad death of Chiknulba.She drew close to them, with just the screen separating them."A delightful little thing, was Chiknulba," said old Hermeez."Sorry to hear she'd died like that.Married some awful naval sawbones I heard.Lived in Shasht, can you imagine? Awful business."Simona decided not to remind old uncle Hermeez that she was a product of the marriage to the "naval sawbones" and also lived in the city of Shasht.Some things were better left unsaid.Then there were other men, friends of her father's."He would have come," she said of Filek's absence."He wanted to, but the work on the micro-scope is at a delicate stage.He cannot leave it.The Emperor himself has insisted that it be completed soon."Describing the micro-scope to some of the older, and dimmer relatives was a trial."Look at things that you can't see? What's the point of that?" was a common reaction.The gong announced the dinner prayers.A Gold Top appeared to say the prayers and blessings, then the slaves began bringing in the endless procession of dishes.Singers and musicians took their station in the "cradle," a cage to keep them separate from the women.The musicians played a different piece to herald each of the "great courses" as it was brought in.Each piece was selected to evoke something of the dish [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.""A good thing because the food is very plain.""Hah, plain you call it? It's perfectly horrible, but it is food.""Yes, it is better than to go hungry.""And after I've eaten some perhaps we shall go and walk up one of these hills, eh, and you can tell me more about your homeland.I have missed our talks.""Yes, my lord, I will be happy to do so."CHAPTER FORTY-THREEThe Festival of First Snow was going very well, although snow seemed quite unlikely.Simona had received seven invitations, one for every important day of the festival.In addition, she was going to host a small dinner party for several close relatives on the Gsekk side.The party would be held on the third night of the festival, traditionally a quiet night, the least important of the seven nights of the main festival.So it was the perfect time for her own small affair, held in part to commemorate her mother, poor Chiknulba, who had died of the plague in a far-off land.Fortunately, her haughty relatives had accepted her invitations, which had been a great relief, though she suspected that Aunt Piggili might have applied a little pressure in that regard.Simona knew that her status as a girl with a strawberry birthmark on her breast was decidedly low among the Gsekk clan.The consensus was that Chiknulba had married beneath herself socially.Her husband was a sawbones of some sort, who had some kind of naval connection, and the Gsekk were not much involved in the navy, which was felt to have much less glamour than the army.Aunt Piggili was a great ally, however, and her opinion had high status.But all that was still days away.First there was The Last Night of the Year, which was always the time for the grandest events of all.Lord Iblesse of Fex held a huge party.Simona had been invited and on entering had been embraced by Lady Yeleema, hostess of Fex.Such marks of social favor had been rare and far between in Simona's life.A part of her treasured them, while another part despised them.The party was held in a great room divided into two sections by a gauze curtain hung down the middle of the ceiling.The men were on one side, the women on the other.The filmy gauze made it impossible for a man to clearly see the face of any of the women present.They could converse freely through the screen, of course, and even pass written notes to each other, but the rules of purdah were enforced.At such festival gatherings among the elite, it was customary for young men to pass notes to the most desired young women, begging for the chance to view their bodies with an eye to marriage.Young women expected to be so courted and were ready to reply, often with withering contempt.Of course, Simona knew that she would not receive such notes of desire.She had been viewed by eleven men already and was unwed.The strawberry mark was a well-known mark of witchery.No man of her own class would want her.She found it galling that sitting just on the other side of the gauze were several young men who had examined her body, the precursor to a marriage bid, but had refused to bid afterward."Nibbling the apple" it was called and was a mark of shame.These young men had enjoyed seeing her naked body and then had refused her because of the strawberry mark.They took no notice of the minor announcement of her arrival with her friends.However, other men did take notice.Messages were passed in to her from two of her Gsekk uncles.They wanted to hear all about the new world and also about the sad death of Chiknulba.She drew close to them, with just the screen separating them."A delightful little thing, was Chiknulba," said old Hermeez."Sorry to hear she'd died like that.Married some awful naval sawbones I heard.Lived in Shasht, can you imagine? Awful business."Simona decided not to remind old uncle Hermeez that she was a product of the marriage to the "naval sawbones" and also lived in the city of Shasht.Some things were better left unsaid.Then there were other men, friends of her father's."He would have come," she said of Filek's absence."He wanted to, but the work on the micro-scope is at a delicate stage.He cannot leave it.The Emperor himself has insisted that it be completed soon."Describing the micro-scope to some of the older, and dimmer relatives was a trial."Look at things that you can't see? What's the point of that?" was a common reaction.The gong announced the dinner prayers.A Gold Top appeared to say the prayers and blessings, then the slaves began bringing in the endless procession of dishes.Singers and musicians took their station in the "cradle," a cage to keep them separate from the women.The musicians played a different piece to herald each of the "great courses" as it was brought in.Each piece was selected to evoke something of the dish [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]