All Darkness Met Read Online Free

said he appreciated what he saw.
    “But you’ve changed, Gjerdrum,” she said, and the lilt of her voice told him his thoughts had been divined. “What happened to that shy boy of eighteen?”
    Gjerdrum’s gaze flicked to Mocker, who was bemused by the opulence of his surroundings, to the deep plunge of her bodice, to her eyes. Without thinking he wet his lips with his tongue and, red-faced, stammered, “I guess he growed up....”
    She couldn’t resist teasing him, flirting. As he guided them to the great hall she asked leading questions about his marital status and which of the court ladies were his mistresses. She had him thoroughly flustered when they arrived.
    Nepanthe held this moment in deep dread. She had even tried to beg off. But now a thrill coursed through her. She was glad she had come. She pulled a handful of long straight black hair forward so it tumbled down her bare skin, drawing the eye and accenting her cleavage.
    For a while she felt nineteen again.
    The next person she recognized was the Marshall’s wife,
    Elana, who was waiting near the door. For an instant Nepanthe was afraid. This woman, who once had been her best friend, might not be pleased to see her.
    But, “Nepanthe!” The red-haired woman engulfed her in an embrace that banished all misgivings.
    Elana loosed her and repeated the display with Mocker. “God, Nepanthe, you look good. How do you do it? You haven’t aged a second.”
    “Skilled artificer, self, magician of renown, having at hand secret of beauty of women of fallen Escalon, most beautiful of all time before fall, retaining light of teenage years into fifth decade, provide potations supreme against ravishes-ravages?-of Time,” Mocker announced solemnly-then burst into laughter. He hugged Elana back, cunningly grasping a handful of derriere, then skipped round her in a mad, whirling little dance.
    “It’s him,” Elana remarked. “For a minute I didn’t recognize him. He had his mouth shut. Come on. Come on. Bragi will be so glad to see you again.”
    Time hadn’t used Elana cruelly either. Only a few grey wisps threaded her coppery hair, and, despite having borne many children, her figure remained reasonably trim. Nepanthe remarked on it.
    “True artifice, that,” Elana confessed. “None of your hedge-wizard mumbo jumbo. These clothes-they come all the way from Sacuescu. The Queen’s father sends them with hers. He has hopes for his next visit.” She winked. “They push me up here, flatten me here, firm me up back there. I’m a mess undressed.” Though she tried valiantly to conceal it, Elana’s words expressed a faint bitterness.
    “Time is great enemy of all,” Mocker observed. “Greatest evil of all. Devours all beauty. Destroys all hope.” In his words, too, there was attar of wormwood. “Is Eater, Beast That Lies Waiting. Ultimate Destroyer.” He told the famous riddle.
    There were people all around them now, nobles of Kavelin, Colonels of the Army and Mercenaries’ Guild, and representa-tives from the diplomatic community. Merriment infested the hall. Men who were deadly enemies the rest of the year shared in the celebration as though they were dear friends-because they had shared hardship under the shadow of the wings of Death that day long ago when they had set aside their contentiousness and presented a common front to the Dread Empire-and had defeated the invincible.
    There were beautiful women there, too, women the like of which Mocker knew only in dreams. Of all the evidences of wealth and power they impressed him most.
    “Scandalous” he declared. “Absolute. Desolation overtakes. Decadence descends. Sybariticism succeeds. O Sin, thy Name is Woman.... Self, will strive bravely, but fear containment of opinion will be impossible of provision. May rise to speechify same, castrating-no, castigating-assembly for wicked life. Shame!” He leered at a sleek, long-haired blonde who, simply by existing, turned his spine to jelly. Then he faced